When Louise Jordan, 50, spotted a letter from her optician, she realised it had been a while since she’d had an appointment.
Although she hadn’t had any problems, she thought she better go for a check-up.
Luckily, that decision saved her after the optician discovered a cancerous tumour behind her eye.
The mum-of-two from Bloxwich, West Midlands, was diagnosed with a Choroidal Melanoma – a cancer affecting part of the eye – in June 2019, and she had to have a procedure where her eye split open to insert a radiotherapy plaque to target the tumour.
The procedure involved Louise being placed under general anaesthetic and having her eye clamped open, before surgeons used a scalpel to split open her eye, go underneath her eyelid and slide a plaque with radioactive seeds on one side of it behind her eye and sewing it there – aiming the seeds at the tumour.
She says: ‘I couldn’t see what they were doing but it hurt like hell.’
The wedding planner spent four days in hospital but was told without the procedure, she could lose her eye.
The treatment was a success and she will have her final check up to make sure she is clear of the tumour later this year.
Louise said: ‘It was such a shock. Having no symptoms at all, you never anticipate something like this.
‘I’m glad I caught it in time because if not I could have gone blind.’
Louise – who is mum to Jordan, 19, and Jack, 17 – said that the first thing that went through her head was that she might not be able to watch her sons grow up.
She believes that although it is easy to ignore the letters and not want to spend money on appointments, going for a check-up is hugely important.
‘I was looking through a pile of mail for something and when I saw the eye test letter, something inside me told me I needed to go.:
‘My eyesight wasn’t any worse than when I last got it tested, but somehow I just knew I had to go.
‘Everything happens for a reason.
I’m incredibly grateful for the team at Specsavers. Without them, my future could look very bleak indeed.’
Choroidal Melanomas are rare, with five in one million people being diagnosed with them each year. They are symptom-less, meaning a regular trip to the optician is important.
Optometrist Taj Showker said: ‘We encourage all of our customers to visit their optician every two years unless they are experiencing vision issues.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/06/mum-eye-split-open-opticians-visit-reveals-cancerous-tumour-12008724/
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