The final countdown…..

February 22, 2018 ~ justaneye73 ~ Leave a comment

unnamed — Two family members taking the easy option on a bike!

Sorry this is a long one!

Harley street check up with my eye oncologist on Monday was boringly normal! Hurrah! Tumour same size, what’s new? But dead as a dodo at present. I always worry slightly though, can they come back from the dead? Do they become active again? Anyway mine isn’t which is great.

Took me a while to write this as I had a million thoughts whizzing through my brain. The main one is too many friends are succumbing to this disease. When I started on this horrid path, being told that 50% go onto stage 4, I felt scared, for myself. I still am. But now also for my friends. Friends I have made along the way, How were we naive enough to not realise if it didn’t happen to me, it would happen to you? How did we not think as we shared are fears, that perhaps one of us would not be here to listen anymore? Who can we text at night to whisper “I’m scared, are you?” when one of us is no longer there?

So results day for so many lovely people wasn’t bringing the joyous news they deserve, hence my slow reaction in shouting “hooray I had a great hospital visit.” Instead I went for a run, a long fast one. I cried. Luckily the rain hitting my face disguised the tears. I felt angry. Why do we have to wait and see? Wait and see whether you’re in the A team or the B team. Do you win or lose? It’s not good enough. More money is needed for cancer research and cures are wanted, fast. People shouldn’t have to pay for the only treatment that could prolong their life because it is still only in the research stage. People shouldn’t have to rely on trials where they may be the one getting the placebo. It’s not fair I wanted to scream from my aching lungs as I heaved myself up Kingston hill.

I made a decision as I ran, that the marathon is the end for me. I’m stopping my blog and leaving the eye cancer group. I’m sorry if it appears weak and unsupportive. I have made wonderful friends and they will remain friends, but I don’t want to make anymore. I want to protect them and me. One of us is going to lose this battle and I can’t face anymore of it.

As my thought process moved on I thought of the good that has come of my cancer diagnosis and there is some. It dawned on me how far we have come as a family. It’s taken me a while to realise this, but my children are the lucky ones. At the start I had all sorts of awful thoughts, one of which was that I desperately wished I had never had children. I couldn’t bare to see them hurt or in pain through what I was experiencing. I felt sorry for them, guilty for what I had put them through, angry that it was now part of their lives too. I was hurt and saddened to see worry etched across their faces. I was scared and so were they.

But they have experienced it and they are no longer scared. The ‘big C’ is no more. Now they hear the word cancer and they don’t equate it with death. As a family we are very lucky as we have a few cancer survivors. No one in our family has died of cancer and I don’t plan on being the first. So my kids now think of it a bit like running a marathon. It’s a pain, you have to go through all the treatment, it’s a bit of a long haul, but they believe you will come through the other side. And that’s a good place to be, living with hope and belief and being without fear. They are the lucky ones.

Many adults have a fear of cancer. But some peoples’ alarm always seemed a little irrational or weak to me. I think that was due to my nursing experience. I have been with people who have lost loved ones, seen children cry as parents were ripped suddenly and tragically from their lives. Through this I never became desensitised, but you do end up being a little matter of fact about it and not scared. It’s life. You hope it won’t happen to you, feel desperately sorry for the people it happened to, finish your shift and go home to have dinner with the family. You move on. You don’t forget them but you have to be able to compartmentalise your life otherwise you would never do the job. I learnt very early on that you can’t share with friends and loved ones what you have experienced, as people are horrified and frightened. So you may just say “a young mum died today.” Rather than “a young mother with four small children has been dying on my ward for the past month. She has had surgery but it was unsuccessful. She is in excruciating pain but tries to hold it together when her children visit. She cries like a wounded animal at night as we desperately page the pain team so we can get it under control. We are trying to get her into a hospice to die so that she doesn’t have to die behind a curtain on this four bedded ward. We are waiting for a bed for her. Which means we are willing someone else to hurry up and die in the hospice so that she can have their bed. We are being offered counselling from the hospital as it is so distressing caring for her and we are rotating shifts so that no one is with her all of the time. Her husband is about 6ft 5 and looks like a tiny child.” I remember this woman with absolute clarity and her four children. She never made it to the hospice. I was 23 years old trying to make sense of it all.

Why am I sharing this story? Because it is these things that shape us into who we are today. I look back and wonder if I helped her? Was I a good nurse? Did I care enough? I know I would be so much better now. It’s when you compare your younger self with the person you are today, the hurt and life experiences we have had over the years, that have shaped us into caring and sensitive people, who can show understanding and empathy. It helps us to help others. And due to what my kids have experienced they have some of that, the empathy, the understanding, at their gorgeous tender ages, which will shape them into wonderful people as they travel through life. So they are the lucky ones.

My eldest daughter had a call recently from a friend asking her advise, as someone they knew had been diagnosed with cancer. “What do I say to her?” She pleaded with my daughter as my eldest nonchalantly munched through a bag of crisps wondering what words of wisdom she could share. I asked her what she had said. She shrugged, “not a lot, cancer doesn’t mean you’re going to die. It’s fine.” I though at the time well a fat lot of help you were! But actually it was the perfect answer, said without drama, said without angst, said with such little fanfare that the ‘big C’ was brought down to size. It lost its power. It was as if she was describing the weather. Now move on to something more interesting. And it was perfect. When I was first diagnosed with cancer peoples reactions scared and upset me. Seeing the fear in their eyes or them crying made me feel like I was already 12 feet under. If I had had someone like my daughter who had just shrugged and said “whatever” maybe it would have saved me months of anxiety! Now I’m not suggesting that’s the right response when someone close calls to say they have cancer, a shrug and a ‘whatever’ and then moving on to the KFC chicken crisis probably won’t cut it, but you get my drift?

On a final positive note, I was googling fuel to consume for long runs and somewhere in Runners world I found the perfect article!

Boost Cardio

Champagne: Raise a glass to your heart, say Reading University scientists. Their studies found that the polyphenols in bubbly reduce the loss of nitric oxide from the blood, improving circulation. Per week: 3 glasses

Only downsize is obviously the 3 glasses per week!

Cheers and lots of love until next time.

