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Tired of the med crushing.



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Any input would be great. I'm getting different opinions within my surgeon's office on when to stop crushing my meds. The nurse said ,oh give it a couple of weeks,the Dietician is saying wait 6 to 7 more weeks. I don't get it.

How can it be that I can eat things like scrambled eggs but not take a tiny pill whole ?

Can you guys let me know what you were advised ? Thanks :whatchutalkingabout !

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My Doctor never required me to crush my meds. The day after surgery I was taking whole pills by mouth. You can eat just about anything you want right now but not take pills? Thats weird but I guess every surgeon is different.

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It's a mystery to me too. I read on here about getting chewable Vitamins and bought 2 bottles under the belief I wasnt supposed to take regular pills.

Then I have my surgery and my surgeon gives me antibiotics big enough to gag a horse for me to take for a few days. I took them, no problems, but the advise I saw on here was confusing. I still have those chewable vitamins I bought from advice on here, anyone need them?? lol

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My Doctor never required me to crush my meds. The day after surgery I was taking whole pills by mouth. You can eat just about anything you want right now but not take pills? Thats weird but I guess every surgeon is different.

That's what I don't get either. In fact ,it's not even my surgeon that I hear this from. I haven't seen him since November. It's the Nurses or the Dieticians that I see and every single one of them ,gives me a different answer. So far I have 3 answers from that office lol. I forgot about the 3rd one lol. It's a huge inconvience and I hate the taste and sometimes the way it makes me feel. I see the Surgeon's Physician Assistant tomorrow so i'm hoping to finally set the record straight. I hope.:whatchutalkingabout

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Before surgery - Surgeon said to follow primary care directions on meds and crush or no crush. I also asked pharmacy for advice on what could be and could not be safely crushed.

I had Lap Band Surgery on 11/18/08.

Med's that I was on that could be crushed - I crushed for one week.

Med's that are time release (wellbrutin) could NOT be crushed - could cause seizures if crushed. Swallowed them whole immediately after surgery.

Two weeks out now and on mushies and I now swallow all med's whole (except take chewable Vitamin - because that is what I have - and chewable Calcium citrate - because that is what I have. Nutritionist said on calcium citrate to buy one month supply of chewable and after that whatever version I wanted).

Just sharing the version I was told on med's.

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I was told I could take whole pills also . . . if they were big, split them in half. The only requirement was to drink a full cup of Water immediately after to flush them through.

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I crushed all my med's for the first six weeks, then my doctor told me only the big/thick pills I should continue to crush so they don't get caught. :whatchutalkingabout

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I was told that I could swallow any pills that were no bigger than the size of an M&M. Anything bigger than that needed to be either split or crushed. I have split a couple and even opened one capsule. I won't be doing the opening of capsules again unless it is just unavoidable. That open capsule was so gross (even in applesauce). I won't make that mistake again. I hope that you are able to get a straight answer from your doctor's office.

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My nurse insists that it's okay for me to take my meds, without crushing any of them. Even the day after surgery. I was SO scared, cause a couple are fairly big. I guess one is the size of an M&M and the other two are big capsules. We went over and over it. I MAY have been getting on her nerves a little bit. :)

I also checked with my pharmacist before the surgery. She said that it may be possible to have some compounded at a special pharmacy. I guess I don't have to go through that, since the nurse really thinks I'll be okay. I'm not totally convinced. How come I can swallow these big pills, but I can't have mashed potatoes??? I saw my shrink the other day and just asked her to prescribe the smallest pill size possible, so that I didn't have to worry about them getting stuck. I'll be popping little pills all day. Hopefully it'll be okay.

I can't wait for some idiot to say something about WLS being the "easy" way out. :tongue2:

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Any input would be great. I'm getting different opinions within my surgeon's office on when to stop crushing my meds. The nurse said ,oh give it a couple of weeks,the Dietician is saying wait 6 to 7 more weeks. I don't get it.

How can it be that I can eat things like scrambled eggs but not take a tiny pill whole ?

Can you guys let me know what you were advised ? Thanks :tongue2: !

I swallowed my pills the day after surgery. The Dr said as long as they fit through the top of a Water bottle they will be fine. I have had no problems.

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I think meds which are needed as opposed to mashed potatoes are a different issue. The mashed potatoes I could have 3 days after surgery, I did liquids 3 days and then mushies for 4 weeks. Each doctor is different. That's a issue of not making your stomach work any more than necessary. Its not because you couldnt eat them if you wanted to.

The meds are possible, even if they briefly make your stomach work to prevent whatever.

Some people have swelling after surgery and a day or two or some for a couple of weeks which makes them feel restricted as the swelling goes down. Some of us had almost no swelling.

I have never had a food get stuck, and my fill doctor showed me on the fluoro how tight I am, as tight as she is willing to make me. Not everyone has stuck food, and Im tight. Iv never had any vomiting or any of that, not even with three tight fills. Some fill doctors dont use fluoro and barium swallow test every fill so maybe they are getting too tight, or tighter than my fill doctor allows. Too tight is not normal with every fill doctor. There are some that guess and stick you without fluoro, but thats not the kind I use. Iv always been able to take any size pill too. If you are getting food stuck and vomiting you are too tight.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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