Child going under general anesthesia - what to expect?

As you know, I'm kidless but wanted to wish you and your daughter well and that everything and recovery goes smoothly.

I grew up a lot in hospitals and with a lot of procedures. Generally they will not sedate your child before they put an IV in, but they do shoot up sedation into the IV right before they wheel the patient into the OR, where she will be intubated and have further anesthesia for the procedure.

EDIT: given that it's oral surgery, my guess is that she won't be given complete general anesthesia (which usually involves intubation), but a powerful, short-acting anesthesia instead. Anyway, she really won't remember anything, probably not even being put out.

My friend's daughter went in for brain surgery about a month ago.  I know from her, they did not use anything before putting the IV in, but as Yanti said, right before they wheeled her in they sedated her.  

When she came out of surgery (they put a shunt in), she slept for a few hours, but was ready to get up and moving really soon.  Unfortunately they didn't want her to move for awhile to make sure that everything was ok.  By the next morning she was running around the room and playing and singing, etc.  

Lots of positive thoughts to you and your daughter!!!  

Two of my kids have gone under and it's scary.  Not because of the procedure but just because of the worries of a parent.  Ours were 5 & 3 when they went under.

Our experience: the staff was great (as I'm sure yours will be) at diverting their attention away from what was about to go on, so anxiety for our kids was low.  they gave them "loopy juice" to kind of get them started.  It was some sort of oral general anesthesia, but basically it makes them act like a drunk teenager.  That's kind of funny and if you can have fun with it, it really helps to lighten the mood.  Laughter is a pretty good healer.  Anyway, the staff and the anesthesiologist had the answer to every question under the sun that we could ask, so I have no doubts yours will too.  After they woke up it was different for each kid.  We gave them the whole day to feel better and by the next day they were fine.  But we let them sleep and watch cartoons and movies as much as they wanted all day that day.  I'm sure your surgery is in the morning like ours were, and our kids it had pretty much worn off around noon.

Good luck with it.  I wish you the best.  I'm sure everything will turn out marvelously!

I'm sorry to hear that she'll have to experience this, but here's to hoping all goes well.

My eldest son had a procedure done, when he was around 6 or 7 and had to go under anesthesia.  As a parent, I was extremely concerned, just because.  I've never experienced anything like that and was worried, big time.  However, the doctor and staff were super-great and did explain possible things that could happen.

  My son did happen to have an "episode" in the recovery room (as was informed to us) where he looked like and acted like he was awake, but wasn't - he was more in a sleep-walking state having a nightmare and was screaming about how much the procedure hurt, quite a bit.  All my wife and I could do was hold him, hug him, and talk with him calmly, rub his head, and hold back our tears and other emotions to comfort him.  Within a few minutes, he was back asleep.  When he truly woke up, he didn't remember anything about the "episode".

Just letting you know that some kids may experience something while slowly waking up out of anesthesia.  Be calm, but keep a close eye for anything that may be out of the ordinary and call for assistance.

As a parent it is always a traumatic experience when one of our children undergo any procedure which requires anesthesia. My now 14 year old underwent her first when she was 11 if I recall correctly. It was a very disturbing event to say the least. However, my last year in service (2008-9) I underwent 9 major surgeries and can honestly say that I learned that anesthesia is not as scary an issue as many think.

The procedure will be more taxing on you than your child. Everything will be fine. A little grogginess during recover but the resilience of children truly amazes me. I have seen a lot of things that tend to have more effect on an adult than the child. Rest assured that all will be fine, you will worry more than required, even if we offer the best advice here. God speed and take a breath! All is well.

...or they could do nasotracheal intubation (through the nose...) I've seen this with oral surgeries I've watched.

Not to make light of a serious thread, and wonderful guidance and advice, but at 30 years old I am not reasonable when I am told I need an IV.  You can watch my BP spike when the word comes up...just saying...

My daughter is also SPD, the first time she went in for an IV it was just painful to watch her.  Same thing though, through the process of time, she is used to them and only takes her a few seconds to get over it.  

Lots of great info here already.  I do procedures on sedated/anesthetized kids so I've seen quite a few go through this, and it is very safe.  Is she having it done at a Children's hospital or is it mostly for adults?  

Depending on the medication she may be loopy afterwards, and may not remember much.  My son was so afraid of what he was going to say while he was under (wisdom teeth extraction)!  I will never tell...

