The oncologists at The James Cancer Hospital... [View all]
... of Ohio State University just MIGHT save my eye. I haven't had a follow-up yet since I started chemo treatments with a Sonic Hedgehog inhibitor (Erivedge pills), but I'm amazed by the improvements as a layman.
The problem with the eyeball started from a lower eyelid that became cancerous (later verified as basal cell carcinoma per a biopsy), and I foolishly never consulted doctors about it for many months as Covid-19's Delta-variant was killing so many people (including my sister-in-law).
By the time that I noticed the eyeball was turning red too, I immediately scheduled an appointment with a local ophthalmologist. And I was told that I'd need to wait for several weeks to see him because his schedule (and pretty much every other ophthalmologist near me) was full. I probably should've just went to an ER or urgent care center at that point, but I simply waited until my appointment as the eyeball looked worse and worse.
The ophthalmologist referred me to a cancer surgeon at the University of Cincinnati, and he told me that it was hopeless. The eye would absolutely need to be surgically removed. (Prior to my visit with him, CT scans indicated there was no cancer except at the front of the eyeball. No signs of it yet spreading to my sinuses, behind the eye, etc.)
So then I sought a second opinion from a surgeon at Ohio State, and he said that he wanted to treat the eye before he would even consider surgical removal of the cancer. He made no guarantees that my eye could be saved, but he wanted me to receive treatments even if surgery was my ultimate fate -- with less cancer to surgically remove that way. (He kept referring to "bigger margins" if I received chemo treatments beforehand.)
I'm still psychologically prepared if the eye has to be removed, but I'm actually feeling some HOPE that I'll get to keep the eye lately.
Here's a couple selfies of the eye, before and after about 2.5 weeks of daily Erivedge pills. I am astounded by it! And I've also been so lucky that I've had no side-effects at all, despite how that drug has caused some unbearable side-effects for some people.
The lower eyelid is GONE, of course, but the skin around the eye also feels much more supple (not crusty) now.
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