Pre-Surgical anxiety

**Susan.303** · 01-20-2012, 10:25 AM

Dear Spine Surgery Friends,
I am interested in your feedback on pre-surgical anxiety. I have high blood pressure. Had a V-Tac in 1988 7 months pregnant and anxiously waiting for a decision from a boss. I then spent a week in hospital to make sure baby-to-be and I were OK, and we were, and I immediately changed my work ethic from "I will" to "I will try" making myself only responsible for the effort and not the results. I'm happy to say I didn't have another V-Tac since however in 2006, waiting to find out if I would be hired for the job I was temping at, I had an atrial-fib that took an overnight in the hospital before it converted back to normal. (Lucky for me this happened on a weekend so when I got to the job on Monday, I was hired.) That was a stressor I couldn't control, so my Dr. gave me some extra, low dose blood pressure pills to take when I'm stressed. I rarely need them except maybe if I'm singing a solo in church and it’s just the right amount to keep me balanced (25 mg metoprolol, as needed in addition to my daily 100 mg metoprolol ER, and 20 mg quinapril.)
I just had a laminotomy and discectomy on Tuesday and during the two days before my blood pressure was climbing, even with the extra metoprolol my numbers the day before surgery were 155/115 and pulse 58. Add to this the fact that After surgery, my blood pressure and pulse was low, pulse was high 40s - low 50s for @24 hours. I'm assuming this is from the near sleep like state I was in from the pain meds and anesthesia. In the past after coming to from anesthesia my blood pressure and pulse were down, so I'm thinking this is normal. Is it? or is it just normal for me.
So here's my question, if this is normal, or just me...Should I be asking my Dr. for some kind of anxiety med. or special blood pressure med. to take prior to future surgeries? Are there any particular anxiety med.s that you might recommend for someone with pre-surgery anxiety?
Even though I'm post surgery now, this information would be very helpful to me for the future and hopefully it will help others like me who don't deal with anxiety on a regular basis.
Thanks!

Susan

**Justin** · 03-05-2012, 08:17 PM

Hi Susan,

I must have missed this post previously. Anxiety before surgery is completely normal. This is just human physiology -- not all anxiety is "bad." There is no need to pre-medicate or select a medication for "future surgeries." Also, as you mentioned, both anesthesia and pain medicine can affect your blood pressure, heart heart, respiration, etc. Invasive spine surgery can most definitely raise your blood pressure. I hope this helps.

**Susan.303** · 03-06-2012, 08:16 PM

Thanks Jason for confirming that raised anxiety is normal prior to surgery and that added med.s should be avoided if possible. I think in my case I should at least be sure to discuss my pre-surgical anxiety/blood pressure concerns with my Dr. Prior to surgery so I have some options in place....hopefully reducing my ability to panic myself into a worse situation.

**GoCubsGo!** · 03-11-2012, 09:37 PM

I just found out that i will be having my second fusion surgery on April 3rd. I am more nervous now then i was for the first one. My biggest problem outside of knowing how tough the surgery is, is that i used up most of my benefit time with the first surgery. I will have around 4 weeks unpaid and will have to get on short term disablity. I have a hard time falling asleep these days. I hope this time my fuse is successful.

**Susan.303** · 03-12-2012, 07:06 AM

Originally Posted by GoCubsGo!

I just found out that i will be having my second fusion surgery on April 3rd. I am more nervous now then i was for the first one. My biggest problem outside of knowing how tough the surgery is, is that i used up most of my benefit time with the first surgery. I will have around 4 weeks unpaid and will have to get on short term disablity. I have a hard time falling asleep these days. I hope this time my fuse is successful.

I'm no Doctor, but when it comes to these surgeries, I'd suggest getting a second opinion. It might help your anxiety if it matches you're Dr. reccomendation, and it might give you more options. As for anxiety I think it important to discuss your symptoms with your surgeon, maybe he'll suggest an over the counter sleep aid or maybe there's a good reason to avoid them. At least if you get your Dr.'s take on it, you won't have to worry about making things worse.

Best wishes for your April surgery and a smooth recovery....time takes time.

Please keep us posted.