Preparing for Round #2

I went to my ophthalmologist yesterday for a checkup on my right eye - the site where all of this started back at the end of last year.  He was notably mute about the misdiagnosis (the assumption that the mass was a cavernous hemangioma without looking for other possibilities, such as cancer).  But it is what it is, and doctors really do not like talking about mistakes.  The good news is that my eye seems to have made it through the radiation without any major damage.  Also, there is evidence that the radiation worked in that my proptosis (eye bulging) has reduced and my blind spot has gone away.  The blind spot, which can be seen in this image on the right from three separate exams.  The circle represents my field of vision in the left and right eye, the dark shading is where blind spots exist.  There should be one dark spot for each eye which represents where the actual optic nerve is - a natural blind spot we all have - but all else should be clear.  Back in December I could not see in the the upper right quadrant of my right eye (the shaded area).  In March, most of the upper half of my right eye vision was blurry.  But now, after Dr. Freedman's masterful work with the space-age radiation gun from tomorrow land, the blind spot is gone.  It was caused by the tumor pushing up on the optic nerve, bending it and causing light to distort in my upper field.  It apparently has decreased in size and stopped pushing on the nerve, giving me back my full sight.  Yeah!  I ordered some reading/TV watching glasses yesterday as my vision has not returned to 20/20 but does seem to have stabilized.  After I finish kicking cancer's ass I might get Lasik to correct it back permanently.  The tumor might even shrink more with the biochemo, but in reality there is not much blood flow there to get the chemicals inside so it might - hopefully - just be a a site of necrosis (dead cancer debris) I'll have as a lasting souvenir.  So, cancer, I'll have to say that I kicked your ass in the old eyeball front.  I hope the news depresses cancer, because tomorrow night the chemicals that cancer dreads so much start again.  And as treatment cycles are designed to do - even though cancer has not yet recovered from the last round of biochemo - I have.  I had a friend once that was a golden glove boxer when he was young.  In between boxing rounds he refused to take a seat, but just stood and stared at his opponent as he was attended to by the other support crew with water and verbal support.  Sometimes, if he felt strong enough, he would do push ups while his opponent sat there and caught his breath.  He said it completely demoralized his opponents.  That's me, and I love doing push ups.