Anesthesia and tics?

[TessaKrista]

I am worried that my 8 year old son has a hernia and might end up having surgery. He lifted some heavy stuff, and later on while he was in bed, asked me why his tummy hurt so much. I discovered that there was an uneven feel to his left side as compared to the right side of his belly button area. I became ultra worried.

 

Decongestants and antihistimines make his tics skyrocket, to the point where they last forever and ever...4 months on end. Won't do that again. He finds that bubble gum gives him shoulder tics, approx one hour after he chewed gum on "gum chewing day" at school last year. He hit his head on the soccer post in the summer, and the next day, he had neck tics that lasted approximately one month long. If he has too much dairy, he has tics. If he swims in pools, he has tics. When he gets a bit sick, the tics start a bit.

 

So.... I am wondering if anyone out there has had any adverse reaction with anesthesia and their child's tics starting up again after an operation.

 

After his strep experience, I have become extra vigilant about him gettin strep, to prevent the horror that happened before. I keep his stress levels low now, and emphasize having fun, instead of a whole bunch of programs. I am still a big worrier though. Tonight for example, when he told me that his abdominal area hurt, and I saw what appeared to be something out on one side as compared to the other side, I got really scared, and started freaking out in a worried way, and asked my husband to come and help out, because I was too worried to be effective. My son started crying, because I told him that I didn't know how an operation was going to impact on him, and I told him that I didn't want him carrying heavy things (the food drive stuff for school and this heavy box that he lifted in the car). I obviously worry a lot about him. My world really changed when Pandas hit our home, and tics accompanied them.

 

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

 

Thanks....

[NancyD]

Here is a good article that addresses anesthesia and the immune system. A lot of the same things apply even though it's specific to ASD. I went by this when my DD was scoped in summer 2010 and needed anesthesia. Her tics, which had been really bad prior to first HD IVIg infusion in August 2008, were finally gone 100% and I was so afraid they would come back after anesthesia. Thankfully they did not (and still have not), but I was really careful about what we gave her for the procedure.

 

http://autism.com/fam_AnesthesiaandtheAutisticchild.asp

 

Especially if your child has a mutated MTHFR gene and has a problem with methylation, stay away from noxious oxide (gas).

 

Try to minimize stress because that can make tics worse. Give frequent Epsom salts baths to relax him. I also like magnesium Glycinate.

 

I am worried that my 8 year old son has a hernia and might end up having surgery. He lifted some heavy stuff, and later on while he was in bed, asked me why his tummy hurt so much. I discovered that there was an uneven feel to his left side as compared to the right side of his belly button area. I became ultra worried.

 

Decongestants and antihistimines make his tics skyrocket, to the point where they last forever and ever...4 months on end. Won't do that again. He finds that bubble gum gives him shoulder tics, approx one hour after he chewed gum on "gum chewing day" at school last year. He hit his head on the soccer post in the summer, and the next day, he had neck tics that lasted approximately one month long. If he has too much dairy, he has tics. If he swims in pools, he has tics. When he gets a bit sick, the tics start a bit.

 

So.... I am wondering if anyone out there has had any adverse reaction with anesthesia and their child's tics starting up again after an operation.

 

After his strep experience, I have become extra vigilant about him gettin strep, to prevent the horror that happened before. I keep his stress levels low now, and emphasize having fun, instead of a whole bunch of programs. I am still a big worrier though. Tonight for example, when he told me that his abdominal area hurt, and I saw what appeared to be something out on one side as compared to the other side, I got really scared, and started freaking out in a worried way, and asked my husband to come and help out, because I was too worried to be effective. My son started crying, because I told him that I didn't know how an operation was going to impact on him, and I told him that I didn't want him carrying heavy things (the food drive stuff for school and this heavy box that he lifted in the car). I obviously worry a lot about him. My world really changed when Pandas hit our home, and tics accompanied them.

 

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

 

Thanks....

Edited December 7, 2011 by NancyD

[oivay]

My daughter had general anasthesia when she got a brain MRI when her chorea was horrendous. It almost looked like she was having full body convulsions and it was the only way the could get her in the MRI tube.

 

She started with the chorea again as she was coming out of the anasthesia before she was fully conscious, but I don't think the anasthesia had any effect.

 

 

She also had general for her tonsillectomy, and no side effects, although the chorea started again about 10 days later, but that was unrelated.

[ajcire]

The anesthesia affected my pandas ds when he had his tonsils out...but not his tics (his tics are mild and I don't remember them being any worse after). Instead he was just not himself, pretty much had no emotions for a week... not sad,not happy.. just kinda there. It was heartbreaking... the bigger effect though was extreme night terrors and no appetite. This all ended exactly a week after the surgery. The doctors told me it was an affect of the anestheisa... I have no way of knowing if it was because of the pandas or if he would have reacted that way anyway. My non pandas dd had her tonsils out and the anesthesia did not affect her like that.

[Ozimum]

We decided not to risk it and refused nitrous oxide for ds when he had his wisdom teeth out. Here's a link to an article written by an anaesthetist on autistic kids and anaesthetics. http://www.autismone.org/content/anesthesia-autistic-child-sym-c-rankin-rn-crna

 

Edit to say: we asked for sevoflurane instead and had no problems.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Ozimum

[hootie]

My son with autism had sego only for his last dental procedure. He lost speech for over six weeks.

[missjo]

My son had anesthesia this week and so far I don't see any negative side effects. I did tell them no Nitro-us oxide. he woke up complaining of a head ache and was not himself angry and cursing, but within two hours he settled down and has been fine since.

[EAMom]

We didn't have any problems using Nitrous Oxide with dd's recent extractions (1-2 mo. ago). Dd is still on daily Azithromycin and she also got Advil after the extractions.

 

She did have problems 4 years ago, but that likely due to an undiagnosed strep infection seeding the bloodstream (throat later cultured positive) and stress, triggering the exacerbation (didn't know about PANDAS at the time) rather than the Nitrous.