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So we made it back home. This time there wasn't any delays, cancellations, or other snafus.

Philadelphia is an interesting city. The new is interspersed with the old without a lot of rhyme or reason. Although there seems to be a lot of commercial construction that dates to the '20's to '40's. Mix that in with a good number of houses and commercial buildings from the 1880's. And new construction starting in the '70's and it looks like Philly has had more of set of spurts of large construction efforts instead of a steady stream. Well at least in the areas we are visiting, and that's really only a 3 mile strip along Chestnut and Walnut.

So we got good news from the oncologists and ophthalmologists. On Friday, we visited the eye surgeon's office again for a retina-cam, which is a special digital camera that can take photographs of the retina. The comparison between the two was pretty dramatic in my mind. Where the original photos showed balloon like structures with crisscross blood vessels, there were two shriveled white stones, that looked a lot like coral. Apparently this is what the doctors were looking for in anticipation of success. Turns out these calcifications or "stones" are what are left of the tumors when they die. I'm assuming that like other fluid-filled areas these calcifications are what happens after some damage, like kidney stones or gal bladder stones.

The doctors said that they will remain there, and be the source of Molly's ongoing leukocoria. I suppose they don't attempt to remove them because that can cause more damage than help. It wouldn't be good to have a left-over bit in there that becomes a "floater" and causes more problems in the future. Maybe in 20 years they will have some sort of therapy. It was just 20 years ago that most kids went completely blind from retinoblastoma. Until then, it looks like Molly will at least have peripheral vision in both eyes. We'll have to see how it all comes out. I hope that she'll be able to participate in school without special help.

Only time will tell. Until then, it's been a pretty nice fall so far. I'll have to post some pictures from around the yard. Enjoy the clock at 9th & Chestnut.