Bilaterals!

January 9th was a momentous day. Our little sweetie received her second cochlear implant. Her surgery took place at the University of Utah. Dr Shelton performed it once again. My mom and dad were in attendance along with Gracen this time around. It has been almost 6 years since her first implant. It was such a wonderful day, although emotions were tough too work through, we were so excited/nervous/ecstatic for this big day. The decision to get another implant wasn't an easy one for us to make. Hence the 6 year gap. Savanah was such a brave little girl, for being 8 years old, this little girl of ours never once shed a tear, stated she was nervous, nothing. She was one brave chick. She sure is something else!

The surgery process began at 9 AM that morning. We arrived at the hospital and began the registration process. We were shown to the surgical center and shortly after arriving there, we were all taken back to have Savanah begin to prep for surgery. The anethesiologist came into the room and spent a lot of time with her. She explained everything that was going to happen and put in an IV. She was absolutely wonderful, she definitely put everyone's minds at ease. Savanah was taken back to surgery shortly after, she was all grins and giggles. . . The surgery was about 2 1/2 hours. Dr. Shelton called the front desk and told us everything went exceptionally well. The implant was placed perfectly and there were no complications with placing the electrodes. We were relieved. We were taken back to see her in recovery about 10 minutes later. She was very groggy and started having a little unexpected time breathing. After a few breathing treatments, she started coming around. We spend the remaining of the afternoon and some part of the evening in the surgical recovery room. She was able to eat and drink, keep things down and get her pain under control. All the while, still with a smile.

We arrived home from SLC that night around 8 PM. It had been a long, very eventful day! Savanah was exhausted as all of us were. It was crash time. She spent the next 4 days recovering well. We removed the bandage the next day and were pleasantly surprised to find a smaller incision and not quite so much hair shaved this time. Her pain was under control the whole time and Savanah only complained of a few headaches. She returned to school 5 days later. She had many friends looking out for her, bringing her several little surprises and treats. Looking back on this decision, it was definitely the second best one to the first one!