Finding Your Way with Ocular Melanoma

Did you get a second opinion? I cannot stress how important it is for EVERYONE to get a second opinion when you have been diagnosed with an ocular melanoma or a suspicious choroidal nevus or spot that your ocular oncologist may be concerned about. Why? Shouldn't my ocular oncologist - a highly trained individual - know what they are doing? Experience between all ocular oncologists is highly variab...

Going through the recovery of your ocular melanoma surgery can be a daunting experience. Learn about the reasons for eye pain, redness, swelling and what you can do to get through the healing process. Always reach out to your ocular oncologist or eyecare provider if you have questions about your recovery process. Listen to learn more! For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link...

What is a retinal detachment? In most cases, retinal detachment is caused by a rip in the retina (i.e., retinal tear) from pulling of the vitreous humor. The torn retina then allows liquified vitreous humor to enter the space under the retina which causes a peeling away of the retina from its normal anatomic position. Retina that is separated from its attachment position does not function properly...

When is the right time to treat a small melanoma? The biggest take-home message if you have a small suspicious lesion or a small uveal melanoma, is that TIME is on your side. You never have to rush into treatment; you do not increase your metastatic risk by waiting a few weeks to get additional opinions, to learn more and to get your questions answered.   Be sure that your ocular oncologist is usi...

Have you been told that you will likely go blind after ocular melanoma treatment and that there is little that can be done? Have you been told you might go blind unless you get started right away with ocular injections? If the answer is yes, stop right now and watch this episode. There are a few things that you must know about ocular melanoma: It is uncommon for patients to slowly and steadily los...

By definition, cancers grow their own blood supply in order to invade and grow in tissue where they don't belong. The blood vessels in ocular melanoma are more fragile than the normal blood supply of ocular tissues. Most melanomas do not bleed. However, bleeding is possible in melanomas that are about 3-4 mm or greater in thickness. Bleeding may occur: 1) at the time of diagnosis; 2) during surgic...

At the beginning of your journey with ocular melanoma, a question about performing a biopsy may arise. Performing biopsy for molecular prognostication - to know the potential risk that your melanoma may spread in the body (that is, metastasis) - is considered standard of care in ocular oncology. However, controversy still exists as some physicians still do not offer biopsy to patients, others feel...

Cataract surgery is the most common operation performed in the entire world. It is one of the safest, quickest and most effective eye surgeries to achieve excellent vision when performed in experienced hands. When you begin to lose vision in your non-melanoma eye because of progressing cataract, you must have cataract surgery if you want your overall vision to improve.  However, in many situations...

Brachytherapy plaque surgery is a complex eye operation that involves the external tissues of the eye and orbit. This can result in swelling and edema, which can cause temporary double vision, droopy eyelid, redness of the eye and sometimes discomfort. What can you do to help get over this period as quickly as possible? Managing and supporting your recovery during the initial period of the plaque,...

Your ocular melanoma treatment plan consists of two main items: 1) What you do to treat the cancer in your eye, and 2) What you do to watch for and treat cancer that might spread in your body. Both of these two items must be addressed, and usually without taking into consideration the result of your biopsy. Although biopsy results give additional information, molecular testing of the eye cancer is...

Red eye is common after ocular melanoma surgery, after the period of recovery and sometimes episodes of red eye may occur long after your treatment. Learn why this happens, what it means, and what you can do about it for best eye health. For Tara McCannel's resources (including webinar links and link to my book!), visit my website: https://seyhart.com/ocularmelanoma Welcome to Finding Your Way wit...

Getting diagnosed with ocular melanoma may be one of the most difficult experiences in your life. You may have seen multiple eye-care providers who were not entirely sure of what was going on, and you might have seen ophthalmologists who painted the most negative scenario about blindness and death when they told you what was going on. Our society views getting diagnosed with cancer as a catastroph...

Why is ocular oncology an unusual subspecialty in medicine? It is unusual because standards of care vary between institutions and between ophthalmologists who practice ocular oncology. At one center, enucleation (removal of the eye) may be recommended, at another center, brachytherapy plaque may be recommended. One doctor may recommend continued observation because the tumor is located in the macu...

