How to Help 7Yr Old Deal with Upcoming Surgery and Healing Time Afterwards

there are a lot of good books to help kids through surgery.
GETTING YOUR CHILD READY FOR OUTPATIENT SURGERY by Jerry C. Vaughan (Paperback - Jul 1, 2004)
Will It Hurt? Parent's Practical Guide to Children's Surgery by MD (Dr. Ketch) Armen G. Ketchedjian (Paperback - May 1, 2008)
these are just a couple of choices I found on Amazon.
My son had an undescended testicle fixed and I'm guessing you're talking about something like that. We talked about how he would go to sleep before the surgery and wake up afterwards. I would be there with him when he woke up. He would have a bandage to cover the wound and stitches and he couldn't touch it or scratch it. It would be on his skin a few inches away from his genitals and would heal in a few weeks. It would only hurt for a couple of days and he could have medicine and ice cream and candy and Legos and watch TV while he was healing.
He was very cranky when he woke up from the surgery and wanted to get out of bed and go home. It was kind of funny actually. He had only a little pain and was easily distracted with treats and toys. He went back to school in just a few days. He kept the cute little slipper socks they put on him before the surgery and wore them for weeks - he loved having a souvenir.

take care, S.

Does your hospital have a program where they let kids who are having surgery come in and explore the operating room? I work at a local children's hospital and they have a program every month. The child life specialists are there to help the kids prepare and not be so afraid. I'd ask soon so that you can get him in!

Hi C.,

I have gone through surgery with all but one of my boys. 2 have had to have circs done non-newborn... thats not so fun but amazing how fast they heal. One had a hernia as a youngster and then we have been through the tonsil/adenoid thing with a 3 year old and a 7 year old. My 4 year old is probably going to be having his tonsils/adenoids out sometime in the next 6 months. And then there is the one child who has never needed surgery.. lucky kid! :) Anyway.. Everytime we go through it, it seems that Mom gets just as worked up as the kids do. After the 3rd surgery I learned to hide that very well, it doesn't help the situation at all. If he hasn't been to the pre-op clinic for teaching, I would make an appointment for that, its very helpful and will probably answer alot of his questions. Make sure that you know what kind of pain meds he is going to need after his surgery before hand and even ask the doctor if you can get the prescriptions before so that you don't have to get them filled after and take time away from your son.. That really helped me!! Have a bionicle waiting for him so that he has something to do when he feels well enough to put it together. My friends son just had a circ done and he is 13, (heals slower) he was up and around in 4 days. I think he will be amazed at how fast he heals. Hopefully Mom will be too. The first 2 days are hard, after that it should be smooth sailing! Its hard as a mom to go through this, you just want to fix them and make them all better and take all their pain away.

Good luck

What kind of surgery is this. My son had a testical removed because it was unviable. first surgery was to bring it down but since that didnt work had to go back in to removed it.

My son is much younger (just turned 5 this spring)....But he has had gone under 3 times....That being said when a surgery was done down in the pelvic region (2x) I had the pediatric anesthesiaologist give him a dural block. Reason being it lasts for several hours after surgery. Kind of like the epidural they give you for labor...But different ask them about it. The great thing about it is that it provides pain relief for several hours afterwards without use of narcotics etc.

The last procedure my son went through was harder, but what helped the most was visiting the hospital and reading books about what he could expect. Information is key. Ignorance isn't a great thing. A 7 year old doesn't need a ton of details but needs a general storyline, along with an idea of settings etc.

Most importantly you need to relax, that will help him a TON!!

Hang in there!

My 11 year old daughter had surgery last year. The hospital PCMC in SLC had a class for just that. Very informative, and helped reduce her anxiety. You need to attend something like that.

Look at the library for books about surgery written for his age. I can answer some of his questions just having had surgery myself:
you don't feel pain, but you can feel them touching if you're not totally out. If you feel anything that hurts, tell them right away because they need to adjust meds.
They will wake you up when you need to. Just sleep & relax until they say you have to wake up.
They put the stitches in w/a special teeny tiny needle but it's while you're asleep so you won't feel it.
Where are they going to cut me-that's on you. If you can't answer, tell him you'll write it down so you can ask the doc
He'll be able to play when the doc says he's not going to hurt himself by playing. In the meantime, he gets to spend his time watching movies, coloring, maybe checking out some kid game websites (PBS kids, disney) & being lazy-make a big deal out of cleaning his room for him, maybe that will help.
How many Bionicles-if he's having "a surgery" redone, I'd say that's worth at least 2!
He gets to stay w/auntie right now because you will need MY full attention. Maybe on the next school break (if auntie's close) you can spend the night there all by yourself.
Maybe you could pick out a cool pad of paper to write doc questions on. Take the list in, stay til they're all answered to his satisfaction & hopefully that will help him feel okay about everything.
FYI, there was a 6 year recovering next to my son who was having a newborn surgery (to put it delicately) redone. He was out of the first post-op recovery room sooner than my nasal surgery son. He cried but his main complaint was that everything hurt. They'll keep your baby doped up as much as they safely can so he's in as little pain as possible.
Good luck to your little one! Don't forget to take Motrin for you-it's always worse being in the waiting room. I've done ear tubes & nasal surgery now & I'd rather have been under the knife myself than wait for my boys to be done & the doc to tell me they're okay.

C., my very first suggestion to you would be to talk to the "center" or hospital where your son's surgery is, they usually have a program for children where they can go in a few days before, meet the nurses, see the OR, look at the beds and all of that, most of the time they will also let your child take a favortie confort thing in as well, like a blanket or toy. I hope these suggestions work, good luck to you and your son, also check out the library I know for sure they have childrens books about operations