My story started when I noticed I couldn’t see out the side of my left eye!
I regularly go to the opticians and had a photo of the back of my eye in April 2016 which was all clear but when I was sent for an urgent appointment on Monday 3rd of October 2016 there was a mass, and my whole world turned upside down when I heard the word cancer.
By Thursday I was having CT and PET scans to make sure it hadn’t spread and on Friday 7th October 2016 I was having plaque treatment at moorefield hospital.
I was in for 5 days and it still doesn’t seem real.
I have had regular appointments to check my Tumour and am lucky to say that at the moment it is reducing and doing everything the doctors want it to do.
I have 3 monthly scans alternating between ultrasound and MRI on my liver (as this is the prime site for it to metastasis) and I would love to say that a year in it gets easier but the stress leading up to each one isn’t easy (scanxiety some will call it)
I have had a few rare complications where I am now on steroids of posterior scleritis which has set me back but I am reducing them slowly and hoping to get off them this year!
Ocular Melanoma UK, then called OcuMel UK, was the first charity I found when I googled on the second day of my prognosis and when I called in blind panic they helped me understand and answer questions that other people couldn’t. The group that is set up is amazing and I find them all individually lovely people that you can message and ask anything and not feel silly or alone. I just hope that with more awareness and hopefully more funding we can get more research and understanding of this disease.