I was dx'd with lupus in 96. I have had 5 surgeries since then. I only had a flare with an artho. shoulder surgery. But everything kind of went wrong--infections, dissolvable sutures coming to the surfrace, so I was majorly stressed out. Also my rheum had me restart my methotrexate weekly as scheduled, and I think it was way too early. It is an immune suppressant and seemed to maybe, who knows, feed the infection.
When I had my knee repair in November, I did have a flare, but it was MS (was dx'd with that in 2004 "enbrel induced MS", a rare side effect. I can't really blame it on the surgery for sure because my brother passed away at age 46 about 4 wks post op. The MS was a big relapse. If anything I would say major fatigue. But that could be from the shock of losing my only brother.
I had 3 other surgeries that went well...I have had the lupus for 12+ years. But I would say that when I skipped the methotrexate (I don't know what you are on), my healing seemed to be quicker.
Good luck! Really no obvious lupus flares from any of the surgeries. Only an MS relapse, and I think that was more to do with my brother's passing.
My lupus has been pretty mild, mostly joints, and then sometimes lupus gastritis (vomiting), and a few times anemia. But none of that was related to a surgery. Just me an lupus.
What does your rheum say? Mine always checks my ssDNA, and C3, C4, and UA for protein before a surgery to make sure a flare is not lurking.
SarahMN
