I've had several different kinds of surgery while on Daily Narcotics.

I had several large kidney stones removed a few years ago and at the time I was on Oxycontin LA and Percs for BT pain. We did a 3 week wean down on the narcotics to get them as low as possible so that after surgery they would be able to control the post op pain.

I also had to have Stints in after they removed the stones and those were in for 9 days and then removed.

Normally for surgery while on narcotics if they have the time the try to get you down to as low a point as possible so that they can control your post op pain with narcotics. If you go into surgery as is, with not slow down period, controlling your post op pain will be a nightmare because your already on a hefty dose of narcotics and they can only go to a certain level.

Once your Dr. gives you a date for the Surgery, they should then work with your PM Dr. to get you on a schedule to get you down to a very low level of narcotics before the surgery.

Take care,

Kat

I don't have any answers for but I wanted to give support and say thoughts go out to you, and to keep helpful on the outlook, talk to your doctor or goggle your urologist to see if you can get a feel for what kind of doctor your dealing with. as every doctor has different thoughts on pain control now sadly and I would think most in PM have a contract and I know you work closely with you PM to stay on it. be sure to talk to his office to get your answers per his office

I wish you the vary best of luck and pain control
please keep us posted when your feeling up to it
I hope you sleep well tonight try not to over think it I know that's hard.

I hope in the morning things are looking brighter
tori

Hi sweetheart!,

I can tell you that everything will work out just fine. I have had surgery for my shunt and vessel in my brain while on opioid therapy. I told my surgeon all about it beforehand and she got pain management to consult on my care while in the hospital so that they made sure the medication post op would be strong enough to cover my pain. I never had to stop or wean before the surgery....they simply ordered the equivalent to what I was taking and added more to cover the acute pain. It was taken care of easily. Pain management in the hospital setting should handle your pain anyway since you are a chronic pain patient. No worries hun...just ask that they be involved in your care post operatively. It should not be a problem at all.

Hi!!!
I had 5 surgeries while on pain meds. Like Kat said - wean down is good and it will be OK. The last surgery - first two weeks were AWFUL because I didn't want to go back to Percocet and just had 6 tramadol a a day instead of 1 ( baseline).. After two weeks the surgical pain subsides and you will be feeling better.
Good luck and I hope you feel better soon!!

Hi Jen. You can get through your needle phobia by telling yourself "needle, kidney pain, needle, kidney pain..." whichever is worse, go for the other one. The needle will stave off another episode like you just went through. Maybe the needle won't be so bad. Close your eyes and sing a song to yourself, and before you know it, it's all done.

And I wish you luck and a speedy recovery dear. You've gone through enough misery for ten people. It's about time it was over with.

Just let the doc tell you what to do, and go with the flow.

Gentle hugs.

I recently heard of someone with large kidney stones having an in/out procedure where they basically crushed the stones to be passed later.I would think your pain specialist and the anthesilogist would be informed on what to or not to give you during whatever procedure they have in mind.

hi, im sorry you are going thru this...i had my gall bladder out while on heavy narcotics...i was told to take my meds as prescribed and all worked out just fine...i hope the kidney removal is done swiftly and i hope you heal quickly

The service men in my hubbies hospital have undergone surgeries while maintaining same level of opioids. Some as many as 4+ in a 30 day period for reconstruction. Every discipline is aware and it works well. Every doc has their own philosophy.

Good Luck,
Joanne

I have had numerous procedures that all required sedation and the fact that I take both Dilaudid & Xanax XR the day of the procedures (and after) were never a concern. As along as all the medical staff is aware of the meds taken before I arrived, there was never an issue or even a question other than to verify what/when I took them. They were always more concerned by antiflammories and any OTC meds, which most wanted stopped.

Thank you all. I can not imagine lowering my pain meds to get ready for surgery when all they have to do is give me a stronger med (after consulting my pain doc) instead. I'm in MI and our winters are harsh. For an RSD patient who has been on the same dose for 16 years, I have too many winter flare ups to worry about lowering the dose. I've refused to take stronger meds b/c these worked for years at a level I can tolerate, but lowering it wouldn't be my 1st choice.

In any surgery I've had done since I was diagnosed and on these meds has been fine. My old pain doc just told me to take my meds as prescribed and always talked to the doc who was doing the surgery. Now we'll see how my new pain doc of several years deals with it. Hopefully he can understand that it's just a matter of adding a few mg's of something or maybe a stronger drug right after, but sometimes I think they make it harder than it has to be. I really am shocked that patients would prepare for surgery by cutting their pain meds! How would the docs know what they tolerated? Sounds barbaric. But then, I have RSD and that is a 24/7, 356/year severe pain disease.

Oddly, the pain since I passed the last 2 stones is a dull one (I'm not PASSING any to my knowledge) on my left side in front and a burning in my lower back. It's not so bad it keeps me up but I sure notice it. Maybe my ureter on that side got torn up badly with that big stone, especially with all those sharp edges. I wanted to keep it for a souvenir as I'd never seen a stone that big and it's the worst one I ever had, but it needed to be analyzed.

I guess I'll find out in a week as I see the urologist and find out what was making those stones. What amazed me was how different they were! One was light colored with very obvious sharp peaks like crystals, and one was completely round like a BB but bigger. All my stones before that were so tiny that they were like grains of sand. This was a huge wake-up call.

I'm going to look up the urologist and assess her well when I see her. If I sense any problems with my RSD, I will find another urologist. I just pray I can get through this all w/o going through it AGAIN with another stone. Those pains on my left side could mean that, too. Hopefully not- it's just TOO much right now. I'm already having an RSD flare- no room for a stone! ;)

I guess my question would be, if you've had surgery since you've been on Narcotics and you know what the procedure is, why even ask the question.

For some reason I thought you were on a large dose of narcotics/opioids and in that case they do generally wean you down because they can't go much higher on your pain meds post op or they run into a problem with your respiratory system (breathing). If your not on too high of a dose and you've done this before with surgery they you'll probably have the same outcome as before. Just make sure to mention it to your PM Dr. so that there aware that you'll be getting narcotics from another Dr.

Good luck I hope the surgery goes well and you get this Kidney Stone problem under control. I know when I had mine and they were constantly recurring they were Calcium Oxalate Stones, and when I adjusted my diet to stop eating/drinking the things that caused them things got better. I've got a few left but they don't cause any trouble so we leave them alone.

Hopefully everything settles down so you can enjoy your holidays.

Kat