Bonnie, my SWCAH daughter had her surgery 4 years ago this month and I’m so happy we made the decision for her. She will be 5 in May and already knows there is slight difference in the way she looks in comparison to her 3 year old sister. But, like I said it is a slight difference and not the way it was, which was fairly obvious. We tell her that everyone is different, just like she has brown hair and brown eyes and her sister has blonde hair and blue eyes. She was only 11 months when she had the surgery and it only required less than 24 hrs. in the hospital. She was back to playing and never even seemed bothered by it after we got her home. The first day she was pretty out of it and I spent the entire time holding her. It’s sad to see them like that but she has absolutely zero memory of it and it was much harder on me than her! She has not had any negative effects from the surgery. (She has more scarring from 2 central lines she received when she was 6 weeks old than she does from the surgery!) She will possibly require more surgery before puberty but we’ll cross that bridge then. Your family will be in our thoughts and prayers.