Friends and Family

Kids with EA/TEF come in many packages. Some are repaired at birth and go home within a month.  A few take longer, but have virtually no complications afterward, like our little friend Sawyer.  A few take a couple of years to get through their post-surgery stricturing, and then they sort of taper off and seem to grow out of it by the time they're four.  Even fewer continue to have complications such as strictures and leaks into the early grade school years, and then live a fairly normal life.  There are some who struggle with complications their entire lives, but if you listen to the news articles and the hype and the gloss, there is a general teaching that EA/TEF is overcome within the first three years of life, at least to the point of being able to ditch the G tube and depend on food by mouth.  So, like in the NICU days, we've been sort of standing at the station watching everyone get on their own train one by one, waiting for our turn.  When you stand there long enough, you look around and notice the others still standing there.  And you become like family.

I would like to depart from talking about ourselves for little bit, and introduce you to some of the closest friends we have made on this journey.  Over the next few days, I will make a few posts introducing you to some of our closest friends, who have been walking their own long arduous journeys.