Sabrina's Surgery

Sabrina tore her ACL and partial tear on her meniscus in her left knee.  It happened while at soccer practice colliding with another player on November 1st.  It swelled up pretty good, but she has had many injuries so we figured it would go down.  It never did, and thus began the two month diagnosis process.  Went to the primary doctor, got xrays, saw the orthopedist.  Initial diagnosis...a knee sprain - go home, ice it, etc.  It started to feel better but then would give out randomly.  Went back to the orthopedist, decided she needed an MRI, which of course needs "insurance approval".  Had to wait 2 weeks for the approval.  Finally get the MRI and confirmed that she had the torn ACL.  We asked around for a good sports surgeon, found a great one in Fresno.  After a lot of jumping through hoops we had an appointment with the surgeon.  He saw her, reviewed the MRI, and confirmed the initial diagnosis.  Due to the Christmas holidays and Sabrina taking a trip to Texas we couldn't schedule the surgery until January 10th.
So surgery day came...we had to take her to Clovis Community Hospital by 5:15am that morning.  Here she is right before they wheeled her away.  Notice...she's happy and smiling :)

The surgery itself only took about 30 minutes but she was in recovery for about 1 hour after that until we could see her.  Shortly after the surgery was completed her Dr. (Simonian) met us to tell us how it went.  Below is the pictures of before and after.  Top left picture is the meniscus that he was able to repair.  You can see the blue and while sewn area.  The top right is her torn ACL and the bottom two pictures is the new ACL.

Here she is right after we were able to see her.  She could not keep her eyes open :)

Her leg was HUGE...so swollen!

She slept the whole car ride home and most of the day.

A couple days later, still in a good amount of pain but able to stay awake. 

She was not able to put any weight on it for the whole week.  Crutches anytime she had to go anywhere.  That got old really quick for her but she did a good job and mostly had a good attitude.  So thankful that my mom came home with me from Christmas break to help "babysit" Sabrina.  I think we were all happy when her week of immobility was over :)

One week later on January 17th we went back to the doctor for a follow up and to have the stitches and bandages removed.  She wears her brace night and day but can now walk on her leg without crutches.

 

Her Doctor/Surgeon was amazing.  He was kind and personable but so intelligent and skilled.  I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for him that he could help Sabrina to have a normal / pain free life again.  She is doing great.  Her only complaint is that she has lost about 20 lbs. of muscle weight which she will have to work really hard to get back.  She is doing physical therapy twice a week and should be able to have the brace removed in March at her 6 week check-up.