The Never Ending Battle

Sorry it has been so long since I've provided any updates on here.  Things were going pretty well for a little while, and it was nice to not think about the Melanoma for periods of time.  But of course another obstacle had to come along and add to this seemingly never ending battle.

A couple weeks ago I noticed my eye sight was significantly getting worse. Each day I could see less and less, so I let the clinical research team know, and they set me up with the eye doctor.  I was diagnosed with uveitis - swelling of the cornea- and inflammation of my eyes. These were caused by my clinical trial medications, so they decided to stop the medication until my eyes were back to normal.

I was put on steroids in the form of eye drops, and had to also be placed on an oral steroid to help with the inflammation. Currently I am still on both and waiting for my next appointment - next Thursday - to find out if there is any improvement.

I have a 21 day window that I can be off my clinical trial medication before it is no longer an option to return to that treatment plan. That gives us until the beginning of Thanksgiving week to have my eyes clear up and resume the medication.  Although it will be on a reduced dosage due to the complications, and can never go back up to full dose again.

And to add to the side effects, coming off the medication has been pretty miserable as well.  The area where the tumors are became very painful, and I could barely move my left arm.  I had to be placed on some pretty extreme pain meds that caused me to be dizzy and nauseous.  Luckily the pain, that was possibly from the tumors growing while not being on medication, slowly started to fade.

Its hard for me to believe that its been over a year now fighting this cancer, and I feel like not much has been accomplished.  The tumors are still there, and although the clinical trail was stabilizing them, they weren't going away.  Now with a reduced dosage, who knows how effective the medicine will be.  The next scans are in mid December.

I wish I could have a more positive post, but things are just not going so well.  Its been hard to stay hopeful when nothing seems to be getting better. This fight hasn't been easy, and imagining that there is so much more to go through has been weighing on me and bringing me down.

Cancer sucks.