Can't help ya on that one. Only surgery's I have had have only really been procedures. And one was while I was pregnant so it was fine, as MS gives you a break while pregnant.

The other, was an ECRP where they go down your throat. I did have a relapse after that, but to be fair, I was in the hospital for 5 days with a pancreatic attack... and no eating for 5 days and little eating for 2 weeks, lots of pain and so on, so I am sure all that contributed more so that the procedure.

Best of luck on your surgery.

I have never had sones but would be tempted to say I'd try treating with magnesium before doing the surgery. I think I'd postpone surgery and try Carolyn Dean, MD, ND's prescriptio of 300 mg 2x daily, 800 mg calcium and 50-100 mg B6 daily. I love her book "The Miracle of Magnesium." Her page on this says:

"On a regular basis, drink six to eight glasses of water a day; increase intake of green vegetables and fiber (vegetarians have a 40-60 percent decreased risk of stone formation) and foods high in magnesium, such as seeds, vegetables, and whole grains; and decrease consumption of sugar, alcohol, coffee, and meat.

For uric acid kidney stones, decrease consumption of high-purine foods such as alcohol, anchovies, herring, lentils, meat, mushroms, organ meats, sardines, seafood, meats, and shellfish. For oxalate stones, decrease consumption of foods high in oxalic acid; red beet tops, black tea, cocoa, cranberry, nuts, parsley, tomatoes, rhubarb, and spinach. The citric acid in lemons, limes, oranges, pineapples, and gooseberries dissolves calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate, preventing stone formation."

Best of luck to you - I've not had a surgery since my dx but I'd sure try to avoid one any way I possibly could. ;) Keep us posted.
Hugs,
~Lorrie

Lorrie - the stones I have are dangerously large and in a position that if they slightly move they could block my ureter. Unfortunately, the only way to treat them at this time is to perform the surgery where the surgeon passes a very thin telescope tube (ureteroscope) up the urinary tract to the stone's location, where he uses instruments to remove the stone or break it up for easier removal. I will then need a small hollow tube (ureteral stent) placed in the ureter for a short time to keep it open and drain urine and any stone pieces.

I've heard you comment so much on the benefits of magnesium that I want to head out to the vitamin shop to purchase some. However, I think I'm too late to try to treat them any other way but surgery due to their size (14 mm). I will also search for Carolyn Dean's book. Thanks for your advice.

I also really want to hear from folks who have had any surgery, please respond if you have. I'm very nervous about this procedure for fear that it will bring on a raging flare. I thought I read somewhere that surgery, or maybe the anesthesia does, I'm not sure.

...bump...I'm really looking for some help here please.

I really wish I had an experience to share with you but I don't. However, I did find this on the National MS Society website.

Surgery

The majority of people with MS are young, otherwise healthy adults, whose risks during elective surgical procedures are about the same as the general population. MS is generally not a reason to avoid having surgery.

Most people with MS can tolerate standard anesthesia without undue risk. Special consideration may have to be made for the minority of people with MS who are severely disabled or have respiratory problems.

There is no evidence that the stress of surgery will bring on an exacerbation of MS. An exacerbation-also known as an attack, relapse, or flare-is a sudden worsening of an MS symptom or symptoms, or the appearance of new symptoms, which lasts at least 24 hours and is separated from a previous exacerbation by at least one month.

Generally, in the absence of complications, people with MS who undergo surgery do not find that it impacts their neurologic status. Infection or fever, however, may tend to aggravate symptoms of MS. Additionally, patients who have muscle weakness and who have been confined to bed for more than several days, may find it harder to recover from surgery. Physical therapy is often useful in these instances, and should be started as soon after surgery as recommended by a physician.

Anesthesia

Anesthesia is the loss of pain or other sensation. There are four broad categories of anesthesia given to patients.

General anesthesia, which is used for extensive surgeries or when other types of anesthesia aren't appropriate, involves putting a person to sleep, generally with a drug that is given intravenously or inhaled. The drugs used in general anesthesia act as hypnotics, painkillers, and muscle relaxants. They also block a person's memory of the surgery
Conscious sedation, which induces an altered state of consciousness that minimizes pain and discomfort through the use of pain relievers and sedatives, allows the patient to speak and respond to verbal cues throughout the procedure, although he or she may not remember any of what occurs.
Regional anesthesia, which is used to block sensation in a particular region of the body, is injected around a single nerve or network or nerves that serves the area. For example, epidural anesthesia, which is injected into or near the spinal fluid, numbs the nerves that serve the lower half of the body with impacting memory or awareness.
Local anesthetics, such as those used in dental procedures or to stitch a cut, are introduced into a specific part of the body so that sensation in that portion is blocked, but the patient remains fully awake and aware.
Risks Are Generally Not Greater for Persons with MS

As a rule, the risks of general anesthesia for persons with MS are about the same as those for other people. The exceptions to this primarily involve the small percentage of MS patients with severe, advanced disease, who may be seriously weakened by MS or have respiratory problems that would put them at greater risk for anesthetic complications.

There is no reason for a person with MS to avoid local anesthesia when needed, unless the person happens to be allergic to the commonly used local anesthetics, such as Novocaine. One study reviewed 98 patients who together had received more than 1,000 doses of local anesthetics. In only four instances was the dose followed by an exacerbationa sudden worsening of an MS symptom or symptoms. An exacerbation is also known as a relapse, attack, or flare.

