Day 3 of visits: The final official word.

"You have a malignant choroidal melanoma. We need to do radiation therapy to treat it, and then you will come see me twice a year for 5 years and once a year after that for checkups and that is that" (imagine a pompous old man rubbing his hands as if to say "and I'm done with you- NEXTTT").

That was the extent of my diagnosis day. My Dr. in Boston, who will remain nameless as I still need him to be my ocular oncologst (they're a bit hard to come by...) despite my not so nice feelings for him.

The day was jam packed with testing, and more testing, and me asking my mom to entertain me and her responding "what do you expect me to do, dance?" (To which I replied 'yes' b/c quite frankly waiting at the oncologist's office is not exactly my idea of a relaxing morning and anything to distract me would have been nice right about then.) The Dr. answered very few questions, though his team was much nicer. I gleaned what I believed at that moment to be "accurate" information 80% chance it WOULD NOT spread in the 1st 5 years and then a dramatic decrease thereafter. I walked out feeling slightly less defeated, despite officially now having to sign my name Carissa Caulfield, cancer patient.

I was setup with all the items I would need to get started on the fast track to radiation. I would have eye surgery to place tantalum rings around my tumor on Feb 5th, and the would spend two weeks recovering before beginning Proton Beam radiation on Feb 19th-25th -- that's right folks 5 days of radiation only and that is by protocol IT, ALL YOU CAN DO, ALL YOU SHOULD DO, just go home and be normal after that -- but don' t forget your semi-annual blood work.

WHATTTTTTT!!!!!!!!?????????

That definitely was not going to fly with me. That night when I got home began my extensive (and I mean exttteeeennnnsssiiive) research into the world of uveal melanoma. Learn some of what I've learned in my next post...