The retinoblastoma tumor in Nick’s eye grew within his eyeball. As the tumor was very close to Nick’s optic nerve, which is connected to the brain. It was critical to remove the tumor as quickly as possible. Before surgery the team marks the eye that will be removed with an “x”. But wait…does the “x” mean we are keeping the eye or does it mark the one that we are taking out. Since Nick’s mom, Tammy, is a nurse, she went into surgery with him. The picture on the left shows a cross section of Nick’s eye and the tumor that was growing inside of it.