If I can offer only one piece of advice it is to follow the guidelines about when she has to stop eating and drinking!!!  If they don't give you any, ASK.  If she has had anything to eat or drink within the specified period before they will cancel the surgery and that's no fun for anyone.  

Good luck- it's always a scary thing but I'm sure she will do great.

Thank you so much for all of the stories and advice - I feel better already!  It is not a children's hospital - in fact it is not even our local hospital it is about an hour away.  I guess that is the hospital where he has privileges so we can't use our local hospital which is about 2 miles down the road! 

The regular dentist called me yesterday to check in and it turns out she was the one to recommend doing the procedure in the hospital setting and using the general anesthesia instead of the twilight.  She said she thinks it is easier on the kids especially if it turns out there are any complications once they get into her mouth.  The dentist also said that when she brings kids to the hospital she has seen them get a mask that puts them to sleep first then the needle so that would be great if it works out.

Luckily I am more nervous than she is - she said she is worried but is just glad she will be asleep and won't remember a thing.  I did tell her I was going to make a video like the David After the Dentist video and she was not amused!

Both my kids had a general to have their tonsils out.  Overall, both went well, and there were no issues.  Lots of good things to think about above.  I will say that perhaps you should prepare yourself for what your child might look like when out.  In my younger one's case, we were allowed back to see her before she came around.  Seeing her like that, very much out, eyes slightly open, but unfocused, etc. was very difficult for me.  She looked, for lack of a better word, dead.  I knew she wasn't, and was ok, but it was a hard sight for me.  Just something to think about so its not overly shocking to you. 

Good luck, and I hope everything goes smoothly.

Thanks again.  She has gone through a few things that make me think she'll be OK if she has to have an IV first.  When she was about 4 she had an ear/nose/throat guy stick some super long tube with the light on the end of it so far up her nose that I could see it shine through her forehead.  When that didn't show anything she had to have an MRI of her brain where they gave her a small needle for the dye I guess.  (she can't smell and they were trying to figure out why - never did!) 

Thanks also for the advice about motion sickness - she does have that so I will mention it to the doctor.

I was put under to get my wisdom teeth removed, I don't know a lot of the details but I do remember the following.

They put a mask on me first with laughing gas in it, I asked the nurse why she was doing that as I was told I was going all the way under, they told me it was so I wouldn't be nervous about the IV going in. So by the time they got the needle out I was already kinda loopy. The doc asked me if I could make a fist, I remember thinking "duh, who can't do that" I made one, he stuck me and that was it until I woke up next to my mom in the recovery room.

I don't remember a lot about the drive home but by the time we got home I was pretty coherent. No issues other than the ridiculous pain of having holes in my jaw bone.

We're back!  Thank you all again for all of your advice - it was nice to have an idea what to expect.  It wasn't the best experience, but it wasn't the worst either.  We had to get up at 4:45am because we had to be at the hospital (45 minutes away instead of the one 2 miles away) at 6am.  It took a while to register then we went back to the area where they do the IV. 

The anesthesiologist came in and was very nice, but she couldn't find the vein!  She tried in my daughter's left hand and did poke her a few times.  My daughter was crying (not a ton, but crying) which made my husband and I tear up but we tried not to let her see.  The doctor felt so bad she kept apologizing.  They finally called over another doctor who I guess was better at IVs and after much slapping and prodding they never did get a vein.  The nurse (I'm not sure of her title - she was like an advocate - just there to stay with my daughter, hold her hand, etc - she was great) suggested they do the gas first and IV later.  That was fine with my daughter who was now pretty stressed out. 

Our surgeon came and went over everything with us and then they rolled her off to the OR while we went to the waiting room.  Our Dr. said it would be about an hour and a half, but he was back in just an hour saying everything went well.  We went to recovery to find a semi-awake grumpy girl.  She was a bit nauseous and had a sore throat from the tube.  It took about an hour until she was ready to go home.

We were home by 11am and she has been resting on the couch in the play room ever since.  She feels OK, her mouth is still numb though so we will see what happens when that wears off.  I'm trying to get her to sip water and eat some sherbert to soothe her throat but she has only had a tiny bit.

So thank you again for all of your help!

Glad it's over for you all.  Hope everything is well.