Pause for a moment and ask yourself - What have I learned lately from my life? From this ocular melanoma journey and other important events in my life? We all have a tendency to go through the motions based on our familiar past routines, whether they are good for us or whether they may not serve us well. Familiarity keeps us feeling safe. Rather than push them away and feel disappointment, let's i...

This episode was inspired by my new-found knowledge of the work of legendary Harvard health psychologist Ellen J. Langer, PhD. Dr. Langer defines "mindfulness" as the simple act of noticing new things. Unfortunately, most of us may live our lives "mindlessly", which is the opposite - living life without being open to noticing the subtle variations in life, because we believe we know what is going...

Whether you have a benign lesion that is being monitored, whether you are seeing an ocular oncologist for the first time to have something suspicious evaluated, or if you are being monitored for a treated ocular melanoma, imaging tests are a key part of your care. Listen on to learn about how we use ultrasonography, the different types of color photography, how fluorescein angiography works and ho...

This Sunday, Feburary 23,2025 at 10AM PST I will be hosting my next live webinar on the topic, "The Role of Mindset in Cancer Survival: Science of a Healing Attitude". I have been completely amazed at all of the knowledge that we already have in this field, where what we think can change our health. In traditional healthcare settings, we focus only on what is happening in our physical body, the or...

When the ocular melanoma is discovered and the tumor is too large for eye-saving treatment, the ocular oncologist will recommend enucleation. Enucleation is surgery where the whole eyeball is removed to control the growth of the tumor. After enucleation, many patients may no longer see their ocular oncologist, because there is nothing tumor-related to be monitoring in the eye. The individual may s...

Have you ever left your doctor's appointment feeling rushed and somewhat confused regarding your healthcare options? Do you find that it's hard to get information from your doctor? Consider every doctor's appointment as not only an opportunity to know how you're doing, but also as a chance to learn more about your condition, to have questions answered and to better understand what you can be doing...

Inflammatory pain after brachytherapy is fairly common. The dying tumor causes the nearby tissues of the eye, eye-socket (orbit) and sometimes the adjacent temple and forehead to also be achey. The larger the tumor, usually the more the inflammation as the body turns what's left of the dead tumor into a scar. Sometimes the inflammation may be "clinically detectable", meaning that the ophthalmolgis...

One of the most useful imaging tests invented in the history of ophthalmology is Optical Coherence Tomography, or OCT. The OCT is used to image the macula, the part of the retina that provides our central sight. The image provided by OCT is like a pathology slide - we can see each of the layers of the retina and what is going on beyond our traditional physical examination where we use biomicroscop...

Why is the Doctor-Patient relationship so important? Because the positive-mindset of a care-provider will result in better health outcomes for the patient. When your doctor focuses on the things that are going well, and believes there is hope for your situation, you too will be influenced by this positivity. A positive mindset is characterized by optimism, hopefulness and the willingness to adopt...

🎉 Exciting Announcement  🎉 I'm thrilled to share that my new book, Finding Your Way With Ocular Melanoma , is now available. As an ocular oncologist, this book is my heartfelt effort to provide patients and their loved ones with a clear and compassionate starting point to navigate the journey from diagnosis to treatment, and more. Inside, you'll find practical advice, emotional support, and empo...

If you notice worsening vision after ocular melanoma treatment, always get it checked out. You must have an explanation why the vision is declining. Not only will having answers alleviate your worries, but knowing what's going wrong will also allow you to come up with a possible treatment for the cause. Please know that the least likely cause of deteriorating vision is ocular melanoma tumor recurr...

The most common intraocular cancer of adults is actually NOT ocular melanoma. The most common intraocular malignant tumor to be found in the eye is a metastatic tumor that came from a different primary cancer, such as breast, lung or colon cancer. Metastasis is the term used when cancer has spread outside of the organ where it began. Therefore, we call this type of an eye cancer, a "metastatic tum...