Today Went Very Well for Hazel!

This morning we woke up to a velvety blanket of snow.  It was so pretty and so cold.  The kids had that excitement of the first snow of the season.  I love the way it clumps on the spruce and pine trees and on the hedges and other shrubbery and looks glittery in the sunlight.   The snow is quiet, clean and pure white.  It is a rare sight to us from the Pacific Coast.  

However, inside the hospital it was like any other day.  Or so I thought when it began.  Hazel's surgery was to begin at 10:30. Jim and I arrived at about 8:30 and I settled in with Jen and Hazel before he took off to finish cool projects at their house. This time he has hung lots of curtain rods and curtains in Piper and Julia's large bedroom that spans the whole width of the back of the house.  It looks great. 

Hazel was lively this morning and ready to go for the surgery. The only things that ever troubles her are the IVs and once she knew there would be nothing like that going on, she was fine.  Before we knew it, it was time to go down to surgery. 

Here she is being wheeled out the door to go to the Internal Radiology Department for the surgery.  We went down with her to the OR.  The room had a very high ceiling with all kinds of basketball paraphernalia all over it. The cabinets where they stored their supplies and their instruments, all looked like sports lockers.  There was a trophy case with basketball stars in it.  It is the coolest OR I've ever seen and perfect for kids.  Everything about it was state of the art.  I was so impressed that they let us come in with her while they were prepping her and getting forms signed by Jen.  They probably found that having a completely sterile field was far less important to the overall health of the child that having their family touch them and hug them and be near them until the sedation began to work.

While I was sitting there in my ring side seat observing all that was going on I had an epiphany of sorts about what I was seeing.  The room contained some of the best people in the world.  They were so kind and loving towards, Hazie. They were among the best in their field, the cream of the crop, and they showed so much professionalism with a lovely mix of humanity.  The epiphany went something like this.  It occurred to me that one of the many things that makes Hazel such a radiant child is the way she is treated by other good people. She knows nothing of any relationship that lacks love and kindness towards her.  I was just thinking about what life would be like if everyone had that in their lives.  If we in turn then treated everyone else like that it would be heavenly.  It was a tender moment of quiet reflection.

Here is Hazel's surgeon talking to her.  She was very comfortable with him.  He did a wonderful job tuning her up. They aspirated some of the abdominal fluid and it was still infected.  So more antibiotics and perhaps, if needed, another surgery to remove the fluid from an area that was too deep to be aspirated.  They repaired a few other things as well. The shunt surgery could be as early as Monday now they are saying if the Infectious Disease attending physician approves that.  But things roll very slowly there as they wait for the optimum time to proceed.  So we'll see.

So Hazie recovered quickly from all of the anesthesia and was back in her room by noon.  She slept quite a bit and all she wanted was food.  It was quite ironic as most days she doesn't want to eat much at all.  Of course she had to wait and that made her a little cranky, but she is sleeping soundly tonight and waiting for news of what's next in the morning when once again all three teams will swarm her room. They'll give us the up to the minute assessment of what they discovered today......and the latest plan for her will begin to unfold.   

One of the best parts of my day was just being with Jen. We had a great time just being together.