Eye

Since we have been together, I have shared with you the various thoughts and experiences that I have encountered along my "journey."  Some have been timeless and some have been topical.  Today, I'd like to try something a little bit different. I'd like to bring you along for an adventure that I am going to live-out with you in real time.

I've talked about my approach to ailments before where I like to give maladies a little while to heal/subside on their own before I bring it up to my Onc team or Internist.  As it is, I'm never sure if they are a sign of aging or an aspect of my cancer.  Aches or pains or abnormalities that come on kind of suddenly, and (up until now) seem to go away on their own - probably weren't really anything significant in the first place.  (Editor's Note: This strategy didn't work very well 7 years ago when I ignored my persistent back pain and other issues for quite some time and it turned out to be cancer, but come on - what's the chances of that happening twice?!?)

Case in point, I have had what seems like recurring conjunctivitis (Pink Eye to most) off and on for the past six months.  I've ignored it for a while, I've gone to the Walk-In Clinic and gotten a prescription for drops, I've had it clear up for a couple of weeks and then flare up again - only to subside with a round of self-prescribed treatment of the leftover Ofloxacin that I have (maybe I'm just not properly completing the prescribed dosing and never really knocking it out of my system - which is altogether possible).

I'm not being exposed to people who have it, I'm not falling victim to the pillowcase/flatulence syndrome (which is frankly an urban myth anyway), and sometimes it doesn't even act like real PE; it's just red and irritated and itchy - but not truly, truly bad.  Maybe it's dry-eye from my cancer medication (though that hasn't happened before up until now in the past 7 years).  Maybe it's seasonal allergies (though this Spring isn't proving to be any worse than past years; and I've never had allergies before - but they can increase with age).  Maybe it's merely another sign of aging (though WebMD wouldn't seem to support those symptoms for me; as much as WebMD can be relied upon as credible or applicable).  Or, maybe it's the result of a newer variant of Covid called Arcturus (no worse than OG Covid - though I don't seem to have any of the other symptoms associated with Arcturus).

So, after about six months of this (you can't fault me for not being a patient patient) it seems consistent enough and annoying enough that I'm going to bring it up this very Tuesday when I have my quarterly visit with my Oncologist.  Whatever it is, we'll get to the bottom of this and put it to rest once and for all. I'll get the diagnosis (or treatment approach) this week and share it right here within these "pages" next week.  What do you think?  I'm interested to hear what you might imagine could be the cause, because frankly, "Eye Don't Know."

PS: That’s NOT my actual eye in the post photo