#EyeGetDilated Awareness Month – Jason Bruckal
For #EyeGetDilated Month, we share Jason Bruckal’s story on how a dilated eye exam changed his journey with OM:
My ocular melanoma journey started when I was having trouble seeing electronics in 2019. Backlit screens were getting difficult to read text on, and I thought my lasik was wearing off. A trip to the optometrist was a decade overdue, and when I went in I expected to hear my eye had changed and I needed a prescription of some kind. Instead, I was shown an eye photo of a large grey area, and quickly referred to a specialist, who called me right away to make an appointment.
Unsure and scared, I discovered there was fluid in my eye, caused by a growing mole. The first year was a few attempts to laser treat the spot, which helped with the fluid, but the spot kept recurring. Eventually, it was declared to be cancer, and the potential of it affecting more than just my eye became a reality.
While I waited to have an eye exam until something was seriously wrong, getting my eye dilated and scanned was something I should have done years before. Fortunately, in my case, the tumor was small enough to treat effectively, and the fluid it caused happened sooner rather than later. There are many cases were more frequent eye exams would have discovered anomalies, like fluid build up, much sooner.
Since the optometrist visit in 2019, I’ve had many eye exams, scans, and dilations. Truthfully, eye exams, scans, and dilations are simple and very painless compared to many other medical treatments. Most of it is looking into visible light just like we stare at on computer screens and TVs every day! Eye health is critical to how we perceive and enjoy the world, so it’s certainly worth preserving and maintaining with regular eye exams.
Life-saving advances in ocular melanoma research are made possible by the generosity of supporters like YOU. Please consider a tax-deductible donation today:
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