I've never had trouble swallowing pills before. But now, I am having issues. I can swallow other things just fine. I take 150 mg which means I have to take one tablet and a half. I chop my whole tablet in half and then take each of the three pieces separately. It takes me about 20 minutes per piece... I swallow it and then I sit down because I can feel it go down, and it is very painful. Will this get any easier? Any suggestions? I have been swallowing everything else just fine.

I had difficulty swallowing pills post-op too. I ended up getting everything chewable (all vitamins). Are they crushable pills? I crushed all of my pills (which was basically birth control and a beta blocker) for the first month. You may want to talk to your pharmacist about crushing them or, if they are capsules, sometimes they will tell you it's okay to open them and pour the medication out and do it that way.

Well, that worries me a little. With 10 prescriptions and a boatload of Vitamins, I have a lot of pills to swallow (or a lot of nasty gravel from crushed pills to choke down). The worst will be 4 giant Metformin tablets a day.

I asked my surgeon about the "nothing larger than an M&M" rule. He said it doesn't apply for his sleeve patients, and that I should be able to handle even huge fish oil capsules. Looking back, maybe he was talking about after healing, rather than about week 1.

I wonder how common is it to have problems with pills early on vs. how common it is to have no problems with them.

My Dr say no pills over 4mm for 6 months.

As far as vitamins and calcium I have been dissolving mine in a little bit of water and then drinking the dissolved pills. The vitamin (multi) tastes terrible but my doctor told me if you don't dissolve them you end up only with "expensive urine." I think your body absorbes better (with or without the surgery we have had) by dissolving them first.

I was worried about this so I spoke to my pharmacist. As it turns out, not all pills are safe to crush and not all capsules should be opened. Get info on your meds to be safe. There are alternatives to many such as ones that come in liquid form and for ones you still have trouble with, there are compound pharmacies that mix meds from scratch in granule form.

What pills are you taking?