Ruth xxx

The Sniper

January 11, 2018 ~ justaneye73 ~ Leave a comment

It’s been over 2 months since my last blog. I hadn’t realise the time slip away. There has been no reason other than I haven’t thought about it. Which equates to I haven’t thought about my cancer, which is a good thing. I say ‘my’ cancer because I have been thinking about others peoples’ cancer. Other people with eye cancer that we have lost recently to this dreadful disease. Friends who haven’t had good news from scan results and are waiting for what comes next. More treatment hopefully. Treatments that work and can conquer the awful liver mets. Liver mets, the thing that gives us all sleepless nights.

It still shocks me how relentless and cruel cancer is. Getting bad results just before Christmas, or on birthdays or when you have to attend a child’s parents evening never seems right. But of course cancer doesn’t hold your diary and work out the best time to deliver devastating news. Is there ever a best time? “Oh you’re blowing up balloons for your daughters birthday party? Sorry to disturb you, but you have something suspicious on your liver. Enjoy the cake and we’ll discuss options next week.” Relentless. Cruel. So my thoughts have been with them. Friends who are waiting, hoping for a cure, and slowly as you think of them, the fear creeps in. You can’t help it or stop it. So I keep my head down and keep busy. Don’t write a blog, don’t draw attention to yourself, cancer may not notice me and move on to someone else. I think of ocular melanoma as a sniper, slowly picking us off with what seems like no rhyme or reason. People with the same size tumours, same treatments, have very different outcomes. I try and make sense as to why that person has died and I’m still here, but at the moment there is no sense to it. I hope research eventually explains the why and can give us treatments, so my friends don’t have to lose hope. I’m willing on these amazing immunotherapies so that they can come and quash the sniper, before he strikes again.

Now as most of you know, I am running the London marathon in April for Ocumeluk, the fantastic charity that helps us rare, unique eye cancer bunch with everything from practical appointment things to the more heavy emotional stuff. So just a little update on how it’s all going. Very well thank you!! I’m shocked. My long runs are now 12 miles!! I can’t believe it. And I haven’t suffered a single blister yet. When I first started training I was running just over 3 miles and I just wanted to cross the finish line, but naturally as you run and improve, you start setting yourself little goals. I have two. The first is to beat my last marathon time of 4 hours 36 minutes. Hilariously to do this I thought the easiest way to achieve this would be to tell my husband and kids that I won’t be stopping to ‘chat’ with them when they come and support me. I haven’t broached that with the kids yet as my youngest was asking if she could make a banner and often cycles with me while I run. Could I pretend not to see them or not hear them when they call? Ha Ha! Get them back for calling me deaf and blind! Yes I know I can’t that would be mean, I won’t have any choice but to stop, damm that just means I am going to have to just train harder!

Anyway, my second goal is to run Richmond park in under an hour. Now those that know Richmond park will know it has some ghastly hills. When I first did it in September I crawled up the hills and finished in 1 hour 15 minutes. Chuffed to bits, red in the face, looking like I was having a heart attack, but I did it. Yesterday my time was 1 hour 1 minute and 20 seconds! Woohoo!!

So I’m thrilled with how it’s all going. But just to clarify that I haven’t turned into a boring athlete who checks strava every few minutes like some people (Mr J!!). I’m still not a natural runner. I don’t look forward to my runs, I look forward to the end of my runs when I can eat and drink what I please. A friend asked me today with all the training I’m now doing have I stopped drinking? What?! Of course not! I have eye cancer. Not insanity!!

So cheers to many more ‘end’ of runs. Fingers crossed for many successful treatments on the horizon for our friends and if anyone would like to sponsor me just follow the link below.

Ruth xxx

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ruthjohnston73

Just an eye

September 25, 2017 ~ justaneye73 ~ 2 Comments

aw340_ba

Okay it’s taken me a week to gather my thoughts, and I don’t feel they are fully gathered yet so if anybody reading this can help, please do. Firstly, if I asked anyone would they do anything to save their sight I know what the answer would be. But this is the question that is exhausting me and suddenly isn’t as clear cut.

Last Monday I went for my regular eye check up. I knew my sight had got worse but I felt anxious as I didn’t really want to know how bad it had got. I didn’t want it confirmed. I went in to see the nurse first for an eye test and as she handed me the little glasses I felt sick. She asked me to cover my good eye and see how many of the letters I could read. I took a deep breath and felt like crying. I didn’t want to know. In May, my bad eye could see about the fourth line down, now as I put the strange glasses on I could see the big fat capital ‘A’ at the top of the chart and one other letter underneath. There was a moment of confusion as the nurse was checking which ‘A’ it was I could see, hoping it was one a few lines down and then a sobering moment when myself, my husband and the nurse noted that it had got that bad. She handed me glasses with lots of holes in to see if this would improve matters, this only made it worse as the big fat ‘A’ disappeared from view. I tried not to cry. What does it matter? It’s just an eye? I’m still here?

I changed the glasses over to check on my good eye and I raced to the very bottom of the chart to reel off what I could see, only getting two of the tiniest letters wrong. Thank goodness that eye is so good was my thought.

Waiting to see my consultant I felt sick. Apprehensive. I wasn’t sure why as surely there was nothing to worry about. She called me in and appeared sympathetic that my sight had deteriorated. She seemed surprised that it had happened so fast, since May she noted. I actually knew it had happened since July so even quicker. My eye was dilated and the eye test began. This was where my anxiety reached boiling point again. I think after a cancer diagnosis that fear that is etched and scarred on your memory, the nausea, the sweating pounding heart, the inability to eat, sleep or function is always so close to the surface. One wrong comment from someone, a look, a feeling, has you spiralling back into its clutches and that was where I was heading again, as she paused and measured, paused and measured. “Look to the left.” Pause. “Now look to the right.” Pause. “Up a little bit.” Pause. While all this is going on I’m thinking “Oh F**k I’m going to vomit.” My husband told me after that he was scrabbling for his phone googling ‘oedema in the eye- what it means?’ The couple of minutes waiting to hear what she has seen, is vile.

“Yes I can see why your sight has got worse, there is a build up of fluid. Remember you had it before and it cleared up spontaneously? Yes so it’s come back, but the tumour is looking good….” And breathe. Sod the fluid! The tumour is looking good. And try not to cry. She continued by telling me that the tumour was flat and remains in remission but she feels it may be worth re-investigating whether the injection in the eyeball would help my sight. She explained that Avastin injections could help clear up the fluid so could restore some of my lost sight. What needed to be checked was how far the dreaded ischaemia has travelled as Avastin doesn’t help with this. So I was sent for photos and imaging and will be back to see her in a few weeks to see if the injections are worth doing and if I decide to have them. Decide to have them? This is the crazy thought going through my head that I’m trying to work out.

