Eye Surgery on Thursday

It's that time again...surgery week.  On Thursday, our little family will go to the surgery center in Dallas for Hazel's 6th eye surgery.  By this point everyone who reads the blog knows how we feel about these surgeries days...they are just about the worst.  We will go through the same motions that we've done 5 times before: Go to bed early the night before (which never works out).  Set our alarms for 4:15 am or so and barely get out of the house in time.  We'll be the first car in the parking lot, first patients in the building, we'll go through the same check-in process and sign all the same forms.  The hardest part is usually that Hazel can't eat for a few hours beforehand and can be unpredictable.  It is what it is I guess.

Overall I would say that Hazel is doing really well.  That doesn't mean that things are perfect...just that we've been in worse positions and things are slowly getting better.  There are still lots of concerns that we have about Hazel's health and more procedures to schedule.  I probably just need to make a list of Hazel's medical needs that could use prayer.  You know what...I'll add that to the bottom of the posts from now on.

I don't expect anyone besides Aubree and I to keep up with exactly what is happening at each surgery or appointment, so here is a refresher on what is planned for Thursday.  Dr Smith always starts her surgeries with an in-depth EUA (exam under anesthesia) to check Hazel's eye pressure, how previous surgeries are healing and to document how various parts of her eye are doing (Corneas, lenses, optic nerve, etc).  From that point, Dr Smith will be making a path for a tube to be placed in her right eye.  Six weeks ago, Hazel had a procedure which placed a plate and tube ON each eye and a path was created for the left eye where the tube can be placed IN her eye.  Following her surgery this Thursday, both eyes will have the tubes placed in her eyes to relieve fluid and get the pressure into a safe range.  Overall, we are hoping that this surgery is pretty straight forward and uneventful.

As usual, I will try and keep everyone up to date on how everything goes on Thursday and beyond.  If you would like specific things to pray about for Hazel, here is a list:

-  Successful eye surgery on Thursday

-  Focus and precision from Dr Smith on Thursday

-  Quick healing process

-  Hazel has fluid in her ears that is affecting her hearing... the fluid needs to be drained with a minor procedure.  It will require anesthesia, which is always pretty serious.

-  That Hazel's excess fluid in her head would normalize and not require a procedure to drain the fluid.