Ibuprofen- damage????

This week makes my 3 yr. anniversary for WLS- gastric bypass. I have had such great success that I could be the poster child for WLS. BUT...During the past 12 months I have sufferred greatly with hip pain from an accident. My ortho. surgeon prescribed 800 mg. Ibuprofen and I was on prednisone for 60 days, as well. I had never been told not to take these medicines once I've had this surgery. Now, I accidentally come across information and now am very scared that I may have caused damage to my pouch. I have gained approx. 15 pounds of the 110 I lost. I dropped from a size 24 to a size 8 but am now into size 10-12 due to the weight gain. I know what to do to get back on track but now realize that the burning in my stomach that I've been covering with many mini-meals may actually be causing more damage than just the weight gain. Does anyone have any info. to share with me. I will make an appt. with my WLS surgeon this week, but I am scared!!!!

Hi, I'm glad to hear you are going to make an apt with your wls surgeon this week.  I would immediately stop taking the Ibuprofen.  Back in January they thought I had a gastric fiscula (which is when an ulcer eats thru your new pouch and it reconnects with your distal (old) stomach.)  Thankfully, I did NOT have a gastric fiscula but had an internal hernia which Dr. Hornbostel easily repaired.  When I went into see my WLS surgeon I discussed with him the possiblities of having an ulcer after wls.  He said they cannot do the scope as they did before and even if they went thru the colon it would not be a useful way to tell if I actually had an ulcer.  I then asked him  if it would be okay to treat me as though I did have an ulcer.  The treatment is two weeks of generic form of Biaxicn (sp?) and you take two priolsecs a day as well.  Dr. H thought that would be fine and he prescribed it for me.  It did give me a lot of peace of mind.  Maybe it is something you can discuss with your wls surgeon? I wish you well, please keep us posted on how you are doing. Debbie D.

  Prednisone is EVIL....it is great when you need it but the side affects are terrible and I'm afraid since you took it for so long that is probably what you are going through.  Weight gain is a big one...I doubt if your small meals amounted to enough to gain that much unless you are just sitting on the couch all day stuffing your face....Ibuprofen can also be hard on the stomach and if you were taking them both you definitely should have been on prilosec or something equivalent with it.  I hope your doc tells you everything is fine...i'll send some prayers up for you....keep us posted....Nancy

I agree, if your weight gain was sudden, then it was most likely the prednisone.  It's notorious for that.  Ibuprofen can definitely lead to ulcers and I'm not sure if it would/could in a 60 day time-frame or not.  My surgeon put me on Prevacid right after surgery and I've taken it every day since and will continue to help prevent ulcers.  I have actually a couple of times gone without the Prevacid due to my not getting my prescription refilled in time (we have mail-order for maintenance prescriptions, so it can take a week or more to get them here, once you actually order them) and I could tell that I wasn't taking it - so it must be working.  I'd say once you stop the prednisone, get back to regular eating habits/patterns and continuing with your exercising, that weight should come off. 

It's probably the prednisone.  One of the many side effects is that it will make you extremely hungry.  The last time I took prednisone for an upper respiratory infection, I could have driven through every drive-through within a 20 mile radius of my house.  ( I haven't had surgery yet).  Now as for the ibuprofen, the seminar I went to, the surgeon says that he only prescribes Celebrex.  I have taken that in the past and even without surgery, it has caused me stomach distress.  Might need to take it with a meal.  Give your surgeon's office a call.  I would much more take the advice of my bariatric surgeon over someone else.  Hang in there.  The prednisone is a quick healing agent.  I hope you are well soon.