A Mom's Battle with Eye Cancer
- Ashley McCrary had her right eye surgically removed after being diagnosed with ocular melanoma is 2012. Unfortunately, doctors discovered her cancer spread to her liver in October 2020.
- McCrary encourages others to get their eyes regularly dilated to help with early diagnosis of eye cancer.
- Keeping faith and leaning on your family can help immensely during a cancer battle, as McCrary can attest to.
A friend noticed a spot on McCrary’s eye during a Memorial Day beach trip in 2012. But it wasn’t until another friend spoke up and told McCrary to show her eye to the friend’s husband, a doctor, that McCrary realized the severity of the issue.
Read More"They don't treat this at every cancer place, and even though I have doctors here in town in Auburn who are awesome… I do go to Philadelphia for treatment because they're just one of the specialty places that can treat this cancer," McCrary said.
But even as McCrary is facing a long, hard battle, she is finding the time to live life and celebrate its happy moments. One of which just happened last weekend when her son Jackson graduated from Auburn University.
"I don't take it for granted that I'm here and able to enjoy opportunities like that to celebrate big events and small events,” McCrary told WRBL. “I'm at a point where we're taking everything one day at a time."
Faith during a Cancer Battle
McCrary has been very reliant on her faith and her family to get her through her battle with cancer.
"My family is amazing and we put our faith in the lord," she told WRBL. "I believe that He's given me the strength every day to go through this."
For some people, turning to faith can be a great way to keep spirits high when cancer starts taking an emotional and/or physical toll.
Monica Layton, an ovarian cancer survivor, also believes in the power of faith during a fight with cancer. She turned to her church congregation for support as she battled cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic and then went through recovery.
"[I’ve] gone to the same church for a long time, so it's like another family that really supports me,” Layton told SurvivorNet in a previous interview. “We're Episcopalian, and when I was having surgery my priest came to the hospital and stayed and prayed with my family the whole time and it was a long surgery. And then he came back to the hospital every day to pray with me."
Ovarian cancer survivor Monica Layton shares how her church was her biggest support system
In addition to praying for her, Layton’s church also sent flowers, cards and a prayer blanket and often visited her.
“They were so kind,” Layton said. “I think my faith has been very important, crucial for me. Just the prayer really helps, I think.”
The Importance of Regular Eye Exams
McCrary knows all too well that an early cancer diagnosis can dramatically affect your treatment results. In a recent Facebook post, she encouraged others to regularly get their eyes dilated because that is one way to screen for eye cancer.
“I am trying to encourage people to get their eyes dilated,” McCrary wrote. “I hope no one ever has to hear, ‘you have cancer in your eye’. However, early detection is life-saving so get those eyes checked.”
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reports that approximately 2,500 adults are diagnosed with ocular melanoma each year. Their Ocular Melanoma Center also says most ocular melanomas can be difficult to detect because they occur in a part of the eye you can't see. But when symptoms do arise, they can appear as a dark spot on the iris or conjunctiva, blurred or distorted vision, a blind spot in your side vision or the sensation of flashing lights.
“In most cases, these are tumors that are detected upon a routine sight test by your optometrist or your ophthalmologist,” Dr. Rizwan Haq, director of the Ocular Melanoma Center at Dana-Farber, said in a video for the center. “Most patients do not experience symptoms when they have a diagnosis of ocular melanoma.”
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