Now I know I’m a chicken and don’t like the idea of an injection monthly, but my issue is that I am going to lose the sight in that eye anyway. That is fact. The radioactive plaque was placed too close to my optic nerve to save it, so how long can Avastin hold off the inevitable? If it’s only for a year, do I want to have an injection in my eye for that? And that is three injections over three months, I’m not sure how often they are repeated. If it could restore the sight for longer then yes of course it would be worth it. Then I started reading about the side effects. I asked people on the eye cancer group what side effects they had had, the replies varied from ‘Avastin is a miracle it restored my sight’ to others who said it caused dry gritty eyes and had no benefit. It can cause redness in the eye, which of course will fade over time, but it is there as an obvious reminder that I had eye cancer. Something my youngest sensitive daughter does not want to be reminded of. She cried for about three weeks after I got the marathon place, as for her this was proof I was getting better. People that are ill and have cancer can’t run the marathon, “my mum can because she’s better,” were her thoughts. Travelling for monthly hospital appointments and coming back with an irritable red eye for a few days is not something I want if the outcome isn’t worth it. There was also a risk of cataracts. I’m 43! I don’t want cataracts. Now I know all the risks listed aren’t necessarily what people will experience. The risk of cataracts may be very low and these are things I need to discuss with my consultant, although I’m sure even she won’t know whether or not the injection will work and what side effects, if any I will experience. She will probably suggest I just give them a go. I feel a little like I should and am veering in that direction but I’m not completely there yet.

The fear that the Monday appointment brought with it, reminded me that this is how I will feel again very soon as my MRI approaches and I’m at the 2 1/2 year point. I keep hearing people say they had mets discovered at 2 years, 2 1/2 years, 3 years and I want to run away. I stare at them thinking maybe there was a sign that they would get it, a sign I don’t have. How are they different to me or are we the same? I went for a run on the Tuesday and cried a little as I ran. I felt pleased I could run as it helps me to calm down and I needed to, my thoughts were all over the place. I felt stupid for feeling upset when there are so many people worse off than me. It hasn’t gone to my liver, it is just an eye. But I think we all have down days when things feel bad, days when I want to scream that I don’t want this f**ker in my life anymore. Scream that I want to be able to look at my calendar and not think about scans and what ifs? Guilty for feeling down about it. Surely I should feel positive all of the time? I also felt scared about losing the sight in my other eye. I ran with my 80 year old dad and felt jealous that he is so healthy. Will I be alive at 80 and if so will I be registered blind? It’s a hideous sobering thought thinking about it all and I have desperately been trying not to. People say you can’t worry about the future as you don’t know what’s round the corner and I know it’s true, but I think we all have times where those thoughts take over.

So If I asked you now would you do anything to save your sight would your answer be the same? If anyone has a crystal ball and can tell me what to do I would be most grateful. Failing that I might just flip a coin.

Until next time take care.

Cheers

Ruth xxxx

Two eyes?! That’s so last year!

September 11, 2017 ~ justaneye73 ~ 3 Comments

Firstly a huge big thank you to everyone that voted for me. With your help I was successful in securing the marathon place to run for Ocumel UK. I didn’t expect to get it, I just nagged and begged anyone I came across to vote for me as I didn’t want to lose dismally, It’s incredible the power of social media, that someone with about five friends can get over 1,300 votes! Hilariously I think some people are still voting- you can stop now. Votes closed a month go. But thank you! I also put in for a ballot place so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that comes through, then I can give my place to the other lady that wanted to run in memory of her brother and Ocumeluk will have two places!

My training is well under way. I am running three times a week and just completed a lap of Richmond park which is seven and a half miles up and down hill. It’s tough so I’m really pleased with that. In fact I was bloody thrilled! It was as if I had just completed the marathon already. Unfortunately there is another 19 miles to go! But I will have ‘buns of steel’ and and less cellulite and flab then when I started so it’s all good. Someone on our Facebook group recently referred to me as ‘the marathon runner.’ I of course loved that and it made me laugh, for days! It conjures up images of a fine tuned athlete having a protein shake on the way to training. Anyone that knows me will confirm that’s not me! I’m more of a rush out of the door with a piece of toast, hoping I’ve got 20p’s for the toilets on the way round and dreaming of what I can eat after all the calories I will have burned, or how many glasses of wine I can have. I will keep you all updated on how I get on. With the training. Not my food and alcohol consumption.

Autumn is always the back to school and back to hospital visits time. My eye appointment is first and I’m interested to see officially how much my vision has changed. How bad does your sight need to be before they say you are blind or partially sighted in it? Yes my sight has got that bad. It is interesting though having an insight into sight loss. There is the side of me that finds it fascinating, but I of course wish it wasn’t my eye and my life I was fascinated in. I have been quite surprised at how quickly over the last two months my eye sight has deteriorated. On holiday my middle daughter was standing on a rock looking out to sea. I was standing a few meters behind and I closed my good eye. The top part of her body disappeared. She was just legs. Legs with a voice. Shouting something about sea gooseberries. Who knew they weren’t jellyfish?!

My husband came and stood next to me. I was still squinting with one eye closed as I couldn’t believe how much of the world was slowly disappearing in front of me. I was trying to imagine what it would be like if this was it for both eyes? How frightened would you feel? What would I see or what would I miss? It had that fascinating terrifying sensation, like that of a horror movie. I didn’t want to look but I couldn’t help myself. I felt relief to be able to open my other eye and see the world in all its glory and colour come flooding back in. My husband looked sad. I don’t have the patience for sad emotions anymore and I was surprised that he felt like that. I wanted to ask him how he could feel sad? Surely he knew this was going on? But I slowly realised that he didn’t. This is my daily life. I have nudges throughout the day that my eye is playing up. I have constant reminders that give me time to process my thoughts and feelings. Because I don’t do daily or even weekly updates with him, or anybody, I realised it’s more of a shock, as perhaps he imagined things were stable.

