OM Patient Story: Harold

I was diagnosed with a freckle or Nevus in my left eye by my optometrist in the fall of 2004. I had no idea what to expect. I went to a retina specialist in Denver immediately and I was told that it may be nothing or if it starts to grow, it could be a tumor. I made the mistake of getting on the internet and doing some research and I got scared. We decided to closely observe the freckle and see if it started to grow. I got checked once a year by my optometrist. I pretty much forgot about it and lived a normal life until my check up in November of 2008. During that check-up and series of pictures they detected significant growth and I was referred back to the retina specialist in Denver, CO. During these four years I had no symptoms at all.
In November 2008, I was diagnosed with choroidal melanoma in my left eye and had some decisions to make. I met with my retina specialist and oncologist, and I was given three options. 1. Do nothing and hope it wasn’t cancer. 2. Enucleation and 3. Plaque therapy. At this time a biopsy was not available, and research had shown that when the tumor started growing, 90%+ of the time, it was cancerous. I went through all the options and decided to get the plaque done. My insurance initially denied my surgery because they had never heard of a tumor in the eye before!
On January 7th, 2009, at age 44, I had Plaque therapy and my journey really started. It was completely different than what I expected, but I had a wonderful care team and supportive family. I had lots of questions and not many answers, but I had to have faith. I really did not understand the seriousness of choroidal melanoma until the surgical staff explained how critical it was to not have cancer spread to my liver and recently, they had two patients with similar tumors pass away due to liver metastasis. This is real.
My surgery was very uneventful, and I was amazed at how quickly the eye heals. I was back to work in about two weeks with minimal side effects. I lived a very normal life for about 12 years with just some irritation in my OM eye and a little reduced vision. I would get a shot of Avastin now and then and that really helped.
In December of 2022, I lost quite a bit of vision in my OM eye due to radiation retinopathy and my vision went to 20/400 in that eye. This was quite a change for me, and my retina specialist recommended I get in touch with the Melanoma Research Foundation. I attended my first zoom support group in Feb. 2023 and my life really changed. Although everyone’s journey is different, these people understood what I was going through, and provided the support I so badly needed. I lost my wife in the pandemic and was still struggling with that, and now here is a group of people who really care about a disease that isn’t talked about very often.
I learned about local and national resources that are helping me live life to its fullest and taking the fear of the unknown away. With some greatly appreciated assistance from MRF, I was able to attend the patient and caregiver’s symposium in Boston this year. I met people from the zoom support group, other patients and caregivers and even research scientists working on a cure! During a dark time of my life, these caring people and MRF changed my attitude and have given me hope! I have people to reach out to if I’m having a bad day and people, I can help to take the focus off me and give back. That may sound selfish, but it makes such a positive difference in my life.
There are so many people I am grateful for, and the only way I can give back is to help others with a kind ear, listen, stay positive and volunteer when the opportunity arises.
As others have said, there is no reason to go through this alone and you don’t have to! I have a much better understanding of ocular melanoma, and my care team even has plans if I need any further treatment. None of us know what tomorrow will bring, but I start each day knowing people care about me, and everything will be okay. That’s all any of us really have.