Chronic Pain & Pain Medication

If you take that much ibuprofen on a daily basis just to stay comfortable/functional, I would highly recommend the VSG over the bypass (RnY).

NSAIDS - even topical ones - are absolutely not an option if you've had a gastric bypass. You might try the search feature here and put in something like "NSAIDS" or "NSAIDS and RnY". And I'm sure others will reply to your post as well.

I'm over nine years out from surgery and the no NSAIDS rule has been by far the hardest thing I had to deal with.

Glad to see you are researching this before surgery. Good luck and I hope you find the answers you are seeking.

Thank You. I will ask my surgeon as well if there's a patch or something I can wear.

Topical patches with NSAIDS are also not recommended. NSAIDS are systematic medication - it does not matter if you take it orally in IV or transdermally. Once they enter the blood stream - they may and will affect the stomach lining.

The problem with RNY and NSAIDS is that we have blind stomach that can get ulcers and bleeding ulcers and the only way to know for sure is to get surgery to check it.

if you get bleeding ulcer in your blind stomach - not only will you bleed internally and not know it until it may be too late, but there is no way to treat it (typical meds -Carafate is taken orally to coat the stomach and allow the ulcer to heal)

Plus bleeding stomach can lead to perforated stomach and blood and acid may flow freely into your internal cavity - can cause a severe damage to your internal organs,

The most recent recommendations say no NSAIDs after VSG, either.

I didn't know that Julie. I'm glad you came over and addressed it.

It makes sense. VSG's don't have a blind stomach. But they have a smaller stomach and ulcers would definitely have a negative impact. You certainly wouldn't want to lose any more stomach tissue to ulcers.

Many people metabolize pain medication differently after RNY, this may be a problem for you if you are at the maximum possible before surgery.

I doubt you'll find a doctor comfortable with increasing doses of narcotics above what you take now and you may find the dose no longer covers your pain.

The increased rate of addiction after surgery is something else you may like to consider. Google "transfer addiction" or search above

Well... I wasn't asking or even thinking of having my medication increased ? Not sure where you read that in my statement.

My problem with medications is that it affects my breathing so I don't even like taking medications so as far as a transfer addiction regarding taking medications that's not something that I see me doing with medications. Don't use medications to get high. I know there's a lot of people that use medications like that but I am extremely sensitive to medications like I said and therefore the less I take for my pain the better off I am.

Now concerning transfer addiction and other areas that I can understand but I've never been a person that likes the feeling of any kind of drugs or alcohol. Shopping could be another story I would have to be mindful of.

Hopefully Kim will be back to elaborate on her post. I don't think she was talking about you wanting to take a larger dose of your meds right now though.

Some of us just don't metabolize meds the same way after surgery as we did before. Many times we need a higher dose post op to get the same results that we had with a smaller dose before surgery. It's not that you would want more drugs. It's that you may need more drugs to get the same amount of relief. Personally I have found this to be the case with some medications myself.

Not sure if this is true for the VSG but hoping some will see your post here and come over to check in.

I'm really glad you are checking into all of this before surgery. It's going to save you a lot of grief.