There are though things that happen that make it obvious to everyone around me that my sight is going. Times when I can’t hide it. My family are all now aware of when I drop a glass, they may ask nicely if it slipped or did I not see where I was placing it. I guess they are also trying to figure out how blind and deaf I’m getting. I will sometimes now just ask my husband to read the menu in a restaurant. My daughters are very good at grabbing things off me and reading instructions. This helps greatly with not overdosing said children or animals on various medications. So well done girls. Playing monopoly with them recently I noticed I kept adding the scores on the dice wrongly. Now I am no maths genius but my basic mental arithmetic has never failed me before. I realised its not that I no longer know what 6 + 4 is, it’s more that I saw 5 + 4. I kept picking up the dice to check. How was I missing some dots? Also right eye makeup? Forget it. I just have to splodge it on and hope for the best.

So since the holiday things have gone from bad to worse. I think I can see out of the left peripheral side, but that’s it. I can no longer see faces in photos, larger font. The lens is damaged and the sight is no longer there. It’s interesting that its taken this long to happen, I had hoped it wasnt going to happen to me. For the first time ever I lay in bed last night worried about my other eye. Suddenly scared I would have an accident or damage it. As I now only have one I’m all for protecting it. I may start wondering round wearing swimming goggles, that would be a good look. Strangely I don’t feel that about my ear. I never worry about losing the hearing in that one, I’m obviously showing favouritism to my eye. Poor ear. I explained to my husband that I’m still bloody lucky as the blind eye is on the same side as my deaf ear. At a dinner party people ask me what side I’m better off sitting on and that’s it. I’m good. Imagine if it was opposite sides? I’d have to ask people wether they would like to sit next to my good ear or my good eye? Do they consider themselves more interesting to look at or to listen to? Good looking but boring bloke to the left. Not an oil painting but fascinating to listen to on the right. Luckily my life isn’t that complicated.

The other thing playing on my mind is the dreaded MRI scans. As you know they are 6 monthly and it’s my Russian roulette time. When they approach the sleepless nights kick in. The inability to see people and miserable moods. My next scan is always before my birthday as I like it out of the way so that I can stop worrying. This means the 6 monthly scan after that is due in April. On April 27th 2018 I will be 3 years post diagnosis. The haunting statement of ‘the average time it takes to get to your liver is 3 years’ hangs over that date. The London marathon is April 22nd 2018. So what do I do? Have my scan before to get it out of the way? Or plan it for after? Either way it’s a shit time and I’m trying to work out what is best. I will be organising the date at the end of October so I need to have it worked out in my brain by then. I’m slowly opting for before so that I will be sleeping, I hope, but then I think if the news wasn’t good would I be in a fit state to run? Or actually I may just end up running bloody fast with all the fear and adrenaline pumped round my body! Any ideas gratefully received.

And lastly, fancy dress or not? If fancy dress it has to be light, I will struggle enough running the marathon without carrying anything heavy around with me. Last time I ran the marathon, I’m not sure if I ever mentioned I’d run one before? But last time I was overtaken by bloody rhinos, hippos, mr men, blokes with great big fridges on their backs?! It was totally demoralising. Anyway, everyone says you tend to get more sponsorship money if you wear fancy dress. So any ideas please or offers to make something gratefully received. I’m crap at things like that and I don’t want to embarrass my kids by turning up with just some loo roll tied around my head.

Quick pet update as people keep asking about Rosie. She’s doing remarkably well for a cat that had months to live. She has brought in more mice and birds than ever and is going from strength to strength. My labradoodle Barney has had an eye op this week so he gets to share my photo in my fetching swimming goggles, the new look for Autumn 17. You saw it here first!

Cheers

The Marathon Runner!!!

Ocumeluk

August 2, 2017 ~ justaneye73 ~ Leave a comment

As many of you know who have been reading my blog, I once ran the marathon. Yes I like to talk, (brag) about it. Hence the shock with a cancer diagnosis. Surely not? I am a fit youngish thing who has ran 26.1 miles. I can’t have cancer. But of course I did and I learnt quite suddenly and traumatically that cancer doesn’t discriminate against age, sex, fitness levels or marathon runners.

Ocumeluk stepped in quickly with all the knowledge and resources that I needed, I was wrapped in their warm safety net and made many friends along the way. I am over 2 years post diagnosis, I am doing well other than having been overcome by a mild sense of madness as I am trying to win a place in Ocumeluk’s marathon team. Something I said I would never do again, it was something I had ticked off my bucket list. But I feel the urge to give something back. At present Ocumeluk are looking for funding so that more people can access MRI scans with contrast, as at present it seems not everyone is equally entitled to them, I am. I am one of the lucky ones, but many have to fight to be scanned and this is wrong. These sensitive MRI scans pick up liver mets earlier than any other method. They are the gold standard as mentioned in the NICE guidelines but funding prevents many people accessing them. This inequality in healthcare and postcode lottery is really enough for me to want to put my trainers on and run.

Also I’m hoping to lose a bit of weight along the way, yes every cloud and all that and it helps keep my sanity, as my check ups and scans approach, exercise, physical pain and exhaustion are my only coping mechanisms.

By entering the competition to win the marathon place I need as many likes/votes on their page as possible. I am struggling with this slightly. Firstly, because I have to compete with someone else who wants the place. Someone else who has valid reasons for fighting for the place and I don’t like the idea of it seeming like one of us is more valid/important than the other. But I also know that all the sharing on social media is great for the charity. I am sure both of us who are competing for the place have respect for each other in wanting to do it and the end result is that one of us will raise a whole lot of dosh for Ocumeluk. Being up last night thinking about it made me realise that the likes/votes are not for who’s story seems more worthy, as everyone who has been touched by cancer is worthy, it’s my friends, my family, my friends’ family, the neighbours, the man in the corner shop and anyone else that I can accost in the street showing their support for me. Just as many people are showing their support for her and that in itself is a great feeling. That we have support and people wishing us well.

My other concern is that I don’t have that many friends to ask to vote. Well not 500 anyway, I have my 5 bestie’s and then about 20 other really good friends and then 100 plus FB friends but I don’t have 500! Where can I get 500 friends from in a hurry? On the last count, yes I am obsessively checking numbers hourly…., oh okay, every ten minutes or so, my ‘competitor’ had way over 100 more votes than me. Where do they come from? I have squeezed everyone I know. I was on my last day of my holiday yesterday, lying on the beach when the first message came through that the votes can be posted so to get sharing. Sharing to who? In between running on an inflatable sea torture obstacle course with the kids and slapping suncream on various body parts of various family members I was busily messaging my friends shouting “Share! share!” I’ve got till Friday and I feel like I’m running a losing campaign. I was even contemplating asking everyone on my flight home last night whether they all had Facebook and if so could they vote for me. Desperate times.

