Has anyone that takes benzos regularly, meaning every day, run into a situation where they need surgery with general anesthesia, or a spinal anesthesia? I am in the situation now, and the surgeon wants me to stop taking the benzo (xanax) ideally during the surgery and the post-surgery period. The problem is that I can't really do that without horrible withdrawal, which the surgeon does not seem to understand. So I am working with him and my other doctor to see what we can do.

I am curious if anyone else has gotten into that situation and how it worked out.

In that situation you would be better off talking with the anesthesialogist. It's not good being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Remember the Medical people have to be super cautious or be sued for malpractice. Weigh that in your decision, then make it. Good luck....Ed

Definitely talk to the docs about it. I had surgery and did not need to stop taking any of my meds. I was on Xanax at that point every four hours around the clock.

I did not need to take then once I arrived at the hospital until after surgery but was definitely back on track quickly.

Get your prescribing doc involved if need be.

Thats good to know! I did talk to a surgeon yesterday that said he did not see why I had to go off benzos for the surgery, and I have talked to the prescriber, who will write the surgeon a letter if necessary. A different surgeon was more reluctant, and said I would be off them while in the hospital, which might or might not be too long.

It seems like a common pattern is for the hospital to say "nothing by mouth after midnight" which, for me, means skipping at least 1 dose of xanax which I take every 6 hours, and right before the surgery to boot. At least one surgeon specifically was willing to override that and let me take them after midnight, but another would not. Then after the surgery it depends again on the surgeon, especially if there is a hospital stay involved. I want to make sure that I completely know the surgeon understands the issue with withdrawal and that they have basically promised to restart the benzo as soon as possible afterwards.

I don't think its really a safety issue in the sense of getting too much medication while under anesthesia; I am convinced that the anesthesiologists can basically adjust for it, if they know the situation, especially with short half life xanax. I think there is some kind of issue about having stuff in your stomach that can come back up and choke you, but the pills are tiny and dissolve immediately. And after the surgery there might be drug interactions, e.g. with pain killers, to worry about, but my prescriber, a psychiatrist, clearly says that can be dealt with by lowering doses, of both, as needed.

I am still working on this; the surgery is on hold while I try a medication that might make the surgery unnecessary.

Do make sure the anesthesiologist knows what you are doing and taking. That's very important. Ed