Dressing care
Your child will have a dressing or bandage over the site of the ablation. You can take the dressing off after 24 hours if the site has formed a scab underneath. If the dressing gets wet or dirty, take it off and replace it with a clean adhesive bandage. Your child may also have a bruise at the ablation site, which can take up to 10 days to go away.
Bathing
Your child may shower or take a bath the day after the procedure. However, it is very important to keep the treatment site dry until it has scabbed and healed.
Meals
If your child is feeling well enough after the anaesthetic, they can return to eating what they normally eat. It is also important to encourage your child to drink plenty of fluids for 48 hours after the procedure.
Pain relief
If needed, give your child acetaminophen for pain. Do not give your child any medicines that will thin the blood, such as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) or ibuprofen, without checking with your child's health-care provider first.
Activity
Your child can resume gentle activities one day after the ablation. This can include walking to school. If it hurts too much to do this on the first day, give your child a rest day and try again the following day.
Your child may need to use crutches if your child’s doctor thinks it is necessary. You can ask your child’s doctor if crutches will be needed and for how long after the procedure.
Your child should avoid playing contact sports and high-impact activities for about six weeks. These include but are not limited to:
- contact sports
- gymnastics
- diving/swimming
- bicycle riding
- rollerblading
- hockey
- soccer
- skiing
- horseback riding
Radiation
- Your child's procedure required the use of X-rays.
- Radiation side-effects are extremely unlikely but can occur.
- Please check your child's skin in the area of the procedure for signs of redness or rash two to four weeks from the date of the procedure. Please speak to a nurse in the interventional radiology department if these signs occur.
