SWEET JESUS MY ARM IS BROKEN

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 on Friday morning. The lobby was already full of people having surgery that day. We were at the Texas Orthopedic hospital. It is owned by the doctors who work there. I think that is a good thing. We didn't have to wait long before we were shuffled back into the pre-surgery room.

Savy was tagged with her arm bracelets and the "sleep doctor" came to meet us. She was a girl doctor, can't remember her name, but she has a 13 year old at home and she was great about helping Savy stay calm. It was our hope that they would not give her an iv until she was asleep, but as her anxiety rose, so did the need for a pre-surgery "cocktail." The insertion did not hurt her at all an within two minutes she had stopped the tears, and was smiley and giggly.

The first picture shows where Dr Gugenheim autographed her arm and wrote a big "yes" so he didn't accidently operate on the other arm. Jeesh.

So I sat in the waiting room, with no cell phone (I left my charger in Phoenix) completely cut off from civilization. Excpet for all the others in the waiting room. I did meet a really nice family from Austin who had a little boy that was getting surgery with Dr Gugenheim, right after Savy. I love Texas accents.


Two and a half hours later, Savy was in her room. We were lucky to have a private room. I guess old people who are in for hip replacement surgery don't like whiney kids in the same room. Good for us! They had her all set up with a pain pump that only she was allowed to push. It gave her dilauded whenver she wanted it. She could push the button all she wanted, and believe me, she was pushing it every four minutes for the first couple of hours. When the machine dispensed the meds, it sounded like a little old man snoring.


Nurses are an interesting bunch. Some are incredibly nice, kind, understanding and giving. Some apparently hate humankind. Night nurses appear to uniformly fall into the latter group. Aside from coming into your room the minute you've managed to fall asleep to take your blood pressure or temperature, nothing else seems to really warrant a trip to your room. God forbid should you ask any old nurse at the nurses station for help. You must call YOUR nurse, it's not my job.

A very kind nurse did bring Savy two popsicles which she ate right away. They also hustled her in a lunch tray of a chicken sandwich and pecan pie. Gross.

And here is the fixator, in all its glory: