Hazel's First Year In Review

I've been meaning to do a recap of the first year of Hazel's life, but it wouldn't be a real Hazel blog post if it wasn't way behind schedule!  We celebrated her first birthday last month in a very fitting way as Hazel came down with her first case of strep throat and we ended up in the ER for a night.  I'll get to that later...but I wanted to lead off this post by letting everyone know that Hazel is having eye surgery this Wednesday, December 3rd.  This surgery was originally scheduled on November 5th but had to be postponed since she had a 100+ fever the night before.  Our cornea surgeon, Dr. Bowman, will be removing the lens in her left eye due to a cataract and Hazel's team of doctors will also take this opportunity to evaluate both eyes, check eye pressure, check the results of past surgeries,etc.  For older patients, a doctor would remove the cataract lens and replace it with a supplemental lens -- but Hazel is way too young for that so her only option is to wear her glasses at all times.  When her eyes are fully formed and grown, Hazel will be able to tell us exactly what she can and cannot see and at that point we can have surgery to give her two new lenses.  

This is the LAST scheduled eye surgery that Hazel has and we are praying that she will get a much-needed break from all these procedures.  As always, we would appreciate your prayers for a safe and successful surgery on Wednesday morning.  We are the first appointment on the books, so we will be there by 5 am or so and should be home by 11'ish.

It's been a crazy year to say the least...so take this as your warning, this is probably going to be a long post but I'll do my best to keep it interesting with some pictures: 

October 2013

• Born October 12, 2013 & incorrectly diagnosed with Peter's Anomaly in the NICU
• Failed two hearing tests in hospital
• October 21: First hearing test with ENT with inconclusive results

November 2013

• November 1: First cornea surgery is a success
• November 2: The first day Hazel can see the world
• November 13: Detailed hearing screening (Hazel passes the test)
• November 20: One of the worst days of our lives, Hazel has a reaction to an eye drop that sends us to the ER and a triage "all hands on deck" experience

December 13, 2013: Cornea transplant #2

January 29, 2014: Hazel's sutures are removed from cornea transplants, Dr Smith does her first procedure to alleviate eye pressure

February 2014: No surgeries?  Is that right?  I'm sure we had plenty of appointments :)

March 27, 2014: Eye surgery number 4.  At the time, we thought it would be her last eye surgery.

April 2014:  Announced that Hazel has a genetic deletion that less than 50 people have worldwide

May 2014

• May 8: Eye surgery #5, placing plate on both eyes for eye pressure and "path" for her tube in the left eye
• May 27: First MRI to evaluate the fluid in her head

June 26, 2014: Eye surgery #6, creating the "path" for a tube in the right eye

July 14, 2014:  We find out Hazel has moderate hearing loss due to hydrocephalus

August 29, 2014: Head surgery to place a tube in her head which connects to her stomach to relieve excess fluid caused by hydrocephalus

September 2014

• Sept. 25: Ear procedure to help drain excess fluid
• Sept. 29  Eye surgery #7 to remove a cataract in her right eye

November 5: Scheduled day for eye surgery #8, delayed by Hazel being sick.  This is the surgery happening on Wednesday, December 3.