Ok this is going to be a long sucker, so go get a snack or something to eat while you read. Or, just skip all the paragraphs where I describe my panic attacks and profuse sweating and go to the end where I talk about actual stuff. Seriously, it’s ok. I won’t be hurt.

So here’s the scoop from yesterday that I was just too fried to type out (thanks for your patience, by the way!)…

The day started ridiculously early (Rich actually walked the dogs at 4:30) because my first appointment was at 6:50. Chest CT, piece of cake (and they didn’t have to inject that contrast dye that makes you feel like you peed yourself. Nice). Had a small break after so we grabbed coffee and breakfast. I don’t even know why I wasted the money on the oatmeal. I mean seriously? Too nervous to eat. But we got out our iPads and did some Christmas shopping to distract ourselves. Then up to opthamology for another 5 billion pictures of my eyes. The second I got there, my nervousness turned to full-on panic. I mean this was it – after all of our waiting, we had just some pictures and an ultrasound standing between us and the oncologist and…answers. And to make it worse, it lasted f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Everything took longer than we thought, and then just when we thought we were set to finally meet him, we were told that he wanted more pictures. More pictures?? Why? Hadn’t my eye already been thoroughly documented at this point? Nope, we did a set of infrared pictures. By the way, all of these pictures basically involve getting dilated and then being told to look in a direction that is so severe it feels like you’re going to pull an eye muscle, while a blinding light is aimed directly at your defenseless, dilated pupil. And you can’t blink. Oh, and the ultrasound was kind of creepy – the guy actually put the thing on my eyeball, along with all that goopy gel they use for ultrasounds. He put a bazillion numbing drops in first so I couldn’t feel it touching my eye, but I could feel how hard he was pushing. By the time we got home last night the drops had worn off and I felt like I’d been punched in the eye. But I digress…

We were finally called into an exam room to meet the doctor. And then I remembered: he’s a Big Shot, and Big Shots always have fellows training under them, and the fellows always go first. So instead of getting answers, we did what by now we’ve gotten very used to doing – we sat with racing hearts and sweaty palms and studied the guy’s face for any kind of reaction as he read my records and charts. He then did the longest eye exam I’ve had in my life, while I said scripture in my head and tried to breathe. He even left to get colored pencils so he could draw a picture of my eye. For real. It’s the Mayo Clinic, and I have just had zillions of pictures taken of my eye, using every kind of state of the art machinery, and he’s drawing a picture. It would have been amusing if we weren’t totally dying inside. But then as he was finishing and putting all the papers back into my folder, he glanced at one and remarked casually, “I see you already had your CT’s and MRI. Nice to have those done and looking good.” And before we could really make sense of it, he was gone. “He said they look good!” Rich whispered as the door closed. I just nodded. I wasn’t sure – good, like good quality, or like the news we had been waiting a week to hear?

They moved us to the room next door, which looked exactly the same as the room we were in. I have no idea why, except maybe they noticed the puddle of sweat on the exam chair and decided I needed a dry one. At any rate, Dr. Pulido finally entered the room, a jaunty looking man with funky glasses, a Christmas tie and bright blue and red dress socks. For the entire time he was with us, we had the feeling that he had nowhere else to be that day, that he was prepared to talk to us for as long as we needed. He told us what he knew, what he thought about various things, and answered every one of our questions. An incredibly kind man, with a sweet smile and a gentle way about him. Don’t get me wrong – he made it clear the second he stepped into the room that this was very serious. It wasn’t a happy appointment by any stretch of the imagination, but we immediately felt like we were in good hands. He put us at ease with the CT and MRI results quickly. Apparently I have multiple pulmonary nodules. He turned to me and looked me in the eye. “People get those. Don’t worry about it.” Ok. Next, there was a cyst on my liver. “People get those too. Don’t worry about that.” Ok, this is good. This is very good. And then the bad news: we can’t do the biopsy. If you really want the nitty gritty on that let me know and I’ll discuss it in a future post, but suffice it say, we are not going to be able to find out if I have class 1 or class 2. Very disappointing, to say the least. But, he also said that he doesn’t treat patients with class 1 and 2 any differently. We all get the same monitoring. The other thing he said that was reassuring was that they are making great strides in treating metastic ocular melanoma. He listed off a slew of drugs that have just recently been approved for use. And while there currently isn’t any prophylactic pill that they can give to class 2 patients, they’re getting really good at slowing the progression down. He told me that I am in better shape getting this now than even 3 years ago, that’s how fast things are improving. So basically, if I do have class 2, it’s possible that it won’t metastasize for a bunch of years, and by then who knows what treatments they’ll have in their arsenal.

And speaking of spread, the tumor is doing exactly that (there has been “retinal invasion”), so we have to move fast. That’s apparently why I jumped to the front of the surgery line – the sooner we get that plaque in, the better. And it takes a minimum of 7 days to make a plaque, so by doing the surgery next Wednesday we’re treating it as soon as possible.

Then we talked about my vision. Which was odd, because we just haven’t thought about that much. I mean, since this whole thing started we’ve been focused on saving my life, not what it was going to do to my eyesight. But Dr. Pulido handed me a prescription. “It’s for glasses with polycarbonate lenses. You need to get them now.” he said, and then explained: I’m going to have significant vision loss in my affected eye (from the radiation), so suddenly my other eye becomes very precious. As such, I will have to wear glasses every waking hour to protect it, and wear safety goggles any time I do yard work. The interesting thing is, the radiation will take a pretty long time to destroy my eyesight. It won’t happen immediately, just gradually over a period of 1 1/2 – 2 years. So my girlfriend Jeannine came with me today to pick out a sassy pair of specs. I don’t wear glasses so it’s going to take some getting used to, but it’s fine.

So the plan is to be in the hospital – St. Mary’s in Rochester (run by Mayo) – from Dec 18-23. After I’m released, I’ll only have to wear an eye patch at night (to protect me from poking myself). I won’t be allowed to exercise for a month (this is going to be very hard, I can already tell you that) so as not to put any strain on the eye. My eye will look “mealy” for a while and I will probably have double vision for a few weeks. I’ll also have a droopy eyelid, and this may or may not get better. If it’s still drooping in March, I’ll need to get a lid lift if it’s bugging me. I’ll go back a month after my surgery to see how the stitches are dissolving, and see if the tumor is shrinking. 3 months after that I’ll have more scans, but just of my liver. And if everything is looking cool, I’ll go onto a maintenance schedule of scans every 3-6 months.

So I think that’s the scoop on our day yesterday. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, but this post is already way too long, so I’m going to have to cut it. I’ll talk about more stuff in future posts. They’re mostly f words (no, not that f word): faith, fear, friends, family and the future come to mind. I’ve got some stories about the incredible support we’ve received that I can’t wait to share with you. But I’m still pretty disorganized in my head, and I know I’m missing things here and there, so if you have any questions or think of anything you’d like me to cover here, just let me know.

Bet you finished your snack by now, so I’ll stop yapping. Until the next post…