lap band and medications

Hi everyone, I'm considering lap band surgery. Does anyone have any experience to share about being able to swallow daily medications after the band is in place?

Many surgeons tell you to take medications in liquid form, and/or to crush tablets or open capsules and mix the medication into a food (like applesauce or pudding). Some medications (like time-released capsules) should not be crushed (or the capsules opened), so you would have to discuss alternatives with whoever prescribes the med for you.

I have never had an easy time swallowing pills or capsules, and it didn't get easier after I was banded, but most of the time I was able to swallow small capsules whole and tablets cut into 2 or 4 pieces (using a pill splitter).

You will definitely have to be careful about swallowing meds, vitamins and mineral supplements. I tried to swallow a big antibiotic capsule once and ended up in the ER twice with chest pain so bad, I thought I was having a heart attack. What actually happened is that the capsule couldn't pass through my stoma (the narrow opening between the upper and lower stomach pouches) and sat there slowly dissolving into a corrosive sludge.

As far as I know, bypass, sleeve and duodenal switch patients are also cautioned about swallowing meds. I revised to the sleeve recently and am able to swalow meds more easily, but I'm still splitting big tablets into smaller pieces, just to be safe.

i've not had any trouble taking medications or vitamins, but i also go out of my way to make sure i'm not trying to swallow a horse pill. i don't want to make thing harder on the band than food already is at times. dime sized tablets and capsules don't seem to bother me. anything much bigger than that and i start having issues.

 I was cutting my larger pills in half.  One, Allegra was very tough and sharp after cutting and I started having problems getting stuck on my Meds.  The PA who does my fills suggested taking Zyrtec, which is smaller.  So far so good.  She also thought the sharp edges of the Allegra was cutting my stomach and may have been a contributing factor in the scar tissue I have.

I pay absolutely no attention to the BAND RULES.  I take whatever meds I want, as often as I want.  I don;t care about that NSAID crap, or whatever they tell you in lap band training,  I just take stuff.

 I only had to crush my pills the day after surgery.

I have no issues taking large pills at all.

Tom, Toronto
Banded July 6 06 
Wt. Loss;  156 lbs
[email protected]

There were lots of pills I couldn't take without cutting or crushing right up to the end.  I did take some whole rather than cutting as stated above about the ruff edges.  I followed all the band rules and still lost the band go figure.

When I had my band, I made a point to drink some warm liquid before swallowing any pills and did not have any problems. On the few occasions I had a large pill to swallow, I coated it in a little olive oil before swallowing just to give it a little more slip.

I never had any problems with any problems with any medications.  I just went through a period when I had to take 4 different antibiotics all pretty big and I had no problems...and I'm filled to about 9.8 ccs

I've always had problems with swallowing pills even before the band. I crush my pills or take in liquid form.