Happy Birthday Elizabeth

I mentioned, in yesterdays post, that my best friend's little girl was having emergency open heart surgery. Well, today is her 5th birthday. She is laying in a hospital bed, on a ventilator and hooked up to what seems like 1000 monitors. I went to see her last night, and could only hope as I talked to her that they are taking care of her pain. It's got to be excrutiating.

This will be the third birthday in a row that she's spent in the hospital.

Elizabeth was born with major heart defects. I remember holding her on the night she was born, thinking she was perfect and filled with joy and excitement. Her mom got pregnant right after I did, and our babies were born only 3 months apart. We were looking forward to our little ones growing up together. The next day, however, it became apparent that all was not well.

From what I understand, Elizabeth's heart had several holes, a valve missing and veins and arteries coming in and out of the wrong places. They did surgery when she was 2 weeks old to put in a shunt to open up blood flow - a life saving procedure that couldn't be delayed. Unfortunately, she suffered a stroke right after the surgery. She had surgery again when she was 14 months old, and they completely rebuilt and repaired her heart. It was amazing and horrifying at the same time.

Since then, she has struggled with blood flow problems, horrible asthma, seizures...yet this sweet, resilient little girl has held on. She is a fighter. Her spirit is inspiring as is her parents' love and dedication.

This time around, she was having some problems with scar tissue build up restricting blood flow. It had gotten so bad, that they decided to schedule surgery for March. When they did some tests last week, it was so alarming that they rescheduled it for yesterday. She came through it ok, and now the road to recovery begins again. We're hoping that this will be the last time they have to do it for a long time if not forever.

So, happy birthday, Elizabeth. We're looking forward to when you are finally healed up enough for you and the D-man to play again. ...and may this be the last time. Take care, sweetheart.