Surgery is over

It was a grueling day. We arrived about 45 minutes early and were told that the patient that was supposed to go ahead of us was a no-show, so we could be bumped up. We thought that meant we'd get out of there even faster. Well, that was not meant to be. First, the surgeon couldn't get there until noon at the earliest, so we couldn't start too much earlier. Secondly, Hannah fought the anesthesia (again!) so after a million arguments and tears she ended up having to have an injection of versed instead of just drinking it. I got to wear the full Elvis surgeon jumpsuit and take her back to the OR, I think she was pretty mad at me most of the way there.

Hannah before the fight to drink her medicine

The surgery took much longer than expected, almost an hour longer. We're still not really sure why. The good news is that they were able to get the lens in her eye without using stitches (which apparently is a big deal). She only has one stitch which is where they made the incision to put the lens in. That stitch may never have to be removed, so we may be done with all this anesthesia stuff for good!

The bad news about Hannah having to get the injection is that it took MUCH longer for her to come out of anesthesia. We were allowed back into the recovery room at 2:30, and she didn't really wake up until 4:30. The good news about the injection is that the added medication meant that she woke up very peacefully. No thrashing, screaming or fighting. Just some irritation that she had the pulse ox, EKG leads, IV and shield and gauze on her eye. She had some apple juice, a Popsicle and graham crackers and we were on the way home.

It took us 2 hours to get home...nothing like rush hour traffic on a Friday :-(

Once we got home we had some Panera, went to bed, and got up at 6:30 to go downtown to get the gauze removed and have her eye checked.

Hannah in great spirits on the way to have the shield and gauze taken off

The doctor said all looks well, she has 90% vision in that eye. She has some astigmatism which will most likely have to be corrected with glasses. No biggie.

Now on to fight the insurance company!