August 28th, 2007 by admin

            In March of 2006 just a few months after the second valve surgery, I had the biopsy on the right eye, and in April received a diagnosis of Iris Melanoma. The only option the doctors gave me was to remove the eye completely. Chemotherapy and radiation were not options for this type of cancer. Every emotion and hope that I had plummeted south, deep, deep south.  I questioned:  What in the world had I done to deserve this? I had gone from an area of blindness in the eye to total removal of the eye. No eye; no sight.

            At this point I thought God really has my attention now, if He had not already. It is amazing that when the challenges come, God helps us to face them.  When the battle is hard, we can still stand.  As a result of this new diagnosis, I was sent to a plastic surgeon who gave me information on the procedures that could be used to remove the eye. There were a couple of different ones that were possible depending on how badly the cancer had affected the eye, and that would be determined once in the surgery room. One of the surgeries would remove the eye only and recovery would be favorable. The other surgery would remove not only the eye, but also some eye tissue and possibly muscle. This surgery could be disfiguring.