So my last chance at drumming up business is through my blog. A friend messaged me a short while ago to kindly say that every time she opens her phone my ‘ugly mug’ comes up (her words), as her lovely family are frantically sharing my post. Lovely family, but thinking of moving friend off my besties’ list. But anyway, she suggested I write a blog. Write a blog? Have you seen the piles of washing? The unpacking? The food to buy? I’m exhausted after a late flight and not feeling that amused. But then I thought, I only have until Friday to drum up business. So what does it matter if the suitcases hang around ponging for a few extra days or the kids scrabble around empty cupboards for food? I can write a blog and beg you all for help whilst eating dry cereal with the kids.

So please, if you have Facebook, would you type ‘ocumeluk’ into your search bar and then scroll down to my video and like it? Then could you get a few friends to do the same, the neighbours, the man in the corner shop and anyone that you can accost in the street? And then even if I don’t quite hit 500 likes I will at least manage to keep a little but of respect and not lose so dismally like a complete loser.

Thank you lovely people. Share! Share! Share!

Ruth xx

Slowly, Slowly

July 11, 2017July 11, 2017 ~ justaneye73 ~ Leave a comment

So slowly, slowly my sight is deteriorating. I know the signs that changes are happening now, it is when I struggle to focus. I find I can’t read without placing my hand over my bad eye. That then kick starts my brain to forget the bad eye and see what my good eye sees. Which is everything. I also know now that this only lasts a few days, maybe a week. The sight then stabilises, my brain knows where it’s at again and all is happy in my head. So with things stable I trotted upstairs to look at my bathroom clock to see if there was a noticeable change.

I discovered this trick at the beginning of my sight loss. I stare at the middle of a clock, cover my good eye and see what numbers I can see. My 12 to 3 o’clock have been gone for about a year, but there has been no obvious changes since. I sort of expected to see half eleven to 3 o’clock now, but unfortunately it’s slightly more than that. I can just see the number 10 but nothing passed it, and the number 4 but nothing before it, that’s practically half the sight in that eye. I stupidly didn’t realise it was that much until I started to write this blog and now I want to bawl and cry that my sight is going and I should perhaps run around like a headless chicken and panic, but bizarrely I don’t because unless I had tested it, I wouldn’t have known that it had got worse, as my brain is so good at filling in the gaps. I would have happily been head deep in the sand wondering why I have days where I can get through 4 glasses! Yes 4 in one day dropped in the sink, when I was absolutely sure I had placed them on the side. But hey ho they were empty glasses, I’m not crying over spilt bubbles.

My eye consultant told me that although people dread their sight going, sometimes once it has gone things are better as your brain knows exactly where it is at and you adjust accordingly. I can completely understand what she means. For those few days when changes are happening I find it a complete pain having to close one eye to read. I did it in a restaurant recently, as I couldn’t read the menu and felt a bit of plum doing it, wondering if the waitress thought I was just a little strange.

The good thing though is it is only for small things, like books, instructions, medicine and ingredients. What’s a salty dinner between friends? I can still see my kids and cars, which is quite important as I drive the kids to school each day and I wouldn’t want to lose the children, however unsympathetically they shout at me whilst playing badminton in the garden, that my shuttle cock was out and their’s was in, and they are definitely right because I’m blind so wouldn’t know anyway. I sense they are cheating but as I am not even sure if my shuttle cock has gone over or under the net I keep quiet. I think that is a change in my depth perception. I just start to do a couple of slam shots to show the little brats that their blind deaf mum still has it! Oh yes, I may be partially deaf and blind but I can still thrash you all. And if you don’t let your mother off her ‘out of the court shots’ due to her disability, I may ‘not see you’ at school and drive home merrily assuming you have all got the bus and just pour myself a glass of bubbles in the garden, in peace. Sounds like a plan.

So all is well. Sight loss doesn’t bring with it panic and fear. It isn’t a problem for me. School is almost out. The summer holidays are almost here. And that in itself brings with it a few bubbles of excitement in my stomach, so I better pop a bottle in the fridge so I can actually put seem real bubbles in my stomach later, why waste an excuse of ‘it’s Tuesday and almost the summer holidays?’

Have a great summer all.

Cheers xxx

Regular Eye Check

May 16, 2017 ~ justaneye73 ~ 10 Comments

FullSizeRender

So I had my eye check up yesterday. There was no fear or anxiety attached to this appointment. More just a moan that I had to travel to Harley street in the rain. Don’t you just love a British summer?

My husband asked me how I was feeling? Fine, I replied, I’ve had no flickering or flashing and I haven’t noticed my eye sight deteriorating. So that’s all good isn’t it? I’m not worried at all. And I really wasn’t. I had more pressing matters on my mind.

I told my husband that it’s been two years since I was diagnosed. Two years ago I didn’t think I would ever be able to walk into an appointment feeling relaxed, two years ago I didn’t think I’d sleep properly ever again. Two years ago I wondered whether I would still be here or not and was hoping just to get my youngest out of primary school. But two years later here I am.

One year ago I started this blog. I thought I’d get bored quite quickly, run out of things to say, or find no one was interested in reading it, but one year later, here I am still waffling on. “So what’s the problem?” he asked, not really following my trail of thought. “What’s the problem?!” I retorted. “I wanted to have a celebratory birthday blog, it’s a year old, I’m two years down the line, everything’s good. I wanted to put a radiant photo (with lots of filter usage!) of myself celebrating. But some f**ker thought it would be bloody hilarious to give me a great big STYE!!! I can’t put a photo of this on my blog, it will put people off their food!” He laughed as he went back to reading some financial crap. I wanted to shake him by the shoulders and shout how can you read about the worlds’ economy when I am sitting her with puss about to ooze from my eye?! But I didn’t. I left him to it, as I sat waiting to be called into my appointment, wondering whether to leave the stye well alone or whether to perform some home surgery on it with a sterilised needle?

