We are still reeling from the absolutely authoritative diagnosis by the best ocular oncologist on the West Coast that my right eye was cancerous not from something treatable like Melanoma but from Something Worse that metastasized from within my cancer-ridden body. That 4-hour drive home I was a passenger only. Then the driver-caregiver wrangled a PET scan and a CAT scan here and the local doctor confirmed the diagnosis but wanted to be absolutely sure by ruling out other possibilities. The lab results showed Valley Fever (later confirmed by a lung biopsy) and the doctor immediately put me on Fluconazole. Getting seen by an infectious disease doctor is proving a little hard in this time of COVID19, so the treatment is not being managed right now. New lab tests yesterday, and eye pictures Monday, so we will know more. Meanwhile, I have gone from having an unusable right eye, all brown, to having almost normal sight. I will never forget the suggestion that it could be removed to prevent further spread. Cover my bad left eye now, I see a brown tinge on the right side of my face--like a tan, not a black walnut stain, not a brown blue. The color of the screen I am typing on looks a little gray--but shiny white with my left eye. But the fact is that I have gone from expecting the loss of my good eye (always the best) to regaining it. I don't think there is danger of losing it again. The great mushroom shaped black blot that I saw for weeks has thinned and the lower half seems to have faded away. We will know more next week about any residual damage from the incursion of fluid and whatever else into my retina. This is the first half of day 12, only. What happy news will Day 13 bring? Now, I am realizing that Valley Fever is truly not a get out of jail free card. But better than cancer, better than cancer.
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