Anyone with arthritis??

 I am weaning off my arthritis med I have taken for years. Surgeon said no more med if sleeved. Anyone have this problem and any other options for pain????

Sorry, no exp here.. I take 800mg ibuprofen 3x a day when I need it (several weeks a year it seems at least, but not as often as I had to at 280+lbs!)

My Drs have no restrictions on my meds (NSAIDs or any others) as long as I stay on my PPI, which is the same protocol I had as a pre-op too.. Strong long-term NSAIDs=PPI. They did thank me for getting the sleeve vs RNY as the RNY would have to be adjusted/discontinued due to increased ulcer risk. Ibuprofen works wonders on me, so I'm happy to not change things up.

One of the reasons I chose the sleeve is that we CAN take NSAIDS after we are healed from surgery.  I wouldn't take any for about a month, as one would do for any surgery because of the blood-thinning factor, and after that I would always take them with a little food so they don't give you an upset stomach or irritate your new sleeve. 

You are right to get off them before surgery, because of the bleeding possibility, but ask your surgeon WHY he says no meds of that sort.  Makes no sense, as we have a fully functioning stomach; it is just very small.

Best wishes on your journey :-)

--Dorothy 

 You didn't say what type of arthritist, osteo or rheumatoid? I have both. I had to stop Celebrex for about a month. My other iv meds I had to skip a month and boy was I hurting. The Celebrex will increase bleeding chances. My RA is severe and I am on Actemra which is about as strong an iv drug you can get. It decreases your white cell count, you heal slower too. It kills good and bad cells much like chemo. So risk for a leak is greater.

I am back on both and more than 5 months post- op and doing well. Surgeon who have liked me off both for at least two months post, but I was hurting too much. He has been very careful with me and says he will consider me a success at one year post-op w/o a leak.  I'm also way ahead of schedule on my weight loss. He calls me his over achiever. 

 I have osteoarthritis and I will have to ask because both surgeon and Nut say no ibuprofen, no celebrex and no aspirin from now on(???)

Well I am almost 4 years out and I have osteo and psoriatic arthritis and take all sorts of nsaids with my bariatric surgeons approval.  I know you can't if you have RNY but you most certainly can with a sleeve.  There really are no other options other than vicodin and such.  Also I have a sleeved friend with RA and she takes nsaids as well.  Tylenol just doesn't cut it unfortunately.  I hope you figure things out for yourself.

Laura

Arthritis is the reason I chose to have vsg. I also take anti-inflammatory meds and prilosec.
 

Penny

After about 6 mos, I was cleared to take Advil again after my VSG.   He said they tell people "No Advil forever" just so they won't develop an ulcer, but he said if I didn't have problems before the surgery, I won't have any afterwards.  What I usually do is take 1 Tylenol + 1 Advil for the arthritis in my neck, as needed (not daily).  Good luck!!