Will my two surgeries cause lupus flares?

I am having a surgery on my bladder on the 15th of March and again on the 29th of March. The surgery is called interstim. It is a device that is put just under the skin. Like a pacemaker for the bladder. There is a trial period to see if the device will work for me and if it does, the urologist will do the final surgery on the 29th of March. I found out the beginning of January that I didn't have any kind of blockage around my bladder(I'm female). I also found out that I'm using my abdominal muscles to pee. She told me the bladder is like a rubber balloon. She told me mine is like a plastic bag and no longer works. The device should help by sending messages to my brain that aren't getting there now. The device works for 70 percent of people. I'm hoping it will work for me. I get up four to five time a night. And am going about every hour and a ha l f to every two hours during the day. Right now I'm lucky because my problem is forcing myself to pee, rather than peeing without realizing it. So anyway do you think these surgeries will cause flares. I'm told that I'm awake during the first surgery so the doctor can ask me questions as to where I feel the vibrations from the device. I'm not sure if I'm awake for the second surgery. Each surgery takes an hour. And yes I am very nervous about the surgery because the implant wire will be put close to the bottom of my spine, if I understood the urologist correctly. So I see the urologist a week before the first surgery. Should I tell her my concerns? At the time this surgery was first given to me as an option I didn't have a definite diagnoses of lupus. That came from the rheumatologist the middle of this month. All this is brand new to me. What can I do to avoid a flare. Last year I was hospitalized three time for flares. I had three major infections and my ammuine system was going crazy. The doctors didn't know it was lupus then, but two of the flares quickly turned into bacterial infections in my blood. I was pretty sick. The first one turned sepsis and shut down my kidneys, (i found out last July I have stage 3 kidney disease and my kidneys are working at about 50 per cent) affected my heart. Bottomed out my blood pressure. The third one was when I was under an extreme amount of stress. Family visiting while we were replacing floors. I got sick from that and my blood pressure kept bottoming out. I ended up in the ER and then a four day stay in the hospital. I was severely dehydrated, couldn't stop throwing up and when I'm stressed I don't eat, so I hadn't eaten anything in about three days. I can easily see myself stressing out over these two surgeries. I hate the thought of having to be awake during the surgeries. Is it alright to ask the surgeon about getting something for the anxiety so I can sleep the night before and be calm the day of the surgery? I don't know if I have to be awake during the second surgery. I will ask her when I go in to see her a week before the first surgery. I just know myself. I want this surgery. I want it to work. But I'm nervous as h:'ll about it. I don't want another flare. So any advice you guys have for me is so welcome. Thank You.

Hi Dustmite. I've never been able to cope with all the changes Lupus has caused me so I've been seeing a psychiatrist for 12 years. I take antidepressants, anti-anxiety, and a sleep aid. He's had to place me on many different meds over the years.

I've had three minor surgeries, two major surgeries, and 13 endoscopies. I've also been hospitalized for sepsis and pneumonia (led to a coma and long term care) but neither were related to Lupus flares.

I mention my psychiatrist because my surgeons let me stay on all my psych meds, but by two weeks prior to my major surgeries I had been tapered off my Cellcept and prednisone Lupus meds. I know I resumed them after surgeries but can't remember how many days I had to wait. I'm sure I flared afterwards but I felt so awful from surgery I didn't care. The flares and lack of immunosuppressants didn't cause me to get an infection. At some point my body stopped producing IgG that is necessary to fight infection but I still didn't get post operative infections.

One last note, during two minor surgeries I was awake and they let me listen to music on headphones or my IPod. Anyway like Lynnwood said stress is a killer that must be avoided. I wish I didn't have to take meds to relieve my stress. You can ask your primary care for an anti-anxiety med to help you thru this if you feel too stressed Dustmite. Just tell your surgeon all the meds you are taking. Venting to us helps too Love, Butterflake