Another Day, Another Surgery

We are back at home this afternoon after going to the surgery center this morning for Hazel's appointment.  The day started early with a 4:30 am alarm clock, followed by the snooze button until Aubree and I willed ourselves out of bed at 4:45 am.  By 5:25 am we were walking out the door and into the freezing darkness with coffee in hand.

 

Two of Hazel's doctors were involved in today's exam under anesthesia (EUA)...Dr. Bowman (Cornea Specialist) and Dr. Smith (Glaucoma Specialist).  Both doctors got a good look at her eyes during the EUA and came to a few conclusions....

 

1.  Dr. Bowman feels really good about the clarity and condition of Hazel's cornea transplants.  And as a bonus, he felt that Hazel's eyes had healed quickly and effectively enough to remove ALL the sutures from her eyes today.  The original plan was to take out 16 sutures and they ended up taking out all 24.

 

2.  Neither Bowman or Smith was pleased to see Hazel's high eye pressure...which was 33 today.  As a reminder, 10-20 is the preferred range for eye pressure and Hazel usually ends up being anywhere from the high teens to the mid-20s.  It should be noted, however, that the morning is the time of day when pressures in the eye are at their highest. 

 

After Dr. Bowman had completed the removal of the sutures it was time for Dr. Smith to tag in and proceed with a procedure to relieve pressure from Hazel's eye for the long term...called a trabeculotomy.  Feel free to click the link if you want to read exactly what the procedure involves.  The main thing you need to know is that this procedure is the best method for fighting against glaucoma...which is the biggest threat to her vision at this time.  All in all the procedure went really well and Hazel is sleeping the day away with a patch over her right eye. 

 

We will go back and do another EUA and trabeculotomy on the left eye in the later part of March.  Hazel is back at home now and feeling pretty tired, we are anticipating a tough week as she tries to get back to 100%.  Thank you to everyone for your prayers, messages and text over the last day.  It was not in our original plan to do this procedure today, but we are just happy everything went well.

 

 

 

 

Schedule Change

 

Well...I had planned to write a post today to let everyone know how well Hazel is doing, but instead its a post with some scheduling news.  I should mention up front that Hazel is doing really great and this is NOT a medical emergency post.  Sorry if I made anyone nervous with the opening sentence... 

 

For a few weeks now, we have planned for Hazel to go back under anesthesia in the middle of February...but we found out today that the original date we were planning on is not available any longer.  The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.  Our two options are to either take Hazel in tomorrow or wait until March.  We think March is too long to wait and have chosen to take her to the surgery center in Dallas tomorrow morning. 

 

The purpose of her appointment tomorrow is to do a few different things for her eyes....

 

1.  Do an EUA -- which is an exam under anesthesia in order to get an accurate test on her eye pressures, get a close look at her corneas and assess her overall eye health.

 

2.  Remove the remaining sutures from her right eye and half of the sutures from her left eye.

 

3.  After the EUA, decide whether or not to do a different procedure designed to alleviate pressure from her eyes.  If we decide to do this procedure they would start with the right eye and do the left at a later date. 

 

The main reason we would do the additional procedure is that eye pressure is the biggest threat to Hazel's vision and this procedure is more effective than any eye drops.  It's always a possibility that Hazel's eye pressure could decide to skyrocket one day to the point that her eye drops would not be able to contain the pressure.  If this ever happened she could easily lose one or both of her eyes.  In short, this is a preventative measure and we'd rather do it now than bring her back for another round of anesthesia.   

 

We've been planning on taking Hazel in for this type of visit from the beginning, but I'm not looking forward to tomorrow.  The whole surgery thing just sucks if I'm being honest.  Hazel can't eat past a certain time at night, we'll be up hours before the sun rises, then the waiting room phase followed by post-op and the recover process.  It always takes 7-10 days for Hazel to get back to normal after getting anesthesia.  It's frustrating and stressful to try and establish a sleeping and eating schedule for her that gets unraveled for a week or two.  It feels like raking a yard full of leaves then having a big gust of wind scatter them back out. 

 

Don't get me wrong...I feel positive about tomorrow and believe everything will go well.  I just hate that my daughter has to go through another surgery day.

 

If you have time to pray for Hazel we would really appreciate your support.  I promise that one of these days the blog posts will be light-hearted with funny stories and pictures of Hazel...one of these days...