My 9 year old will be having surgery on Friday at Children's Hospital Boston (Drs Smith and Scott).  Any tips for before or after surgery, what to expect during recovery, etc.  Anything would be helpful.  I'd also like to find out how long it took for your kiddie to return to school.

Thanks!

Everyone is different so I can only tell you about our experience.  My daughter had her surgery when she was 14.  she had it during Christmas break and went right back to school.  I'm not sure that was necessarily a good idea.  She was able to go to all of her classes but she was still very tired.  The one thing about her surgery that shocked me was the swelling.  I was totally unprepared about how much and how fast her face and eye swelled up.  This is very normal but when you aren't prepared it's scary.

I was 22 when I had my surgery. I was able to get back to Full time work after 4 weeks of recovery. My job is in engineering and I also use very fine motor skills. I know work is so much easyer then school. Just let the teachers know he will be extra tiered because of the surgery and may need to take a nap in the nurses office.

I did not have much swelling but that may have been from the EDS part of my surgery since I now have a small but perminate softspot on the side of my head.

Hope this helps,
becky

When my daughter had her surgeries in October 2009, I posted about her experiences on her Caring Bridge site at www.caringbridge.org/visit/rubymaejingli

Her 1st surgery was on 10/5/09, 2nd on 10/15/09, and she returned to school on 10/29/09 so she was essetianally out for the entire month of October.  She also went back to a sub for the remainder of the semester b/c her teacher had a baby while she was out of class.  Her first week back to school she transitioned back with half-days, and then attended full days after that first week back.  She did not participate in P.E. class until after her first surgical follow-up (about a month, I think), and for the rest of the first semester if the class was doing anything where there was a risk that she might receive a blow to her head (e.g. balls being thrown, etc.), she would do something else during P.E.  She recovered quickly (I should mention that her pre-surgical strokes had not left her w/any residual effects, so she was not recovering from those on top of the surgeries) but she did seem to tire more quickly for several months post-surgeries.  The keys to her feeling good after surgery, and through the present, are plenty of rest and staying very well-hydrated.

Your son will be in the best of hands on Friday, and I will keep him in my prayers.

Best regards,

Jennifer