Baby having operation on Monday - any tips for hospital?

[Marmitecatbean]

Hi, my 6mo is having major surgery on Monday followed by a week long stay ventilated on PICU. Does anyone have any tips/advice for getting through the surgery and wait? We've been in hospital and PICU before with her but this is her first operation and just very scary. Thank you so much!

We took ourselves away from the hospital during the day our DS had heart surgery. We knew it would take most of the day so we made sure we were distracted. This was PICU in Southampton so we knew we'd be able to get to the city centre for a mooch and lunch easily.

Sorry to hear this, I know how stressful this can be. As a PP said, make sure you have something to distract you during the surgery - I made the mistake of waiting in the canteen, then surgery took longer than expected, so I spent 4 hours stressing.

We were allowed to go down to theatre (the room outside anyway) with DC, so it might be worth considering if this is something you want to do or not.

Depending on the hospital rules, stock up on snacks so you can maximise your time with DC when back from surgery - I hated having to leave mine, even if just to go to the toilet.

Hope the surgery goes well.