I have a 12 & 10 year old. I was totally honest with them. My 12 year old seemed ok with it. First thing out of my 10 year olds mouth was no you are fine how you are. Then followed up by you could die. It was really hard helping him get an ok attitude about it. But I'm 7 days post op & doing great now. Days 1-5 were no picnic, hospitalized most of the time due to problems. That was hard on both kids. Just glad to be doing good now. Great to see my kids feel like mommy is ok again.