“How can I prepare my child for anesthesia?”

Hello,

Do not lie to him. Tell him as simply as you can. Ask the anesthesiologist to talk to him. Kids sometimes are better to deal with than grown adults.

There is no single answer and has a lot to do with your child and their maturity level. Is it their first surgery? Have they had surgery and had a bad experience? The anesthesiologist is going to put your child under "anesthesia" though many say asleep. Why I do not like sleep is that we sleep every night and anesthesia is nothing like sleep. Some people have wondered if they are asleep, won't they wake up during surgery? Again, anesthesia is a state of unconsciousness. It is like "sleep" in that you close your eyes and the next thing you know you are waking up. As in sleep, unless you are awakened, you are unaware of what is happening around you. People can relate to falling asleep and it is likely why it is said to patients, and if I use the term sleep, I assure the patient that they will know nothing until I wake them up. The patient should be unaware of anything happening to them while under anesthesia and once you "wake up" you will start to feel what there is to feel as a result of surgery. Pain should typically be mild to moderate because the anesthesiologist provides intravenous opiates (pain medicine in the IV) during surgery. Once the patient is "awake" (could be sleepy from the opiates used during surgery or sedatives used before surgery) they typically begin to feel some degree of discomfort and it is treated with additional pain medicine. Some patients will also be nauseated and thus many if not most patients (all of mine) will receive medication for nausea prevention. Some patients will have a "sore" throat because of breathing tubes or other airway devices. This feeling in the throat is typically not very significant, at least from personal experience and the experience of my patients. In any event, the simple answer is, it is like falling asleep. You close your eyes and the next thing you know, you are waking up and everything is done. Hope this helps.

No preparation necessary

Honesty about what to expect. Your child will be anesthetized before anything happens, i.e., IV, breathing tube, etc., so nothing will hurt up front. Ask about pain control methods also because if the child wakes up in pain, it will be more stressful.

Usually the surgeon will coordinate with the anesthesiologist to have a pre-surgical meeting where they will go over your child's medical history and perform a brief examination. At this point they will also answer any questions you have, or your child may have concerning the anesthesia, its side effects, and what you and the child can expect. Most kids do quite well with general anesthesia, and due to the medication utilized have little memory of the actual anesthesia itself. Most people may experience being tired post the anesthesia, feeling of cold of shivering briefly, and some experience nausea. Typically most patients do quite well.