When the second attack hit I asked my middle daughter, (Bear), if she could photograph what she could see in my eye, a sort of dark line in the lower part of the iris. Above is one of the photo's, the red bit at the bottom of the iris is the blood slowly filling the lower part of the iris.
Bear got some good close-ups and when I went to see my GP, by which time my eye was again back to normal, he could see 'something', but was baffled as to what. Light reflecting off my eye and his glasses didn't make his job any easier, but Bear's photo's helped and he made a call to the hospital and referred me there and then.
At the hospital, one of the eye specialist team numbed my eyes with drops, dilated them and had a good look. He took detailed photos and gently explained I had a very rare cancer called iris melanoma. His boss had a good look and agreed, and I was referred to a London hospital for an even more detailed look and 'plan of action'.
London was a day trip to the hospital, the staff in Ocular Oncology were fantastic and I met some amazing patients in the waiting room. Most of us were very bored as well as anxious, we couldn't use things such as mp3's, mobiles etc due to medical equipment and none of us could read as we'd had our eyes dilated. My sister decided that a game of I-spy was in order, it certainly broke some ice!
I had my eye examined with ultrasound, (totally painless), but came up with nothing in my case. I found it impossibly hard to look up, down, etc, with my eyes closed!
Various pictures were taken from both the front and behind the eye, using all sorts of machines, all painless.
Happily my tumor is not behind my eye in the socket or anywhere else. Only the iris is so far affected.
Bear got some good close-ups and when I went to see my GP, by which time my eye was again back to normal, he could see 'something', but was baffled as to what. Light reflecting off my eye and his glasses didn't make his job any easier, but Bear's photo's helped and he made a call to the hospital and referred me there and then.
At the hospital, one of the eye specialist team numbed my eyes with drops, dilated them and had a good look. He took detailed photos and gently explained I had a very rare cancer called iris melanoma. His boss had a good look and agreed, and I was referred to a London hospital for an even more detailed look and 'plan of action'.
London was a day trip to the hospital, the staff in Ocular Oncology were fantastic and I met some amazing patients in the waiting room. Most of us were very bored as well as anxious, we couldn't use things such as mp3's, mobiles etc due to medical equipment and none of us could read as we'd had our eyes dilated. My sister decided that a game of I-spy was in order, it certainly broke some ice!
I had my eye examined with ultrasound, (totally painless), but came up with nothing in my case. I found it impossibly hard to look up, down, etc, with my eyes closed!
Various pictures were taken from both the front and behind the eye, using all sorts of machines, all painless.
Happily my tumor is not behind my eye in the socket or anywhere else. Only the iris is so far affected.
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