When I was eventually called up to see my ocular oncologist, she smiled at me, came over and asked how I was. I could see her just staring at the monstrosity hanging from my eye lid. It’s one of those elephant in the room moments, do I answer her relating to my cancer or do I acknowledge this mammoth boil on my face? I decided it couldn’t be ignored. “Oh good, yes, other than this stye.” I laughed although I found it far from hilarious. “Umm” She replied, her eyes hadn’t moved from the spot since I walked into the room. “Maybe with all the massage form the ultrasound it might help it,” she offered encouragingly. Great, now I was thinking it was going to pop all over her bloomin ultrasound machine and I would have to sit and watch her wipe my pus off it! I sat at her desk ready for the questions about my eye cancer, but no, it was back to the stye. She recommended something she thought would speed up its demise. She wrote it for me on a card and even had a little feel. Did she want to squeeze it? I felt a little nauseaus.

Eventually, eventually we all managed to ignore the stye and concentrate on the real reason I was here. You will be pleased to know everything is stable. There is a tear in my retina, where the scar from radiotherapy was. This was a new but pretty irrelevant development. But it did make me think, after two years the radiation is still causing mayhem to my eye, it’s pretty potent stuff. My eye sight is remarkably good considering what has gone on there. I was told I would be blind in that eye within two years and I’m not. Sight not great out of that eye, but it’s not bad. The tumour is inactive which is the most important fact. I will be back to see her in four months so can relax and enjoy the pissy British summer.

I couldn’t go home and celebrate with bubbles as I am trying the 5:2 diet. Me and my stye sat with a peppermint tea catching up on ‘Line of Duty’ to celebrate. Today the bugger is no smaller and as I am meeting a friend for dinner tonight and don’t want to put her off her meal and I am having a starring role at my 15 year old nieces’ confirmation on Sunday, I am off to sterilise a needle. I could just about face my consultant with the stye, I cannot face a group of 15 year olds questioning my niece on what her aunty has hanging from her eye lid! So home surgery it is.

Until then I shan’t be sharing my radiant stye photo with anyone, instead I have shared a photo of my dog Barney as he is so handsome and doesn’t have a stye and my ignorant princess Rosie, who likes to keep an eye on what I write and the birds outside. She also doesn’t have a stye. Until next time, have a glass of bubbles for me. Cheers! xx

Jacqui’s Story

May 1, 2017May 1, 2017 ~ justaneye73 ~ 3 Comments

Unknown

Since just before diagnosis I have wanted to read about other people with eye cancer. Their personal stories. At the start I was desperately looking for people’s description of their first symptoms, wondering if mine were the same and if that was conclusive it was cancer. I then moved on to treatments. What treatments did people have and why? I now often search for stories on eye sight deterioration but mostly how long did it take for mets to be discovered. These patient stories help us all. Help us to not feel scared. Seeing people further along the journey coping, or not, makes us feel normal. It is just difficult to find those stories, due to the rarity of our disease.

So a few people have agreed to share their experience of eye cancer on my blog, so that someone else out there, on their computer, Googling past midnight, feeling frightened, may feel less alone and less scared. Seeing people get on with day to day live somehow takes some of the fear away. So thank you to all those who have said they will share their story. Now over to the wonderful Jacqui.

My name is Jacqui, I was 41 years old at the time of diagnosis – this is my story, it’s a bit long so well done if you get to the end!!!

In July 2013, I started to get blurred vision in my left eye. I was seven months pregnant and coming to the end of the year teaching infants, so I put it down to stress and/or being pregnant. I scheduled my yearly eye exam with my local optician for August, as I suspected my prescription needed changing, which it did. After receiving new glasses, things still didn’t seem right, so I went back for a re-test. This showed that my prescription had changed again and was put down to pregnancy, but another test was scheduled for two weeks later, just to make sure. This repeat test, on Friday 13th September, showed another change and more worrying (although not for me at this stage, as I was still in the ‘oh it’s pregnancy related’ mode) on the photos this time they could see that my optic nerve was swollen – not good. My optician said he would get me an appointment with a consultant optician, so I went home….and Googled. Big mistake! Nothing good came from that search.

Later that afternoon I got a call to say an appointment had been made for me at the nearest hospital, which was an hour away, with a consultant ophthalmologist for that evening, half past five. Cue panic mode. I had to get my husband home from work, sort out food etc. for our son Finnbar, who was three at the time, as we didn’t know how long we were going to be in the hospital.

At the hospital, I was taken straight to the Acute Care Unit, where they tested me for a brain bleed, MS and a whole host of other things that I have thankfully forgotten. After much debate, they kept me in overnight, finally admitting me at 11pm. Frank and Finnbar went home – Finnbar thoroughly enjoying the dark and spooky night.

The next day the team decided that the only way forward was to do a scan of my head; initially they were reluctant to do so due to my pregnant state, but I had a lead apron placed protectively over my bump and a CT scan was performed. A considerable mass was detected. This was on the Saturday.

By the Wednesday, I was in Moorefields’ hospital having yet more tests, scans, photos etc. and none were conclusive, apart from the fact that there were two tumours – one inside my eye and one outside. At this point the team at Moorefields’ weren’t even sure if the two tumours were connected or two separate ones. My consultant wanted to do a biopsy of the tumour, but we had to wait three weeks for the aspirin I had been taking in pregnancy, to leave my system. To make things more difficult, I had to go to a different hospital, one with a neonatal unit, so that if the biopsy triggered labour, they would be able to deal with it! As my consultant at Moorefields’ said: “We are great with eyes, not so good on the rest of the body!”

We knew within the hour of having the biopsy that the tumours were connected and they were also malignant – I had, what is officially known as, Amelanotic Ocular Melanoma and they were of such a size that my eye could not be saved – I would need to have enucleation. Eye removal. This biopsy also analysed the tumour to determine the risk for mets. I found out at a subsequent appointment that I was high risk and this was a followed up by a letter to confirm as much. Although I had already been told, seeing it brutally written in black and white shocked me.

But first….the small matter (if only, I was huge!) of my unborn baby….

An oncologist appointment the following week gave us more information about the enucleation and I was told that I had to make arrangements for my baby to be born that coming week. I was 35 weeks pregnant, so she had a good chance of being okay.

Back to the local hospital where my fabulous midwife ( I got a special one as I was classed as an older mother ha ha ha!!) arranged for me to have my baby by C-section the following Thursday. I needed to be admitted on the Tuesday, as I would need steroid injections in my bum to mature the baby’s lungs and because I had gestational diabetes (just another thing to add to the list!) the steroids would effect my insulin, so I needed to be monitored and hooked up to insulin for the 24 hours either side of the injection!

