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post-surgery panic attacks?

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 12/20/2010 2:30 AM (GMT 0)
I had ~11 inches of SB and LB/SB valve removed this past September. Ever since then i have had several panic attacks, two of them were REALLY bad. I went to the Neuro center and they did an EEG, ruling out epilepsy. Has anyone else had panic attacks after surgery?
Posted 12/20/2010 4:58 AM (GMT 0)
Only while I was in the hospital. My anxiety was in high gear from the moment I woke up. It made me more miserable then the surgery itself!. Once I was released, things settled back down.
Posted 12/20/2010 2:00 PM (GMT 0)
I developed anxiety related to my Crohns after my resections. Because my first one was an emergency and then got a infection in my incision afterwards, when I get stressed out now, I need help to control it. i.e. My Xanax.
Posted 12/20/2010 2:42 PM (GMT 0)
Sure did! I didn't have any surgeries, but when I was first diagnosed I spent 8 days in the hospital trying to get my 3 month severe flair under control.

The anxiety and panic didn't hit me until I was home for a week. When it hit, it hit hard. I couldn't breathe, couldn't be still inside myself, entertained every horrible thought there was, felt totally alone in it and basically thought I was going to die.

My doc gave me some Buspar. It didn't do anything. Then she gave me Ativan...which helped immensely.

Once my flair settled down so did the anxiety and panic. Now I'm into meditation and deep breathing. That helps a lot. Exercise helps as well...but I'm not into that so much.

I've never experienced panic and major anxiety up until that point. It was certainly new to me...and I didn't like it one bit!
Posted 12/20/2010 8:49 PM (GMT 0)
I've had problems with anxiety since having a car accident, but after being hospitalized for blood clots, I went home and had a panic attack. I got home and worried because I wasn't being monitored and what if something happened? I am on prozac for anxiety/depression, and also have an rx for klonipin when my anxiety gets worse. A lot of people do have health related anxiety, so you're not alone. And I completely understand why you would have a panic attack after surgery. When you're in the hospital you feel like you're being monitored and taken care of.

My GI has most of her patients on some sort of anxiety or depression medicine because she feels that if your stress level is lowered, you can deal with crohn's a little better. Stress plays such a big part of crohn's. Being on prozac and having klonipin when I need it helps me a lot.

I hope things settle down for you, and the panic attacks stop, because they can be scary.
Posted 12/20/2010 10:11 PM (GMT 0)
When I was on the hospital for my resection I was put on Dilaudid which I took for 3 days until I had a major set of hallucinations and anxiety. They took me off Dilaudid and they all stopped immediately.

Some of these panic attacks may be caused by pain meds, since I don't know what you were taking this may be the case.

The best time to deal with anxiety is when you are not experiencing it ! I exercise on my recumbent stationary bike and gets a lot of the pent up energy out. I had panic attacks when sleeping and they always came when I was "wired up" nervously during the day...they put me on Haldol and that took care of a lot of it. Having Xanax on hand (and even know that you have it when you will need it), did a lot for me...I only took 1 Xanax once a week when I felt that something was going to happen. Its this anticipatory fear that is the genesis of a panic attack.

I meditate on the breath daily and that centers me a lot, that and the bike exercises get my demons out !

Good luck, there is plenty of material available on this situation, check it out !
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