Preliminary Results
You know, I was thinking. Well we got a little piece of good news yesterday. I went to see the radioactive guy at the U yesterday. He's the one that will prepare the little disk that will be placed in my eye to kill the tumor. Anyway, I had an abdominal CT done on Wednesday and the preliminary findings are that there is no "obvious" tumors on my liver. This is guarded good news. They still have to go over the test with a fine tooth comb to be sure but this means that there is a very good chance that the cancer has not spread at all! I will be going back to see Dr. Vine next Wednesday and I hope that we will have a surgery date set by then. I have found out a great deal about this procedure and most of it is very postitive. Here are a couple of quick statistics about Ocular Melanoma:Only about 3 out of every 500,000 develop this type of cancer. It is the most common eye cancer but very rare in and of itself. There are only 5,000 - 10,000 reported cases of Ocular Melanoma reported each year (compared to 180,000 cases of breast cancer and over 200,000 of lung cancer).
Over 90% of all people who get ocular melanoma are completely cured.
So, since there is apparently no spreading of the cancer to my liver the odds are that I will walk away from this thing with only a few minor possible side effects. The worst of which would appear to be the possibility of going blind in my left eye eventually. That is a diagnosis that I can live with.
God be praised today. Not because I received a little good news about a life threatening disease, but because God is God. Our love for him should not be predicated on what "good" things happen to us but just simply because God deserves the praise. I don't need a reason to praise the Father, I just need an opportunity. May the God of heaven bless you beyond belief today.
posted by Doug E. Pudge @ 7:27 AM
10 Comments:
Amen! I heard that this is often caused by the sun's UV rays. Is that something you've heard?
The reason I mention that is because I hold a very important piece of information regarding sunglasses.
Most people think just any old sunglasses will protect your eyes. If they aren't UV protected sunglasses, they actually do more harm.
When the sun is bright your pupils get real tiny, which helps protect your eyes. If you put on cheap sunglasses, it just opens up your pupils and allows more unprotected UV rays in.
Moral of the story, buy the good stuff, it's worth it!! (Unless you're just going for the cool look. In which case it doesn't matter)
Russ, first of all I do agree with you on the sunglasses. I always have had prescriptions with UV protection as well. Dr. Hayman and Dr. Vine have both told me that there are some out there that are trying to correlate UV rays and Ocular Melanoma but there is no solid data to back that up. Dr. Hayman said that there is no apparent cause of this disease just bad luck! There are plenty of other good reasons for wearing proper sunglasses. Good question though. B4T
I hate those "no appearent reason" answers!
Praise God that it has not spread. Keep us updated as to when you will have your disk placed. We will continue to pray for you.
Hey...maybe you'll get one of those cool pirate patches for a while.
ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Jim took my line.
Good news indeed. We all appreciate the updates and seeing how upbeat you are. It's scary to not only deal with concer, but with the possibility of blindness, let alone having someone muck around inside your eye. I had eye surgery when I was 12, and understand the anxiety the though of it can cause. I didn't get a cool pirate patch, like wowgirl hopes for you, but maybe you'll luck out! Then we could all call you "Pirate Pudge, Corsair for Christ"
I like the new moniker!
******Corsair for Christ!****
Glad things are looking good for you, and of course you are in my continued prayers.
If you get the pirate patch, will you meet me at AAAAAAArrrrby's for lunch?
AARRRR you going to be able to bowl with a cool pirate eye patch?
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