Hi, I will be having my sleeve March 21 at Lahey, Burlington, MA. I have inflamatory arthritis. I take plaquenil, celebrex and neurontin. I am concern about how to deal with the pain if I cannot take my medicine. Please I will appreciate any information/advise, I will also love to hear about your experience and how it has affected your arthritis and quality of life.

Thank you.

I had an arthritic attack about a week after surgery. I did take some tramadol for the pain, but that medicine is hard for me to tolerate. I asked my doctor at my 3 week checkup what I could take and he told me to take celebrex as it was a cox2 inhibitor, not an NSAID. I also take neurontin, but that was never an issue. I just had to crush all my meds for the first few weeks, and crushing was not easy especially with the flare up in my hand. But I made it and you will too. Good luck.

Thank you Maalleh. I am glad I will be able to continue with my celebrex. I have been taken celebrex for 7 years. I have taken Tramadol in the past when I had total knee replacement. but I did not like the way it made me feel.. I am getting nervous as the day approaches. Good luck with your jouney. I wish you lots of success.

I was concerned about this too since one of the first things the doctor told me on the very first appt was that I couldn't be on Voltaren (diclofenac) any longer since it is a NSAID.

On a positive note, I will say this, last time I lost a lot of weight I did it primarily by cutting out trans fats and high fructose corn syrup and watching calories.

Thing is my aches and pains were cut in half within 2 weeks of starting the diet and I was completely off the meds by the time I had lost 50 lbs. The problem was I only kept the weight off for about 8 months, then I was back on the Voltaren! But this time we will keep it off for good so it shouldnt matter.

I choose healthy over being on a NSAID!

Hi Taurabird, you are giving me good news. One of the main reasons for me having this surgery if taken a lot of the weight fast to help with my osteoarthritis. I would love if I can get to stop some of my medications. Specially celebrex, since it is so expensive. I know several people that take voltaen and they say it is wonderful for the pain. Unfortunately I cannot take it, I am allergic to it, I break up in hives and the two times I have taken it I have ended up in the ER. Good luck to you. When is your surgery?

I have osteoarthritis and was worried about dealing with the pain once I stopped my NSAID. Strangely enough, 95% of my pain was gone immediately after surgery. No one can explain it to me, my ortho doctor said the anesthesia must have just done "something." It has been 5 months and I still have very little pain, there still isn't any cushioning in my knees so I avoid heels and steps and anything that isn't low impact. I was looking at knee replacements prior to surgery, but now the pain is tolerable. It is frustrating that my doctor isn't interested in understanding what happened. Good luck.

I have osteoarthritis in most of my joints. The ones that bother me the most are my hips and right knee. I now take Vicodin and 800 mg. Ibuprofen every 4-6 hrs. My Dr, took me off Celebrex when it was discovered it could cause heart attacks and strokes. I've already had one heart attack 15 years ago, but with statin drugs and a stent, I've been doing great.

Sometimes each step is horribly painful, even with the drugs, but I currently weigh nearly 400 lbs. I can't imagine what it will be like after surgery, but my guess is that I'll have to take something until the pain lessens with weight loss. I've tried Voltaren cream, but it doesn't seems to do anything. Does it come in a pill? I'm open to any suggestions.

Hi, voltaren does come in pills and they also have patches. Good luck with with every thing and let's hope that after the surgery our joints will feel better. I already had one knee replacement and want to postpone having the other one as much as I can.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It gives me hope

I am still in the tests and weight management phase for insurance purposes. I am convinced that the achy pain I always have is 2/3rds caused by the inflammation that high fructose corn syrup and trans fats cause, the rest I believe is caused by the weight. I can hardly wait to really take control of my diet once I am sleeved, this time it will be for life!

I found a good article about natural herbs to eat that are good for this. http://www.easytogrowherbs.com/Top-10-Anti-Inflammatory-Herbs.html