August 20-24, 2008

The rest of the week was full of making arrangements to see doctors and talk to specialists. Many people offered support and we were connected to some of the best medical professionals in the area of retinoblastoma care/research. We learned much and realized that the prognosis seemed good. Gracie was older than most for identification of retinoblastoma (particularly bilateral retinoblastoma) and much of the evidence seemed to indicate that the cancer was not well advanced. However the opaque appearance in the eye seemed more frequent and was disconcerting as this seemed to be indicative of what they call visceral seeding. Visceral seeding in retinoblastoma patients is difficult to treat and often means that the eye needs to be removed. This was not exactly the solution we were hoping for less than a week ago but if it prevented the cancer from spreading we were willing to have the eye removed.
Remarkably an eye examination under anesthesia and an MRI were able to be scheduled back to back on the Monday (August 25, 2008) following our return from vacation. We later learned that scheduling these two events usually takes at least 3 weeks advance notice however we had made the final arrangements less than 5 days prior.