OTC Drugs post surgery

OK Guys

Quick question. What over the counter drugs did you use after surgery? I have seen gas-x, anything else?

Thanks!

Gas x strips and something to get you moving again; milk magnesium and the stay regular with miralax and softness. Very important.

Miralax at first and then Benefiber. And Tylenol for pain. That was it.

The Gas-X strips only help with intestinal gas. The gas pain that you get after surgery has to do with the anesthesia and all the air they blow you up with in order to do the surgery. That gas hurts like a ***** and tends to get lodged in certain parts of the body. Gas-X does nothing for it. Only walking helps move that out.

Miralax and/or Colace to help keep things moving and Ibuprofin or naproxen for pain from whatever source.

I take colace everyday to help with constipation and Tylenol to help with pain. You are not supposed to take any nsaids (ibuprofen, meloxicam, naproxen) because they irritate the stomach. I take Prilosec for stomach acid and Zyrtec for allergies. Always check with your doctor first to make sure any medicine is OK to take.

The NSAID thing is one of the controversial issues in the business. They are a big no-no for the RNY due to specific shortcomings of that procedure that doesn't apply to sleeve based procedures like the VSG and DS, however many docs carried over their bypass advice to sleeve patients when they added VSG to their practice, while those who have been performing sleeves for an extended period of years still generally allow the use of NSAIDs (my doc recommends them for use as soon as the prescription narcotic pain relievers are no longer appropriate post-op; I will take his 20+ years of working with sleeves over the guys who are still promoting the bypass as their best effort.)

That said, they are serious drugs that even normal people should only take occasionally, and if used consistently should be done so under a physicians' supervision. We, as sleevers, may be somewhat more sensitive to them than the normies, but that is no where near the level of a bypass patient. Tylenol, if overused, can be just as problematic, if not more so, than NSAIDs due to its lower toxicity level. There is no free lunch.

Short answer here is to follow your doc's advice (that's what you, or your insurance company, has paid him for!), at least until such time as it proves unreliable.

Tylenol, Colace, Miralax, and Prilosec.