Overdue Update

After a 4 month hiatus the blog is back!   I owe it to everyone who has been praying for Hazel or wondered how she is doing to give an update, so apologies for the long absence.

A few medical things of note have happened in the last few months....

On May 13, Hazel went to the surgery center for an exam under anesthesia.  Her cornea surgeon and glaucoma surgeon got a great look at her eyes and confirmed what Aubree and I suspected...that Hazel is favoring her left eye and is not using her right eye often (if at all).  The issue for the right eye is the fluid in the back portion of the eye that is pulling on her eye and obstructing her vision.  She has had similar issues in the past where the doctors have removed excess fluid, but in this case the fluid is in the back of the eye it requires a new specialist, so now we have a retina surgeon!

After some initial check-ups and some back-n-forth with the surgery coordinator, we were able to get Hazel in for eye surgery #11 on June 4th.  The procedure went as well as we could expect and the reliable nursing staff of the Texas Eye Institute's surgery center were there to greet our frequent flier when she got out of surgery.  We are familiar with the routine at the surgery center, but we're lucky to have a nursing staff who knows our child and genuinely cares for her like they do.

I could probably expand more on the medical details of the surgery, but the questions everyone usually wants updates on are how Hazel is doing and if there are any more surgeries?  Hazel is doing really well, we still do eye drops 4 times each day and for the last few weeks we have been putting a patch over her left eye for a few hours each day to force the connection between the right eye and her brain to get stronger.  She tolerates the fashion-forward patches that Aubree ordered for her on Amazon, she's lucky to have a Mom with fashion sense....I'd probably end up making her look like a baby pirate.

We don't have any surgeries that we are anticipating right now, but Hazel's normal life will still include exams under anesthesia for her eyes, an annual MRI for her tube shunt to fight her hydrocephalus, regular eye exams for her glasses and regular check-ups with the ENT for hearing exams and to maintain her hearing aids.  All of that on top of the check ups that all other kids go through.

It's been an active spring and early-summer for our little girl.  Hazel is walking a lot more frequently on her own but still prefers to have a hand to hold since her vision is not great.  She has gone to Vacation Bible School at Park Cities Baptist, discovered that she loves the playground and enjoys the swimming pool, has learned some songs and loves music....seriously, she loves music...and will find any excuse to dance and force you to awkwardly dance with her.

It's been a while since I've posted and 4 months is a big chunk of her life...so here's a few bonus pictures for everyone.

Hope everyone is doing well and having a great summer to this point.  Until next time...

Post-surgery picture

Visit to see Gigi in Clifton

Posing at VBS

Swimming with the cousins

Pushing her cart, eye patch and all

Hanging with Yaya

Sporting new glasses with transition lenses

Fourth of July 2015