Emily was born at a good weight and a month later we went back yo Moorefields’ for my operation, I sat in bed with my now 4 year old Finnbar and explained how my eye wasn’t working, so the doctors were going to take it out. I explained I would have a bandage etc. and asked if he had any questions….”Yes” he replied, “How high do grasshoppers jump Mumma?”

The day before my op I had another scan where they found that one of the tumours was dangerously close to the bone, so they had to revise their surgery options and go for exenteration, which is removal of the eye, muscle and tissue and sew my eyelids together over the cavity. I wasn’t really prepared for this, but had no choice, so got on with it. I took a picture when I was all bandaged up to show Finnbar, so he wouldn’t be too worried and then Frank and I went home two days after the op and got on with normal stuff…for a while.

In the May following my exenteration, I had a course of radiotherapy on my eye socket – travelling up to London each day for 20 sessions. The travelling took about two and a half hours each way, for approximately five minutes of being zapped. It was tiring doing the commute and my socket became sore from the radiation, but these were all ‘normal’ side effects, and it gave me peace of mind that any stray/lingering cells left from my surgery were being blasted away. I also lost my hair in two big patches behind my ears, but was fortunate that my long hair covered up the bald patches. It grew back fairly quickly, although I did have a couple of months where I had curly bits sticking out of my otherwise straight hair! I also asked the lovely team (I had the same team for each session) whether I would glow in the dark after treatment! To be fair to them they didn’t laugh at my question…but sadly, no glow for me . I gave my mask to Finnbar at the end of the sessions and he used it to be some sort of superhero!

I was down to have six monthly scans and in the February of 2014 I had an MRI, but the following scan in August was changed to a CT scan of my liver. I had read that I really needed an MRI, as CT scans aren’t as sensitive for the liver, so I referred myself (through my GP) to Southampton and an MRI was arranged for the October, 15 months after first noticing the blurring in my vision. I duly went and the initial reports were fine…but as I was ‘celebrating’ a year of living with one eye (much better going up/down stairs, but still rubbish at pouring wine!) I had a letter from Southampton to say that after closer inspection of the MRI, there were ‘suspicious masses’ in my liver that needed further investigation.

On the 4th February 2015, I went for another MRI of my liver – and knew the news wasn’t good when I saw the doctor wait for the nurse to come into the room before he spoke to me. Many tear later, we had a plan. It was a course of Ipilimumab to deal with the blobs.

We went home and Frank and I spent time dealing with the shock of it and then we got on with stuff, as normal. The next day I posted on the OcumelUK Facebook page, about the appointment and was immediately flooded with messages – mainly about why I wasn’t having liver directed treatment! After a few phone calls (with OcumelUK acting for me) I found I was a suitable candidate for the new, experimental treatment of chemosaturation (Delcath). So I had this in May (major organising of childcare, with family coming to look after our children, so they could have as normal as possible routine). Scans about six weeks later, showed tumours had stopped growing. I had the second part in the September.

Scans in the December showed one rogue tumour had grown, as there was a part of my liver that the team was not able to get the chemotherapy to, so we decided a resection was the best option. That was scheduled for early March 2016.

My resection was done, which involved another stay in hospital with my family looking after our children. At the consultation following the scans a few weeks later, the analysis of the tissue surrounding the tumour, showed there were lots of little ‘seeds’ – tumours too small to be seen on an MRI, so it was agreed that another course of Delcath was the best way forward, with a course of Ipilimumab before the treatment, as there was a wait on the Delcath. I had my third procedure in September 2016 and have had clear scans for six months.

Our children know nothing about my prognosis and we are going to keep it this way for as long as possible. Finnbar knows that I mUst go to hospital to get the bad blobs zapped/cut out of me and he is fine with that – we make a game of counting my bruises when I come home!

My next scans are in May, so we will see what happens from there.

Grey eye

November 28, 2016April 25, 2017 ~ justaneye73 ~ 2 Comments

Ecstatic to finish!

Proof of my great feat!

So my blogs are getting less frequent and I hope this builds a frisson of excitement/curiosity about the next one, rather than just thoughts of ‘lazy cow, what’s she up to?’ Various reasons stop me writing, I would like to say a thrilling life of parties and glamour but reality is it’s usually just sorting out stinking p.e kits, taking sickly hamsters to the vet, and cooking meals for a family of five where usually no one agrees on what they want for bloody dinner.

Anyway my last blog was incredibly short and as you have probably realised from reading my previous blogs, I struggle to express my feelings at the time. I find it easier to explain in hindsight. Not to my family and friends but to everyone else. It’s all just too exhausting when I am feeling pretty shattered anyway. So here is a rather quick explanation of my feelings, post ‘MRI all clear’….pissed off! That’s it. I was furious and tired. How? Why? Well I can only explain it by comparing it to a running race, a long one. ( you see that’s the marathon runner coming out in me! I ran one, once, years ago but I will live off that achievement for years!) You do all the training for say, a 10k, and it’s hard, the weather’s shit, you’re tired but you finally get there, everyone’s cheering you on, you can see the finish line, hear the happiness from the crowd, but as you step towards the finish line, it disappears and moves another 10k, the crowd is leaving, shouting ‘well done’, and I’m left saying “but the race isnt over? Yes I know I should be happy, but I really wanted to stop now. I wanted to hang my trainers up and come home with you all, cheering and happy and celebrating. I’ve got to keep going. I’m tired and I don’t want to f**king keep going! Can you hear that? I don’t want to race any more!” That was how I felt. The apprehension and sleepless nights that accompany me round scan time are never going to go away. Every six months it will be back and I felt mightily pissed off about it. I know I’m lucky to have the scans, I know I’m lucky it was caught early, I know I’m lucky it hasn’t spread. It’s just sometimes I don’t feel so lucky.

So anyway I have moved on and allowed those feelings to blend back into the background. I am back to normal, happy (well usually a bit moany) Ruth. Again over this time some people have amazed me with their ability to understand where I am coming from or what I am thinking without me saying anything. I met a friend who I haven’t known for very long, and don’t see very often, but she said “I read your blog and thought yes that’s shit you must feel so annoyed at the lack of control.” I hadn’t said anything to her, she had just read ‘I’m off to drink champagne’ but she could see through it, she thought about how she would feel and it made me think, there are really so many kind, thoughtful people out there. People that have the ability to really think about a situation and know what you are feeling when I sometimes don’t know how to express it myself. It’s the lack of control that pisses me off. I want the race to stop, I want to take my trainers off, but I can’t. The lack of control makes me furious! But to put that fury to good use I have entered a half marathon, if this cancer is going to make me keep going I will run and raise money as I go. My just giving page will be up and running soon (pardon the pun!) and f**k the never-ending 10k’s (MRI’S), I will have my other finish line to get to which I will cross and finish and which I can go home from and celebrate with everyone else.