Sorry you havent had many responses to this. I can understand your worry about surgery & a possible flare up.
I havent had kidney problems but have had other issues that have needed treatment from day procedures to emergency bowel resection.
day procedures, I always seem to take longer than they say to get over anything, ms symptoms do rear their head & I struggle to walk, left side bad, speech & swallowing & fatigue was awful.
My last surgery was major & I had complications which resulted in icu for 6 days as got dbl pneumonia & infection. My recovery from that was/is very slow. The ms side of things did olay up with the symptoms rearing their head & playing havoc & fatigue through the roof.
Its almost 3 months & i am still finding symptoms do flare often, fatigue is constant & left side weakness are constant. I didnt go into a full on flare but I did have a lot of the issues I have get worse.
Thats my experience.

I know a friend had something done by local anaesthetic & she had no issues, what she did different was asked the surgeon if instead of fasting fully she could at least still sip some water & she thought that changed her reaction. Might be worth asking about anyway.

My first knee surgery was in '99 at age 18 and was diagnoised shortly there afterwards (not sure if the surgery led to the intense flare/vertigo that followed). Since being diagnoised in 2000, I have had two surgeries: 1.the other knee-which was a much harder/longer recovery than the other, and 2. most recently, about 1.5 yrs ago, I had an intercession (b/c of intestines telescoping). Each surgery took longer to recover from than the previous. Then just over a month ago, I had (my first) MS-related seizure while I was driving & ended up in the hospital for a couple of days.

I noticed that my pain and exhaustion was intensified after each surgery. 1st knee surgery took less than a week to recover, 2nd knee surgery it took about 1.5 mo to recover from, and the intercession took at least 8 mo. of sleeping majority of the day/night (which led to a loss of over 25 lbs). And now since the seizure, I have been having much more pain all over and have noticed a major decline in cognitive functions.

I would just make sure you have enough time for recovery and rest after the surgery. Best of luck to you and keep us posted!

I had an ectopic pregnancy (my first time being pregnant...yeah it was awesome *sarcasm*) and they had to remove my left tube quite suddenly. I was very sick afterwards. I agree with whoever posted earlier--prepare for bed rest!

I am soooo sorry to hear about your kidney stones!! Yikes!

I have had two surgeries since I was diagnosed. The first was a vaginal hyterectomy. I was really slow after I got home. After a week, my bowels shut down and I ran a fever and had to be put back into the hospital for several days and put on antibiotics. 1st theory is that I had a bladder infection and was also a bit dehydrated. 2nd theory is that they disturbed my bowels during surgery....was told that because I was not "put under" by the anesthesiogist as deeply because of MS, my intestines kept flopping in the surgeons way during surgery(lovely thought)....thus they then shut down. 3rd theory is that the pain meds caused the severe bowel shut down. Could have been all three reasons.

My next surgery was for thyroid cancer. Frankly, with this one, I woke up feeling better than I did before surgery and did well. Also took Milk of Magnesia instead of a stool softener, which really kept me "going"! It was even a hectic time, because our house was for sale and we got a bid the week after my surgery and moved 30 days later!! Glad that this surgery went well.

I think that I did better with the second surgery because I wasn't contorted in all sorts of ways, which is one of your concerns. I have terrible back spasms. So, perhaps you should talk to your doctor about Baclofen or if you take Baclofen, increasing it to ward off spasms.

Oh, drink lots and lots of filter water.....lots!!!!!(I thought that I was drinking enough after my hyterectomy, but apparantly not). Try and cook and freeze food prior to surgery and have a well stocked panty with easy to fix things and perhaps soups, crackers, bananas, string cheeses and maybe protein bars of some kind. I keep protein bars at my home all the time now. If I am having a bad morning, I grab a protein bar with my coffee and then sometimes as a snack boost.

Hope my story has helped you and that things go well for you and let us know when you are having it done and keep us posted on your progress!

A sincere thank you to all of you that provided me advice on this post.

I am expecting the worse from this surgery, and then hopefully I will be delighted when the best turns out. I have talked to my pain doctor, and she recommended dialauden (spell?) as a pain management drug for after the surgery. I go forward with strength. Thanks again. Lynne

I'm so glad to hear all of this input. I'm scheduled for some "girl" procedures in December and I'm worried about a flare. I deliberately scheduled it so I would have my whole Christmas break from school - 3 weeks- to recouperate if necessary. Going to discuss everything at the pre-op meeting. Still a little scared. Glad I'm not alone.

My surgery for carpal tunnel resulted in me returning to the hospital for a weeks worth of steriods after surgery I went down hill, started off with a fever, then vertigo, numbness, burning face etc. Was disgnosed with MS 2 months later.

I've had general anesthesia twice since my diagnosis with MS. It didn't have any effect on my MS at all either time. Everyone is different, guess I was lucky.

Sending good thoughts, and good luck your way!

In my lifetime I have had 4 surgeries under general anesthesia, 3 of the 4 were done after I was DX with MS. When I compare how my body responded, there really isn't anything that sticks out as different. Someone earlier in this thread mentioned a bowel issue, I also had that problem but with each surgery so I know for me it was not MS related. I had no flares after surgery but suggest taking it easy as best you can.
Good luck