My son had an op at 23 months under general. I didn't tell him much to be honest, we said we were going to hospital, he played in the playroom while waiting,' took a book he'd selected from some they'd offered him to distract him in the pre-op room and then watched the bubbles they blew as they distracted him to put the anaesthetic mask over his face.
He wasn't talking much at this point but he never asked anything and we found it easier dealing with anything at the time rather than in advance
What's it like when they put the mask on? It's the bit I'm dreading!
It was the bit I struggled with to be honest, Thomas was absolutely fine as he was sitting in his daddy's lap looking at a book, he didn't really notice the mask as they just held it in front of his face and although they warned us he might struggle as the gas took effect he just lolled and fell asleep in his dad's arms.
I was heavily pregnant at the time so my hormones were abit all over the place anyway, but I just managed to hold it together long enough for him to go to sleep. After that I balled my eyes out. He was away from us for about 90mins which wasn't too bad and like I said we were there as he came round in post op care. He recovered really quickly. He'd had a op on his testicle and he was up and abit playing and walking within an hour. It was day surgery so we took him home after he'd passed urine and eaten.
The staff were fab and it was a relief to get it out the way and done, but really it was quite straight forward and he coped with it really well
try not to worry xx