The other eye news is I have a grey patch appear on my eye. see below.

See nothing is ever plain sailing? Anyway I’m not really worried about this, just a little bit. I e-mailed the photos to my consultant hoping for a “Yes, to be expected see you in January.” But instead got a “This is a common occurrence after brachytherapy but would like to see you at my emergency clinic to confirm.” Confirm what? That is is the common occurrence or what? What else could it be? Anyway this is where google becomes your friend. When I googled back at the beginning, when I was first diagnosed, I was terrified, as everything pointed to eye cancer. Now when I google grey eye, no cancer related stories appear – hooray. I’ve been happily googling away, reading about discolouration, strange pigmentation, a man with high cholesterol, but no horror stories. I’m off to see my consultant later in the week, so if in the mean time anyone finds a story that grey eye means your head is about to drop off, please pm me so I can at least be prepared.

And ending on an even lighter note I just thought I would share my children’s helpful thoughts on grey eye matter. My eldest daughter wondered if it would spread? “Will it spread all over the white of your eye? you’ll look sort of demonic!” Thanks!

Middle child helpfully told me that I could get my eyeball tattooed. “People do you know? It’s fine?” As if she bloody knew, and she’s the one that faints at the sight of blood.

Youngest, most troubled child just asked “will you be ok?”

“Yes poppet, mama will be just fine.”

“Good! because there’s a really good film coming out called ‘A monster calls’ (yes you guessed it the monster is the cancer!) and I want you to take me to see it!”

F**king great! I will keep you posted on grey eye and let you know how the hideous film is that I will be forced to watch with my gorgeous, thoughtful girls! Better pop a bottle in the fridge just to see me through. Cheers!

It’s not over

October 14, 2016 ~ justaneye73 ~ 6 Comments

I wasn’t going to do another blog. I sort of felt that my eye being in remission was a happy ending so that I could just drift on with my life and not talk about it anymore. I know that isn’t the case, I still have the dreaded MRI’s to contend with, but the remission gave me a ‘get out of jail free’ card. I could stop the blog, the curiosity of others and just pretend everything was fine now, thank you very much. But then I came back to the reason for starting it up. It was because I wanted to know from other cancer sufferers, specifically eye cancer sufferers, how they were. What they felt and how they came through it or didn’t. It gave me comfort to know I wasn’t alone, reading someone else’s story. That’s why I started mine, so maybe someone could get some comfort from how I felt or how I’m dealing with it. So I feel I wouldn’t be doing my blog a justice if I didn’t continue with the truth that is living with a cancer diagnosis. I can’t just wave my magic wand and say ‘ta da’ it’s a fairy tale ending, because obviously it’s not.

So here goes. My MRI is on Monday. The results will be given to me next Thursday. The wait in between is hell. My good friends panic and anxiety have kindly come along to accompany me in the build up. They weren’t here last week so I started to feel that I was coping with this. But suddenly out of the blue my body goes into a fight or flight mode, the tension and nerves swarm up my throat, again making me gasp. It annoys me. I may have just been making a cup of tea or thinking about dinner, when this surge of adrenaline, panic, powers through my body, reminding me that something big is looming. The worst part is that I hurt my back about three weeks ago. I don’t know how, it just aches. It’s lower back pain and I’ve convinced myself it’s bone mets. I remember the painful massage on holiday and think was that a sign? Last week I wasn’t worried about it, this week knowing I have a scan coming up it’s playing over and over in my head like a broken record. So the sleepless nights have started again. Lying awake at night wondering if next week I’m going to be told all is well or I’ve moved to stage 4. Big breath.

Anyway in preparation for the fear I knew was coming, I put plans in place to deal with it. For me writing and exercise helps, like running, walking up big hills etc. I don’t usually like exercise, I force myself to do it, but now I find when I run it’s a sort of meditation that makes me feel alive. So that’s good because it’s all about feeling alive. The plan I put in place to beat the fear was joining a fierce military fitness group in my local park, as you do. And bloody hell does it work! Last night I was awake watching a milk float (I didn’t know they were still around) come down our road at about three in the morning wondering whether I should google what spread to the spine feels like. This morning I was heaving logs around bushy park, doing press ups and sit ups badly amongst the deer poo, laughing with a friend as we tried to drag some enormous weights along the grass and generally enjoying myself. I felt like I’d taken a drug, I haven’t laughed so much in ages. I think it was hysteria rather than anything funny happening. But hysteria felt good. I am one of the most unfit people there but the buzz I get is invaluable to me at this trying time. I’ve been doing it for nearly four weeks now and every week the fit military bloke shouts well done to various numbers (we wear numbers on our shirts), today he shouted to me! “GOOD SPRINTING 46!” I think I blushed, not in a weird I fancy him sort of way (I’m married to my gorgeous husband, who also reads my blog) but because I was embarrassed that it felt good to do well amongst the super fit types around me. Now if I’m really honest he shouted to 46 generally in my direction, I was actually too embarrassed to look down and check my number as I wanted to appear nonchalant like it’s no big deal, and there was another bloke pretty near me also doing a fast sprint, so quick in fact I couldn’t quite catch his number either, but I thought it was for me so that’s the main thing. I wanted to jump up and down on the spot shouting ” whoopee – f**king great sprinting 46!” but that wouldn’t have suited my nonchalant ‘yeah whatever I sprint in my sleep’ stance, so I didn’t.

But there you have it. I didn’t want to blog because I was scared. I didn’t want to tell people that I’m frightened of my results coming next week, but after a brutal pummelling in the park I feel brighter. Able to talk/write about it without it making me breathless. So lots of positive vibes next week. Please let me just have a lame weak back with no sinister growths. Let my liver be as unremarkable as it’s possible to be. And let me just pop a bottle of bubbly in the fridge as, as these military scout types would say, it’s always better to be prepared.

Cheers to a speedy healthy next week. xx