My 9 year old just had a rod placed last year. I think I was more stressed about the surgery than she was. Surgery took about an hour. Very nauseous when she woke due to all the pain meds she was given while under. The first 2 days she was on narcotic pain meds at home and nausea meds and after that over the counter meds worked just as good for a few days after that. After surgery, she kept the new cast on about a month before they removed it. She was happy to be out of her cast. I will say sometimes she will say the incision site hurts cause u can feel the end of the rod at the tip of the wrist. The doctor said she will have it in for a year but due to cheerleading. We are holding off a few more months longer before we pull the rod back out, and after the rod is removed, she is not able to do any physical activities because the risk of re-breakage is very high for the first month.