Does anyone here take Effexor XR? I take 150mg twice a day and I'm sooooo worried about not being able to take my meds right before (as in the morning of) and right after (as in the evening of) my surgery. If I don't take my meds, or even if I take them too late in the day, I have terrible withdrawal symptoms.

I contacted the manufacturer to see if the medicine comes in liquid form or if it can be compounded somehow. The answer was no. The only advice they could give me was to empty the capsule contents into a spoonful of applesauce. That doesn't do me any good though.

For those of you on Effexor, how did you handle this the day of your surgery? I'm so scared to not take my medication because of the terrible way I feel if I don't.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Your surgeon & anesthesiologist need to know about this. My PCP told me not to take my medications right before surgery (not VSG), and I could barely walk on the morning of surgery. I nearly missed surgery because of this. My anesthesiologist disagreed with the PCP. I could have taken it and avoided such pain.

I have a similar situation with my Cymbalta - I get really bad brain zaps if I don't take it in the morning. I was allowed to take it in the morning before my surgery, and they had me open the capsule and take the contents with a tiny bit of Water the day after surgery. I did not get my evening doses of medications on the day of surgery because I had not yet passed a leak test.

I agree that you should probably check with your surgeon about this. Getting the meds in somehow is very important and it is unfortunately our job as patients to impress the necessity upon our doctors.

My Doctor had me switch to regular Effexor instead of the extended release. I take 150 and 37.5 daily. So I ended up taking my meds the night before my surgery. The day of my surgery I could not take anything. After my surgery I could not take anything until the next morning after my leak test. So the next day I was able to take my meds again. The reason I switched to regular Effexor was so that I could crush them after surgery. I am only 4 weeks out and I still have to crush them. I don't remember if I had any side effects from not taking them the day of surgery. My mouth was so dry after surgery that all I could think about was when I could drink some water.

I am on the extentended release and I have been taking them the past two days. I was sleeved aug 9th. I noticed if I don't take my meds I get dizzy. JkM

I take 3 capsules, 3 times a day for my ulcerative colitis - and they are pretty big. We tried to empty them into juice but it was AWFUL - like not even possible to drink. My surgeon is OK with me starting to take them tomorrow (my surgery was 8/10) - he just wants me to take one, wait 10-15 mins . . . so i'll be taking them all day long it will probably seem!

I hope it's okay for me to be taking these. My pain meds the Doctor prescribed was pill. I'm just so scared to do something wrong and get a leak. I am so looking forward to being off liquids and being to eat beans or oatmeal. JKM

My husband takes the generic Effexor XR and they are capsules. My surgeon said capsules are generally OK because they dissolve pretty quickly. He doesn't want me taking any tablets that are larger than an aspirin, though.

Are you hungry at all?

420gal How soon after surgery did you 420?