Preparing Your Child for Surgery Ages 3 and Older

When you arrive in Same Day Surgery, you and your family will check in at the front desk. Next, a staff person will take you and your family to a room where you will wait for your surgery and meet different nurses and doctors that will be taking care of you. 

A staff person will check your vital signs by measuring your height and weight, temperature, and blood pressure.

This is called a pulse oximeter. It is a tiny red light that goes around your finger or toe. It tells the nurse how well you are breathing.

Many staff people will listen to your heart.  

A nurse will give you a bracelet with your name on it to put around your wrist or ankle. Then you will change into a hospital gown and socks.

A nurse will talk with you and your family and ask lots of questions. There are toys you can play with while you are waiting.

You will meet the doctor who will be doing your surgery. They will talk with you and your family about what they will do while you are sleeping during your surgery.

You will also meet another doctor, called an anesthesiologist, who will give you medicine, so you are sleeping and comfortable during your surgery. You may hear a lot of people call this medicine “sleepy air”.

You will get this medicine by taking deep breaths through a green mask. You get to choose what your sleepy air smells like!

You may also meet a child life specialist. They can help you learn more about surgery and help you feel comfortable. You can look at the sleepy mask and pick a smell for your mask. 

On your way to the surgery room 

Nurses will help you go to the surgery room. These nurses are usually dressed in special hospital clothes that help keep the surgery room clean. Some children walk to the surgery room and some ride on a bed on wheels. Sometimes, you may hear people call the surgery room the operating room or “OR”. 

Before you go to the surgery room, you can give your family a big hug. You can bring a stuffed animal or blanket with you to the surgery room. 

Your family will go to the waiting room during your surgery and will wait there until you are done.

This is the surgery room. You might see big circle lights on the ceiling that help the doctor see better. You might also see cabinets with a lot of supplies. Not everything in the room is for you. 

Your nurses will help you get comfortable on the bed.

This is the machine that the anesthesiologist uses to help you sleep during your surgery. 

This is a storage cabinet. There are many supplies in these cabinets because a lot of children come for surgery here.

You will lay down on a bed that looks like this. 

The nurses will put three small stickers on your chest. These stickers help the doctors and nurses know how your body is doing during your surgery. These stickers do not hurt.

The anesthesiologist will have your mask with the smell you picked out. They will place the mask over your nose and mouth and have you take big, deep breaths.  The air you breath in will help your body fall asleep so you are sleeping and comfortable during your surgery. During surgery, you won’t hear anything, see anything, or feel anything. 

The anesthesiologist will stay with you the whole time and will make sure you are asleep while you have your surgery. When your surgery is done, the anesthesiologist will stop giving you the sleepy medicine. 

After surgery 

After your surgery is done, you will wake up in a room called the recovery room. A nurse will be there when you wake up. You may get to eat and drink after you wake up. Make sure to tell the nurse how you are feeling. 

You might see an IV on your hand or arm when you wake up. An IV is a tiny straw that helps your body get drinks of water or medicine while you are asleep during surgery and after you wake up. If you have an IV, they will take it out before you go home.

Next, you and your family will all go to a different room for you to rest. You might go home later that day, or you may need to stay at the hospital for a while. 

This is what the rooms look like if you need to spend the night in the hospital. 

Please make sure to ask any questions you have about coming to Children’s Mercy for surgery!