What Would You Do?

[GradyCat 3,692]

5 hours ago, MsMocie said:

I've never heard of this no coffee thing. They offered us coffee at the hospital even.

Now that you mention it, they gave me coffee the morning after surgery too.

[jlb8080 45]

I am not limited caffeine. I am 9 weeks out and drink coffee here and there. Not a lot, but it's not against my surgeons plan..

[kc892020 90]

On 2/16/2020 at 5:59 PM, JRT Mom said:

I've posted this on every forum where appropriate, and I'm gonna again:

I'm always astounded at the lack of consensus these bariatric doctors have. Everything is waaaay all over the map concerning pre-op and post op diet requirements. Some allow this, others ban that...I really wish they'd get together at some symposium and come up with some guidelines they all would use and then maybe things would be less confusing for their patients!

I couldn't agree more. The confusion is terrible! Every surgeon and nutritionist is different. They need to be more organized. This is too life-altering a procedure for everyone to be all over the place. I would also like to add that they are in terrible need of educating hospitals and other medical professionals about bariatrics. There are certain medications and foods we can't have anymore and also no NG tubes (God forbid anyone never needs one of them). You'd be surprised at how many other healthcare professionals are totally unaware of all that. It's crazy.

[kc892020 90]

On 2/16/2020 at 9:57 PM, GradyCat said:

Now that you mention it, they gave me coffee the morning after surgery too.

Wow, just goes to show every doctor's different in what's allowed, what's not allowed.

[kc892020 90]

On 2/17/2020 at 9:42 AM, jlb8080 said:

I am not limited caffeine. I am 9 weeks out and drink coffee here and there. Not a lot, but it's not against my surgeons plan..

It's interesting how every surgeon is different in what's allowed/not allowed.

[kc892020 90]

On 2/16/2020 at 7:08 PM, catwoman7 said:

some surgeons allow patients to have caffeine, some don't. I don't think it would cause the bleeding, otherwise, no surgeons would allow it.

Looking back to what I posted, I definitely overreacted. It wasn't the caffeine, though the caffeine could've been linked to other issues I was having. My surgeon told me that there was actually no way to determine what caused the bleeding. He said every year, "there's always one bleeder," and it looks like for this year that was me. I then proceeded to ask if that meant I get a prize and he just laughed.

[DB in AZ 46]

Regardless of whether the caffeine that you consumed in this product cause your GI bleed you definitely need to question the surgical team regarding their policies.To be essentially prescribed a product that contains caffeine while their policy states no caffeine whatsoever is very inconsistent. I'm wondering if there even aware that this Protein Powder contains caffeine.

[kc892020 90]

23 hours ago, DB in AZ said:

Regardless of whether the caffeine that you consumed in this product cause your GI bleed you definitely need to question the surgical team regarding their policies.To be essentially prescribed a product that contains caffeine while their policy states no caffeine whatsoever is very inconsistent. I'm wondering if there even aware that this Protein Powder contains caffeine.

I spoke to the staff about it, and they claimed they were not aware and were "very surprised." They apologized profusely and said in the future, they would reserve that particular kind only for those who are six months or more out (since that's when they say we can have caffeine again). Hopefully, they remember to do that.

[KaysMommy 1,089]

I was never told no caffeine. It’s very frustrating the difference the surgeons have.

In regards to your complications , it happens. I had endless complications for 8 months after surgery. Multiple surgeries, infections, peg tube, PE, bowel rupture. Out of 8 months I was in the hospital 6 months of that. I joked with my surgeon once that anything that could go wrong did go wrong. But now I’m a teaching case. I’m 8 years out, and I hadn’t seen him in 6 years till this past August. I had some issues other specialists couldn’t understand all I had been through so I sought him out. He is now running a bariatric program 5 hours from where he performed my surgery. All his staff knew of me. He knew exactly what I needed and no more problems following his suggestions. These complications can hopefully help others that come after us by teaching these surgeons better ways of doing things.

I hope that is the extent of your complications and you can move forward and kick butt in this process. I used to think it wasn’t worth it from what I went through. But now I’m healthy inside and out.

[kc892020 90]

On 3/6/2020 at 9:28 PM, KaysMommy said:

I was never told no caffeine. It’s very frustrating the difference the surgeons have.

In regards to your complications , it happens. I had endless complications for 8 months after surgery. Multiple surgeries, infections, peg tube, PE, bowel rupture. Out of 8 months I was in the hospital 6 months of that. I joked with my surgeon once that anything that could go wrong did go wrong. But now I’m a teaching case. I’m 8 years out, and I hadn’t seen him in 6 years till this past August. I had some issues other specialists couldn’t understand all I had been through so I sought him out. He is now running a bariatric program 5 hours from where he performed my surgery. All his staff knew of me. He knew exactly what I needed and no more problems following his suggestions. These complications can hopefully help others that come after us by teaching these surgeons better ways of doing things.

I hope that is the extent of your complications and you can move forward and kick butt in this process. I used to think it wasn’t worth it from what I went through. But now I’m healthy inside and out.

Oh my gosh. That sounds just awful! I'm very happy you are doing well now. That is all so scary. I hope this was the last of the complications as well. They aren't messing around when they say this is a big decision. I think that's the most valuable lesson I learned. A lot of people were like, "oh it's so routine now, no one ever has any problems" before I got the surgery. But complications can still and do very much happen. And it's frustrating and scary when it happens to you because there's no way you can ever be prepared for that.