Putting Things in Perspective

This evening we were at my in-laws house to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday.  While we were there, I was chatting with my brother-in-law about Mia's upcoming surgery.  At the end of our conversation about the surgery, he said, "well, no matter what, we have to consider ourselves lucky for what we have."  And he's right.  I'm so lucky to have Mia.  No matter how many surgeries she has to undergo.  No matter how many doctor's appointments we have to attend.  No matter the fact that her heart only has two working chambers, I'm lucky.  I have a beautiful, happy, amazing daughter.  Mia, Izzy and Art are my everything.  I am lucky.

Mia's third open heart surgery is 2 months from Wednesday.  It has been on my mind constantly lately.  Earlier today I read a blog post about the third HLHS surgery called the Fontan.  It was a success story.  Usually I find that I'm reading Fontan stories about kids with not very happy endings, this story was just the opposite.  It was refreshing.  It gave me hope.  It put my mind at ease a little bit.  The story was about a little girl about Mia's age when she had her Fontan.  She was in the hospital for 8 days and has recovered wonderfully.  The family is now 2 years post Fontan and living a pretty "normal" life.

Ever since we made the decision of when Mia's surgery will be, I have questioned whether or not we made the right choice.  Mostly because of her age.  She won't even be 2 yet.  The surgery is exactly a month from her 2nd birthday.  But the story I read today also opened my eyes to see that I DO think we made the right choice and that there are other kids out there that have had the surgery at a younger age.

There is a fellow heart mom in our town whose daughter is having her Fontan tomorrow.  Her daughter is a little over 2 years old.  I share their fears.  Tomorrow they will be embarking on something that very few parents can understand.  I understand.  While there I days when I wish over and over that I didn't understand, that I was clueless to what some families go through, today I consider myself lucky to have that understanding.  No matter what happens in two months, I have a beautiful, happy, amazing daughter.  I have my Mia, and I am lucky.