After 18 months following VSG, I am still taking Numbetone for osteoarthritis.  I do just take one tab a day even though I am prescribed two.  Just in the morning along with a dose of generic prilosec to protect my stomach.  I have not had any issues whatsoever.  Of course the weight loss has helped tremendously with the arthritic pain and the one dose seems to give me enough relief.  My biggest issue is with my hands (thumb joints in particular) and with my shoulders.  Prior to surgery I was taking meloxicam but asked to try something different.  They would have let me stay on meloxicam for your information.

I am four months out from surgery.  Down almost 70 pounds.  Still pretty bad pain in my knee, and it seems to get worse the more weight I lose.  BUT I take nothing except Tylenol, so basically on no meds.  I was scheduled to have a knee replacement, but I had a minor stroke so that was put off until after March.  I take turmeric 2000 mg a day, which seems to help with arthritis in general but not the knee, which is already bone-on-bone.

Even though the knee (and legs, really) are worse, I am SO GLAD I had the surgery.  I definitely recommending having it.

Auto-immune arthritis here.  I am encouraged to exercise, and do OK if I don't push myself.  Was cleared to do light weights, and signed up with a trainer, but even though it didn't feel like too much weight at the time, I would go home and wake up the next day with a full body auto-immune flare.  I did some research and talked to some physio experts and they said with auto-immune arthritis, they have to start REALLY light with weights.  Like 10-15% of body weight for upper body work and 25% of body weight for lower body.  My trainer was shocked at how little weight it was, but agreed to go along with the plan, and so far we're doing OK, no more flares.  And instead of adding weight every week, we're holding at weights for 3 or 4 weeks before adding more.  It's a delicate balance, because exercise is good and necessary, but for some conditions just a tiny bit too much can set you back so far.  My progress is so slow it's frustrating, but I remind myself that no matter how slow, it's still progress.

Hey!  New here on this board, but I had VSG 8/17/2016 on the advice of my rheumatologist.  I have rheumatoid/psoriatic arthritis.  VSG was the only WLS that would allow me to take NSAIDs and steroids as needed for my condition.  It's not ideal with any WLS, but it's a relative contraindication as opposed to a complete contraindication such as the RNY and LapBand.

So far I've only had to take my NSAIDs twice since surgery.  My rheumy told me there was no guarantee, but the stomach tissue that is removed with VSG secretes some of the hormones involved in the inflammatory process, so my inflammation could go down after the surgery.  My inflammatory factor counts have been going down since about 3 weeks after surgery, so my RA/PsA meds are working better, and my joints aren't hurting as much.  The 72# lost helps too, I'm sure.

Right now I'm trying to get active again, and it's hard because if I overdo, I get into an auto-immune flare and can't move for 4 days, so I have to start out REALLY light with weights and such and increase them VERY slowly.  But as long as I keep moving forward, I figure I'm improving even if it is slow.

Not sure if any of this is helpful, but that's my story.  :)

I got that... at my one-week post-op with PCP, she suggested that I ask my surgeon if I could use an NSAID patch.  I asked at my two-week post-op with surgeon.  He said:  "no NSAIDs.  Period.  Ever.  No oral, no injectable, no patch, nothing that is labeled NSAID!"  My PCP said she had never heard that before.  Duh.

Hopefully they can find something that will help.  Turmeric is really helping with the arthritis in general, but the hip and leg pain is pretty bad still.