The morning of February 6^th arrived and we packed Maia up with her bed, a toy, some food, a Frosty Paw Ice cream, and some snacks as she would be staying the night after surgery and off we went. I admittedly was a nervous wreck that morning and didn’t sleep much the night before. If there was ever a time for a grown man to cry, this was the day. And I’m not ashamed to admit that cry I did, as I was scared and nervous for Maia. The hospital has a web cam in the OR (operating room) so you can view the surgery if you elect to. You don’t see anything gory at all and it’s more of a bird’s eye view of the OR so you can watch the procedure and generally see what’s going on. At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to watch but I decided it was better for me to know what was going on rather than just sitting around a nervous wreck waiting for a phone call. We were advised by the staff that we would receive an email shortly before the surgery with login information, then a phone call when the surgery was about to start.

We received the call later that morning and then logged in. Maia was already under general anesthesia, covered with blankets, and hooked up to a breathing machine and all we could see were her back legs. The OR itself looked like what you’d see at a human surgery, machines and lights everywhere, staff in full surgical attire, etc. It was actually quite comforting for me to see so many people involved in the surgery and looking after Maia. I sat glued to the screen, both sobbing and silently praying that everything would go okay. I may have been overreacting a bit, but I’m good at that.

After around 3 hours of surgery it was over. Maia was wheeled out of the OR and at least I had the confidence of knowing what was going on rather than just sitting around and waiting for a call. I joked to myself that since I didn’t see anyone running around the operating room or giving Maia CPR, I knew she made it through the surgery okay!

My phone rang shortly after the surgery concluded and it was Dr. Lirtzman, he explained that I would receive another call when Maia was awake, but he wanted to give me an update on the surgery itself. He stated everything went well and as planned, he said that he was happy with the geometry of the surgically repaired knee and that there were no complications with the surgery itself. The doctor did state it was obvious from the wear and tear on her knee cartilage that this was an older injury (think back to May 30^th, 2017). He stated she is nearly bone on bone on her knee joint, but hopefully the leveling of the tibia would put the knee back on good cartilage. She was also given an injection of hyaluronic acid post-op that would hopefully help her knee joint.  I will probably see about getting Maia those injections every several months or so if it seems her knee is bothering her.

About an hour after I spoke with the doctor I received a call stating that Maia was awake and resting comfortably under some nice warm blankets. The kind staff even texted me a picture of Maia after she woke up. I was so happy Maia did well in surgery!