Taking meds....

I am trying for a revision from band to sleeve.  Do you really have to crush all of your medicine?  They told me that when I got the band and I did cru**** for several years, but I realized that I don't have to do that at all.  I can swallow a handful of pills at a time.  I will crush if I have to , but it is such a nuisance!

Hi Kathy,

I have been swallowing pills since the day of my surgery. Of course all doctors are.different so it will depend on your surgeon. 

I haven't had to crush any pills but I have seen others that do. 

Right after surgery, I took a bunch of meds. Not just painkillers, but several meds for bipolar as well. For the first few weeks, I split all of my pills and swallowed them individually with a sip of water-- it took probably 15 minutes to get everything down.

Now that I'm healed up, I can throw back a whole handful and one swig of water with no trouble.

With the revision to sleeve, you won't have a tiny, pill-stopping stoma anymore, only a tiny stomach. After your stomach heals enough, you will be able to swallow pills whole again. Your surgeon will let you know when.

psychoticparrot

That is something that I have noticed in my research.  A question for you. If the stomach "pouch" with the sleeve is larger than with the lap band, how do you feel full?  I never got that full feeling that so many with the band profess to experience.  My surgeon has recommended revision to the sleeve and I am now wondering if it is really that different than the band?  This time has to work and last.

I had the good-for-nothing lap-band too. It was either too tight or too loose -- never did the job it was supposed to do, so even though I had the thing for 10 years, I never once had a proper, healthy tiny meal that filled the pouch and emptied slowly through the stoma into the stomach. I also was a victim of the once-bitten, twice-shy hesitation when researching the sleeve. I figured that at least with the band, I could always have it taken out. But the sleeve is for life, so what if it turns out to be just as awful as the band?

The quick answer is that the band is to the sleeve what a sparrow is to an eagle. There's no comparison in effectiveness and comfort. After months of back-and-forthing, I realized that doing nothing would be even worse for me than anything the sleeve could do, so I took a deep breath and got the revision done on Feb. 2 of last year (my surgiversary is in two days). To date, I've lost 110 pounds, an amount I hardly dared even imagine when I got the surgery. I expect to reach goal by this summer. The sleeve works. I can't say more than that.

To answer your other question: First, the sleeve is not a "pouch." It's a long, banana-shaped tube that's left after most of the rest of your stomach is removed. There's no more stoma to block the natural passage of food from the esophagus to the stomach, and food empties naturally through the pyloric valve from the stomach to the small intestines. The sleeve is a "tummy tuck" is the most literal sense of the term. You will be able to eat only a few ounces of food at a time, but the food must be the right kind or the sleeve won't work for you.

After your sleeve is fully recovered after surgery, you must always start each meal with dense, lean protein -- meat, chicken, fish, eggs, tofu, beans, followed by a few bites of non-starchy vegetables. The protein fills your sleeve and empties slowly out of the pyloric valve (Frisco has a great post, "Pyloric Valve 101," that explains this much more extensively). The protein is what will keep you feeling full and satisfied till your next meal. There's a lot more to it than that -- sufficien****er intake, vitamins, exercise. You will learn all that before your surgery.

Every sleever seems to have his/her own signal for impending "fullness": hiccups, a burp, runny nose. Personally, I just start to feel full, just as in pre-band days. If you have the surgery, you will discover your body's way of telling you when you've had enough to eat. If you push beyond that, you'll hurl. Easy peasy.

psychoticparrot

My surgeon allows patients to swallow any pill that will fit through a standard size wedding ring immediately after surgery. There was one pill I had to split with a pill splitter for several weeks, and one med (Lortab) that I was provided in liquid form. I never had to crush anything and was given the go-ahead to take any pill the regular way at 6 weeks out.