pills, gelcaps, capsules??? long - vent

At my one wk post-op apt I asked my surgeon about taking pills and he said to finish off what I had in liquid and chewables (which was about one month's worth) and then I should be ok to try.  I have already tried taking a few as I was going out of town and it was easier to travel with pills than the bottles of liquids. And I did fine swallowing them.

I have always felt that my surgeons plan was more cautious than a lot I see.  And I have been grateful for that, really.  But even he had us OK to swallow pills at 7 weeks out.  As much as I have tried to follow all of his directives, I will confess, I didn't make this one.

I was putting applesauce in a spoon, layering pill crushings on top and then sealing that up with another dollop of applesauce.  It keeps a lot of the icky taste off of your taste buds but still after a a couple of weeks, I was done.   I don't know when I will ever be able to eat applesauce again.  Maybe never.  Just the thought makes me queasy.

Then I encased the crushing in SF jello shooters (non-alcoholic, of course...lol).  That worked OK but they are a pain to make up (you have to let the jello reach a semi solid then add the crushings and if it's too set up they fall apart and if they are set up enough the crushings will sink to the bottom) and it was tricky for me to swallow the large bit of jello just a few weeks out. 

So like you, I went here to see what others had done.   Like you I saw several who had swallowed pills since the hospital.  Since it was the first rule of the surgeon's I broke I was very uncomfortable trying it.  But finally I told my husband that if something bad started happening and I couldn't tell the emergency people to let them know I had swallowed 2 calcium petites whole.  And then I went for it. 

At first I cut the multi vites in half because they were so large but in a few weeks I had stopped that as well.  I couldn't take 3-4 at a time like I can now then but it was soooo much easier than trying to gag down the crushed particles.    

I have sublingual b12 and D3's from Twinlab that are nice.  The D3's don't dissolve as quickly as the B12's but they have a citrus taste that is fine.   The rest, I swallow. 

Oh yes, you wouldn't believe the stuff I've done to choke down my meds.  Needless to say I want nothing to do with pudding, sf preserves or sf syrup.  Like EVER.  I got to the point where I was literally gagging when I tried to take them.  That lead to NOT taking them which is bad.  The allergy thing I can deal with but I have to take my depression meds or things get bad fast.  

Thanks!

That was my biggest problem as well.  Had to get my Effexor in.  I have withdrawals from it pretty quickly if I don't take it and they are not pretty.  So in the end I was struggling so hard to get those and my BP meds down that I was neglecting the vitamins. 

Keep up the good work.  I have followed you through your posts and I think you are doing fantastic! 

 I was told no whole pills to 2 mo post op....i waited almost 3 lol. I just this week started taking pills but i split them in 1/2 and take them with a big gulp of water. So far so good. I cant beleive they told you NEVER whole pills EVER again tho..wow

Yeah, I went through trying to crush pills and put them in applesauce - yucktooey. I did crush everything the first month. Then bought this little device that has a pill crusher in the middle and a pill cutter at the top. I now cut my pills into quarters or more, depending on the size, and swallow the smaller bits. It's been much easier.

I am 4 years out next month and have been swallowing pills whole since I left the hospital after my open RNY (although IU did not switch to the full size calcium tablets until after about 6 months out... don;t remember exactly when).  I have never had a pill get stuck (and have never had an ulcer).

Sometimes you have to use a little logic.  Look at a diagram of what your rearranged system looks like. Your pouch is positioned in such a way that it basically serves as a funnel to your intestine. If you take a pill on an empty stomach/pouch with a large swallow of water (or several small ones), what is going to happen to the pill?  Unless it is larger than your stoma, it is going to get washed right into your intestine where it will be absorbed.  So... even if your surgeon makes an EXCEEDINGLY small stoma, there is VERY little chance of a small pill getting stuck.  (If you cannot even take a pill the size of an aspirin for fear of getting something stuck, how do you think any food is ever going to get through the stoma, especially since the food is rather thick and dry from not drinking with meals?)

Additionally, even if you have ONE pill get stuck ONE time, what is the chance that it is goign to be somethign that will cause damage to the pouch?  No, it does not have all the acid, etc that the remnant stomach has, but it is also not a fragile thin membrane.

I would flat out ask your surgeon (politely and respectfully, of course) to explain his rationale for the mandate on pills.  Ask him to adddress the above, and to address the HUGE number of people who routinely swallow pills (some from the very beginning, some from a certain number of months out) with no problems.  It is one thing to follow his mandate if he can provide a legitimate reason for it, but otherwise, it seems like an extremely unnecessary hardship to me.

The longer I am on this board and see what OTHER people's surgeons make them go through (pills, weeks of post-op liquids, etc.), I want to hug MY surgeon when I read some of these posts!

Lora

I asked at my 3 month visit and was pretty well blown off with the ulcer arguement.  Oh well.  I guess if I have a problem he can tell me I told you so. 

Thanks, Lora.