Hello Everyone,

I'm in terrible need of advice. I am one month and three days post-op, gastric bypass. I just got home from spending almost five days in the hospital due to gastrointestinal bleeding. Throughout my hospital stay, I kept asking myself why this would have happened when I was complient and followed all the post-op rules.

Then, today when I got home, I think I figured it out.

I was about to make my daily protein shakes (since the doctor told me to resume protein) when I noticed some interesting fine print on the canister: "contains 100mg of caffeine pet scoop." Oh. Holy. Crap.

I had purchased this canister at the surgical weight loss center UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF MY DIETICIAN. Purchasing three canisters of this brand was a requirement for surgery. Given that nothing was said by my dietician when I purchased it, I naturally assumed it was ok to buy this particular flavor. After all, why would they sell you something that contained ingredients you couldn't have?

Given that the recipe the dietician wanted us to follow per day was two scoops plus twelve ounces of milk, that means I was drinking 200 mg of caffeine for the first month!! It's no wonder I had so many problems!

Caffeine as you are all aware, is forbidden the first six months after surgery, as it can lead to serious gastrointestinal irritation, dehydration, and difficulty losing weight. Given that all that clearly happened to me, that particular flavor of protein shake had to be the culprit.

My question is, what would you do in this situation? I know part of it is my fault for not ready the label, but again, I trusted the dietician and the surgical center. I had so many witnesses when I bought it, you think someone would have said something if they knew.

I don't know how to approach the surgical center about this. Part of it is clearly my fault for not reading the label thoroughly, but at the same time, I trusted them. That's why I'm asking for advice. I see my surgeon again this week to follow-up on last weeks' hospital stay.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.