The Pierce Family: Surgery!

Our third ACL surgery in 4 years! But I have to say how grateful I am that we were able to bring Savannah out here for surgery and can take care of her because it is not an easy recovery. Savannah flew home on May 8th, had her doctor appointment on May 9th, and was scheduled for surgery the very next week! We were not prepared for the speed in which he was able to get the process rolling because when David initially talked to the office he was told Dr. Herbenick was scheduling surgery a month out. What an incredible blessing, especially since Savannah was so anxious to get it over and done with. We went in for surgery at 6:00am on Wednesday, May 15th. Things were done a little differently with her than with Xander, who knows why. They didn't take us back with her initially and, after 15 minutes or so of waiting, I made David go demand that we be taken back to her. We found her already changed and waiting on the anesthesiologist.

The anesthesiologist showed up a few minutes later and was this very personable older lady. I loved her right away, however she sent us away before she administered all the nerve blocks. Once again, with Xander we had been allowed to stay but this doctor said the parents are too distracting during these things. When we came back, Savannah was highly sedated. I was able to grab this picture right before they took her back for surgery. When we showed it to Savannah later, she had no recollection of talking to us at that time or taking the picture, ha ha.

And then the waiting began! David ran home to let out Cleo and grab us some breakfast; I tried to focus on reading but found playing games on my phone was a little more calming. The waiting room was packed and we spent about half an hour listening to this one lady's loud speaker phone conversation with a friend. Seriously, people! Savannah headed to surgery at 7:30 and we finally got called back to meet with Dr. Herbenick around 10:20. He came in and told us all had gone well which was music to my ears. Savannah had a shorter surgery time than Xander's and way less damage, thank goodness. Back to the waiting room we went and we waited...and waited...and waited. I was getting so mad knowing that she was in the recovery room and they weren't letting us see her! FINALLY we were called back and found Savannah a little emotional because she had wanted us there and the nurse had just told her to take a nap. Despite all of our frustrations about this, we did get the thumbs up picture!

Savannah was super exhausted and not very hungry so it took us a little while to get her to the point where she was ready to leave. Her foot was really hurting but the nurse kept insisting she had to keep it propped a certain way on the wedge so David did some massaging, hoping to aleviate some of her discomfort.

Eventually she felt well enough to get dressed and head on home. We made a quick stop at Chick-fil-A for some lunch, which is kinda our ACL surgery tradition. She was much easier to get in the house than Xander and, just like that, we had her all situated on the couch.