20 yrs with Lupus and my sleeve surgery is set July 23 wondering how my lupus will do

Hi all! I am excited to do the surgery and I start my liquid on Wednesday. a bit nervous about that but soo ready to be out of pain and off prednisone. I am worried about the shock of the surgery to my system. I have had Lupus really since I was about 21 with the big flare at 28 and now at 48 I maintain it with chemo every three months. I hope to eventually get off a lot of these meds after I loose the weight. I am starting at 343 and hope my pain and symptoms decrease as the weight sheds. at this point I can't even exercise without pain and itching breaking out into hives the size of Texas. To walk on the beach without pain and distress is a dream I can not wait for. Any tips and feedback is welcome.

Kathleen

There are risks of a flare with any surgery. Although I had lu*****mptoms prior to surgery I never put it together. I ended up with a diagnosis and a major flare about six weeks after surgery. Actually diagnosis took several docs and months. It was a great ent who did the right blood work and got me to a wonderful rheumatologist. On my l a st appointment I did ask him if the surgery caused the flare. He said he couldn't say with certainty. So I followed up with a skin removal surgery question. He said since that is more external the risk is much less but we would need to talk about it when the time came. I am 15 pounds from my goal and then need to maintain for some period of time for the surgery. I will decide then if it's worth the risk but the skin is pretty u g my! I am still glad I had the surgery. I had rny because I am also diabetic and it was my better choice. I was on insulin and another injectable each day and now am off all diabetic meds with great glucose levels. Even with a diagnosis of lupus, raynauds and mixed connective tissue disease it was worth it. Went into Wal-Mart today and bought size 10 pants. Far cry from my 26s. I could never have done this without the surgery. The plaquenil is a great med for me and seems to have gotten the flare down. Feel pretty good most days except really fatigued at end of work day especially if I need to get something from a store on my way home. But still no regrets. Good luck no matter what you decide but talk it through thoroughly with your rheumatologist. Ps I do tend to ramble.