How long to crush meds?

[Studio54 27]

I am three weeks postop and a few days. I am only taking one small blood pressure medicine, besides the anti-acid postop med. The nurse for my surgeon just informed me that I need to crush meds for up to a year. This seems like a ridiculously long time. Crushed blood pressure med taste disgusting no matter what I put it in.

And no my weight loss will most likely not rid me of the high blood pressure ☹️ Even when I was skinny I had no blood pressure issues until I had a near death experience with the pregnancy of my daughter. Hospitalize multiple times, HELLP syndrome, the works. She is 17.5 years old...And I’ve never been able to come off the blood pressure meds since.

[catwoman7 11,220]

I never crushed pills. The PA at my clinic said if the pills were smaller than a pencil eraser, I could swallow them. I only had two pills that were bigger than that - one of those Calcium horse pills and one other that I can't recall. I got around the calcium one by buying chewables. For that other one I can't remember, he said I could hold off on taking that for two or three weeks. At that point, I could swallow it regularly.

[catwoman7 11,220]

Just now, catwoman7 said:

I never crushed pills. The PA at my clinic said if the pills were smaller than a pencil eraser, I could swallow them. I only had two pills that were bigger than that - one of those Calcium horse pills and one other that I can't recall. I got around the Calcium one by buying chewables. For that other one I can't remember, he said I could hold off on taking that for two or three weeks. At that point, I could swallow it regularly.

btw - I'm not sure why she told you a year. The first few weeks, your stomach is swollen so that does make some sense (although luckily, I was given the go-ahead not to crush them), but I have no idea why she told you to crush them for a year. I've never heard that. You can swallow food particles larger than that at a couple of months out (if not before), so....???

[Studio54 27]

That’s what I thought! Seems like too long...

[momof3_angels 465]

I never had to crush pills. They gave me a few post-op meds in liquid form. Vitamins (once re-introduced) were in chewable form for a while. My normal medications and a couple post-op medications were always in pill form. They had me swallowing pills a few hours post op. With my smaller pills I was able to take them all at once from the beginning. Some bigger tablets I had to either swallow alone or split in half. A year IS a ridiculously long time.... but perhaps you should question WHY they said a year? Perhaps she only meant some people have to do it longer? Perhaps she does want YOU to do it longer. I was swallowing horse pill size vitamins long before a year post-op.

[Studio54 27]

Maybe the difference is sleeve vs. roux en y ... But I doubt it! Will ask at my follow up March 30 with surgeon...

[catwoman7 11,220]

1 minute ago, Studio54 said:

Maybe the difference is sleeve vs. roux en y ... But I doubt it! Will ask at my follow up March 30 with surgeon...

I don't think so. Our crew all got the same message regardless of surgery. Plus I've been active on internet bariatric forums for six years and have never heard a year - it seems like most people are told a few weeks or maybe a couple of months (and a few of us never crush our pills even from the get-go). It's probably like caffeine - surgeons opinions differ.

[ms.sss 15,721]

My doc never told me to crush pills, I just tried it myself ONCE to try to make it going down easier (around week 2). All that did was just make it come back UP easier. YUCK.

Swallowed them all whole ever since (with the exception of my Calcium chewables when i discovered them...tastes like chocolate carmels, YUM).

[RickM 1,752]

I never crushed them, either. Classically, that has been something of a bypass thing as they feared that pills could get stuck in the stoma, but as you can see from catwoman, that is far from a universal thing.

Some practices really go overboard on their instructions on how long things need to be done or avoided, maybe to inspire their patients to go along with it rather than see it as just a short time thing that they can skip. Sometimes it may be a matter of ignorance, in that they say that something needs to be done for a year, and that works well, but they really don't really know from experience how long it needs to be done as they never experimented with it. For instance, I have seen a couple come through these forums that were surprised when their doc advanced them to the next eating stage earlier than their published guideline; when asked about it, the doc simply said that they had found patients cheating on the progression and not suffering from it, so they advanced it (they'll change it next time they print up more guidebooks.) You will find a lot of things like that in the bariatric world - some crush pills or use chewables while others never do; some are on a liquid diet at the same point that others are having steak, some have liquid pre op diets and some have none.... There is a lot more experience and habit than science in this game.

[ShoppGirl 5,022]

5 hours ago, catwoman7 said:

btw - I'm not sure why she told you a year. The first few weeks, your stomach is swollen so that does make some sense (although luckily, I was given the go-ahead not to crush them), but I have no idea why she told you to crush them for a year. I've never heard that. You can swallow food particles larger than that at a couple of months out (if not before), so....???

It could have to do with the absorbtion. Some Meds can absorb better when already broken down. That being said I never had to crush any either. I just changed from 300 ml of extended release to TWO 150 mg of immediate release of one of my meds (also for absorbing issues).

[RickM 1,752]

26 minutes ago, ShoppGirl said:

It could have to do with the absorbtion. Some Meds can absorb better when already broken down. That being said I never had to crush any either. I just changed from 300 ml of extended release to TWO 150 mg of immediate release of one of my meds (also for absorbing issues).

The RNY and DS can have issues with extended release meds, depending upon the mechanism used, though crushing is rarely suggested to counter that problem (it can lead to too much of that med hitting too quickly) - rather doing as you are doing and going to smaller doses of the normal med taken more frequently. ER meds are not usually a problem with the sleeve, as the OP has. It's more likely that particular practice is a bit behind the times.

[ShoppGirl 5,022]

1 hour ago, RickM said:

The RNY and DS can have issues with extended release meds, depending upon the mechanism used, though crushing is rarely suggested to counter that problem (it can lead to too much of that med hitting too quickly) - rather doing as you are doing and going to smaller doses of the normal med taken more frequently. ER meds are not usually a problem with the sleeve, as the OP has. It's more likely that particular practice is a bit behind the times.

Mine had to do with needing a certain number of calories for the medication to absorb properly. It’s one of very few meds that work that way though so it’s not the norm. My main point was that crushing them may be for a reason other than being able to swallow a pill because I took all my meds the day after surgery in normal pill form as many others said they did as well.