Nervous about my 11 year old’s guided growth surgery and anaesthetic

[OliviaGrace15]

Hi

My daughter age 11 is due to have surgery in 2 days, im so nervous, shes never had a general anaesthetic before.

Shes having guided growth surgery as her legs are an unequal length, they expect it to take between 30 - 60 minutes.

She also has a huge phobia of needles so im hoping they will use the mask for her first.

Just looking for some support / reassurance as im sure plenty of parents have been though it but i just feel so scared at the thought of leaving her and waiting to get her back, any support welcome, thank you so much.

the decision re IV/gas induction is based on which is safest - gas may be perfectly reasonable but I wouldn't promise her that until the anaesthetist has seen her. There are some resources on the RCOA website (rcoa.ac.uk) under the 'for patients' tab - for kids/their parents and for preparing mentally for an operation - they may be worth looking at.

Don't underestimate the power of bribery to help get her through. Is there anything she particularly covets & hasn't got? Now is the time to promise it for getting through this treatment.

Do advocate for her in hospital too & let the staff know she's needle-phobic.
Good luck with everything x

Thank you both

Funnily enough she mentioned today she wants to collect all of the care bears! Great idea, ill let her choose one for being brave 😊

I will advocate for her, if the mask is a no then I know for certain they use numbing cream so I will distract her during it.

Im sure it will all go smoothly, my daughter is currently coping much better than mum and dad 🤣 x

I wonder if it would help to tip off the nurses when she goes in that you'd like to have the anaesthetist talk to her and give her a choice (if possible)? I believe IV comes with a lower risk of nausea and vomiting post-surgery, which can be a real benefit, but our experience with that was some time ago, so things might have advanced or changed since. Is she likely to have an IV for fluids anyway? I thought that was pretty routine for surgery. If she does, they'll just use that, so there won't be a second needle.

Surgical teams are excellent at handling nerves.

Sending good thoughts to you and your DD for a quick recovery. She sounds like a star!

Hi from Australia

I'm not certain what guided growth surgery is exactly, but my DS9 also has uneven leg growth with other complications. He had an osteotomy on his foot in Nov last year, b/c his longer leg had forced that foot/ankle to pronate and basically go a bit wonky.

He's had several GA's. Your daughter is a little older at 11 but I imagine the procedure will be similar, but it will depend.

For my boy, they gave him a pre-med as a drink. It took several minutes to kick in and I won't lie, he did freak out a bit in those few minutes. Then he went all loose and sleepy (and said hilarious things) and then we went into the surgical theatre. At that point, a mask was put over his face and he went properly under.

At all times an anaesthetist was with us. In a sense his GA's were easier when he was younger. He had one at age 4 where the anaesthetist just scooped him up onto the surgical bed, clamped a mask on his face and said "This smells like new lego!" and he was out in 6 seconds.

Sorry for babbling. My advice is to really make use of the anaesthetist. Have a list of questions ready for them. And also, in all the GA's my son has had no needles were used at all, until he was properly under.

All the best X