Another Hurdle Cleared

We did it!  The strongest girl I know came home from the hospital this afternoon after having her first esophageal dilatation procedure at Children's Hospital Boston.  Everything went great.  Jamie went into the OR with her while she was put under, and just over an hour later we were with her in the PACU comforting her and listening to her froggy voice.  Her surgeons said that things went very well, and that they were able to tear some of the scar tissue that was narrowing her esophagus without causing a perforation.  Her airway held up, she tolerated the anesthesia very well, and the esophagus looked great (as great as could be expected after everything she had been through).  She will see the surgeons again in a couple of weeks for a follow up, and they are expecting to repeat the procedure one or two more times, but this first one was the scariest since her injury was so recent, and we had no idea how things were going to look in there.  

Our friend Amy got Hazel a shirt that said Wild Woman on it, the nickname given to her by the doctors in the PICU, and she wore that to the hospital.  It certainly suits her because within a couple of hours of coming home she was dancing around the loving room to Cypress Hill.  She is amazing to me.  Just really amazing...  

Thanks again to everyone for their support, love, prayers, text messages, emails, phone calls and everything.  We are so blessed.

Now we can get back to the good stuff!  Coming soon: puppet shows, the aquarium, hiking, spring-time, swinging at the park, vacations and riding her bike!  We can't wait to pull ourselves out of this funky place and move on.