Page 65 - The Freckled Eye - Book

Let’s be real, I wasn’t holding it together, I was in a complete state of shock. I was in
melt down mode. I thought, who is this guy new? His bed side manner was
terrible! He then said some other stuff, but I blocked him out. I was done listening to
him.

Dr. Phan, I think realized I was in total shock by his comment. She then
added, we’re lucky enough to have different types of treatments now. She
said the radiation plaque had good odds of success, somewhere between
93% to 95%. For a split second, I was relieved. I think some air started to
return to my lungs and I began breathing again. I’m not going to die? But
then she added, there was a down side. A down side? Now what... She
said I would most likely lose complete vision in my right eye. I took another
deep breath in and held it. Dr. Phan continued. We don’t know for sure about
your vision, but because of where your tumor is located, which is right in the
seeing part of your eye, the likely hood was great. I was in disbelief, but that
wasn’t the worst part. The other doctor chimed in again. He added, but there
are two types of eye cancer this could be. I quickly said, "Wait a
minute. This is a lot for me to take in. Can you speak slowly?" I just knew he
was going to tell me more bad news. So, I said again, this is a lot for me to
take in. I’m probably going to ask a lot of questions, and then probably re ask
them several more times. Then I’ll reiterate what I’m hearing you say. Ok? I
knew there was important information I needed to hear as clearly as I could
and I was already on overload. So, you’re saying there are two types of eye
cancer this could be. Dr. Phan said, Yes. There is one type of eye cancer,
which we hope this is, we’ll call that the “GOOD” cancer. This type is the one
we hope you have. The tendency with this type of cancer is that it stays within
the eyeball. That’s the one we hope this is.

Now the other type is the “BAD” cancer. It’s the one we don’t want. It’s the
one that metastasizes. Metastasizes? I said. Yes, and that eye cancer is
terminal. Again, my stomach hit the floor. This was serious. This could be
the way my life would end. I tried to gather myself. Taking deep breaths
again. I asked, “How will we know?” She said the only way to know is if we
do a biopsy.

The biopsy could be done at the time of the plaque placement. I said,
ok. Trying to hear and understand this all. My head was shaking back and
forth in pure disbelief. She then explained the biopsy could be done, but that
there were certain risks. There's a chance when the needle is pulled out from
taking the biopsy sample, cells could leak out. She said the risk of that was
small, but that there was a chance. So, I asked, “Ok, well what is the benefit
of doing the biopsy?” The second doctor chimed in again and said, “So you