I want to fully understand why we have to take liquid meds or crush our pills or open capsules. Can someone please explain this to me? My pharmacist told me that with 2 of my meds I cannot do that with so I am having to be changed to a different medication. My old meds worked so well for me.

Who said you can't take pills? I take 4 every night with my dinner.

In some situations, if you become too restricted, you may have a problem with pills, but generally speaking, you should be able to take most per normal. I would be a bit afraid of very large pills, such as herbal supplements, etc. But, if you have no problem with the ones you take, you should not have to change your prescriptions.

Again, on some occasions, you can become too restricted to swallow some capsules or tablets, so you may have to resort to crushing or breaking in half or opening the capsule, but this is not a requirement if you're not having any problems.

Most importantly, you DO NOT want something like these medications sitting for long periods in your upper pouch due to irritation/possible erosion of the stomach lining. Immediately following your initial surgery - you may have to temporarily make some changes to your regimen, due to swelling of the esophagus and upper stomach.

Hi Phyllis,

Whether you have to crush pills when banded depends on how much restriction you have and the size of the pills. There have been many stretches when I could take even fairly large-size Vitamin pills with no problem, but if you know your restriction is fairly tight you might want to stay away from the big ones. I take a small pill every morning and have never had a single problem from that one.

It's just a matter of caution and personal experience. If you take any pills larger than, say, a pencil eraser, you may want to find an alternate like a liquid. Having a pill get stuck in the stoma is no fun at all.

I also take my pills without any problems... you may want to ask your surgeon before switching your meds to liquids. I did crush most of my pills for the first two weeks post-op because I was very restricted. I did take liquid tylenol for 2 weeks post-op as well.

Darcy

Darcy - I am doing the happy dance for you, look at that new 51 pounds gone! :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana

Whooooo Hoooooo, I am so happy for you!

I see you live in Houston (or at least will be here for surgery). I didn't take my pills in their regular form for the first month because I was supposed to be on liquids only and I took that very literally. But now I take all my pills. Some I cut in half first (after checking with the pharmacist to make sure it's OK). But an option for the first month is to go to a compounding pharmacy. The one I used is Greenpark pharmacy, but you might want to ask your pharmacist if he knows of others in your area. I took my newly filled prescriptions (pills) to them and they made it into a liquid. Some of them tasted awful, but at least it worked. And I think they can do it with any medicine.It cost $30.00 per prescription.

Nancy

Thanks Betty! It was a milestone that deserved to be in the pink! Next stop... Onederland!

Nancy... I agree about the awful tasting part... no amount of liquid or applesauce can disquise that bitter taste! I thought the liquid pain medicine was absolutely horrid... lucky... I didn't need it much!

I take a Nexium capsule every morning. Sometimes it gets stuck for a second. I should probably switch to taking it at night when I am looser, but am afraid I'll forget it. I take it with a warm beverage to melt it.

Phyllis, didn't you have to give Dr. Spivak a list of all your routine meds. and dosages on your initial visit? I also brought my daily meds with me to the hospital and showed them to him the day of my banding. He was able to visually see their size and tell me which ones to change. With improved health, I was able to get off of several permanently.

Hi Marie!

Spivak told me I would have to crush pills and open capsules, and I said. OK, however I just jumped to my next question and did not ask why. He looked at my list of meds. He did not say spefically that this would be for a short time or long time but the way he said it made me assume it would be long term. I will definately check with him before surgery, becasue I've got to have these meds ready for me when I get home. The problem with that is that I have gone through a lot finding blood pressure (tried about 8) before I came up with 3 that really work good and other meds that really seem to work for me. I talked with my pharmacist in depth and some I can not crush or empty the capsules. She took a lot of time looking all this up and even called one manucturer. They can compound 1 or two, but I take 3 high blood pressure pills plus generic lasix, nexium and several others. I was surprised about one of my blood pressure meds called Hytrin, which looks like a red pill. Come to find it is filled with a blood pressure "oil" and not safe to open up becase it wouold drop the blood pressure too fast. My potassium pill will disolve in Water which is convenient.

Geez, so much to learn. I am going to prepare a list so I can bombard Spivak with all my question!

Thanks to all who game me some feedback on this, as I really appreciate it.

I take Prilosec - capsule, larger than some every night.

I also take Pamelor, larger than that, every night.

I take zocor which is a tablet, sorta triangular. no problems.

And Coumadin - tablet, extremely important.

As long as I take them with food, I'm okay. I have never been able to just take them with liquids at all. I did, however, have a problem with them when I became overfilled once. The pamelor was the worst, but I worked it out.

Remember, with weight loss, you may even be able to discontinue some of your blood pressure meds. Now wouldn't that be nice.

Good luck!

Do not crush any extended time-released pills before taking. You will not get the dosage consistently the way it is intended. Those need to be exchanged for a non-time released med. There are tons of different meds available. And, again, your improved health should enable you to reduce or eliminate many. Just take your actual pills and show Dr. Spivak what size they are. Write down what you take - name, dosage, reason for each medicine - including any vitamins and/or herbal supplements you take. He recommends - before eating -drink 4 ounces of water, then take correct size pill, then immediately drink 4 more ounces of water (to flush pill through the stoma). Then you can eat, if needed. He adjusted (reduced) my blood pressures, asthmas, hiatal hernia/reflux meds. before I left the hospital with my band. What type ailments are you taking prescription meds. for?

I haven't had any problems taking pills at all, the pain med was huge, I did cut into 3 pieces before taking. I usually take a couple swigs of Water, then swallow pills, then couple of more swigs to help disolve it, or maybe that's dislodge it...what ever I haven't had any problems, but I don't want erosion to happen either.

Marie, thank goodness, my doc fixed my hiatal hernia while he was installing the band, boy has it made a difference. Tums use to be my very best friend, in the car, beside the bed, next to my chair, on the kitchen counter, in my purse, well you get the pic.