What pain meds work well for Gastric bypass patients?

@momther Welcome back to Mayo Clinic Connect, a place to give and get support.

You had gastric bypass 12 years ago and you have been able to maintain your weight. Congrats on your success.

You are wondering if it is you can take Aleve?

Members like @fourof5zs @ejayne01 @sandytoes14 @judipogo @shrinkerbell have experience discussing this topic and may be able to help.

@grandmar and @aprilarlady said that their providers advised them to not take Aveve. Since you asked the question, may I ask if this is the advice your provider gave you as well?

Im approaching 14 years of successful RNY gastric bypass. Please don’t take Aleve or Motrin. You could get a bleeding ulcer. I was always told no NSAIDS. Keep following that no NSAIDS rule. See a doctor if your elbow pain continues.

I had rny 12 years ago. All is going super well with that still at weight. My question is this. I am having “golfers elbow” I only take Tylenol is it ok to take aleve?

@aprilarlady, I had RnY gastric bypass surgery 7/8/14, with a weight loss of 85 pounds currently. Because of this I too am unable to take NSAIDS. I started taking Hydrocodone/acetaminophen 5/325 mg over a year ago to relieve my pain from herniated disks at L5-S1 and L4, as well as a compression fracture at C7 and stenosis, degenerative disk disease, and arthritis. The Hydrocodone did not work for me. Last summer, I began seeing a pain doctor who took me off the Hydrocodone and put me on Tramadol/acetaminophen 30/325 (as I remember). That was working great, still with pain, but tolerable.

Then I injured my back additionally through traveling and lugging my suitcases back and forth weekly between my home and a job site. I had sudden acute pain that ended p with me in a wheelchair after several days of trying massage, chiropractic and acupuncture (my first time ever). I then had an MRI that showed the problems I described at the beginning of this post. My pain doctor added Baclofen 10 mg and changed my Tramadol to 50 mg without the acetaminophen. He said I could add acetaminophen for breakthrough pain as needed. This has been working great for me. I had outpatient spinal surgery on my L5-S1 on 12/22/16. I have had complete relief from the pain on my left side since then. But the pain on my right side continued. My pain doctor added Gabapentin to my medications. 300 mg twice a day.

My spine surgeon put me on Physical Therapy in late February, with both our goals to improve my core muscles and avoid surgery on my L4, which is completely out of alignment with my spine. The PT seemed to be working until my 4th session, after which I was in excruciating pain the following day and for several days after. Then suddenly it felt much better. I waited 2 weeks before I had another PT session and after that very gentle session, again I had excruciating pain and ended up in bed for 5 days only walking to the bathroom, icing and changing position about every 30 to 45 minutes. That was 2 weeks ago and I am still in pain. My pain doctor then tried Hydrocodone again when I requested it. But when I had used it previously, I took it with the Tramadol and I had good pain relief. He told me I should never take the 2 medications together. On only the Hydrocodone I had very little relief and after 3 days, I began noticing withdrawal symptoms from stopping the Tramadol suddenly. I stopped taking the Hydrocodone and went back to the Tramadol.

I am doing ok currently, but my pain level is a constant 7. I can't do much exercise like walking around more than half a block (yesterday), which was very hard to do. This morning I am very tired from my activities yesterday. I had bought tickets, 2 months ago, to take my granddaughter to see "An American in Paris," live at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. I was determined to go if at all possible. She drove and was helpful for me in walking. But I'm paying for my fun today. I'm also participating in a medical research study for Alzheimers at the University of California at Irvine. Today I am having a PET scan as part of the study. Thankfully, they are sending a cab to pick me up and bring me back. It will be another active day for me.

So, I can recommend Tramadol and Baclofen as having been very helpful for my pain. I would not take Gabapentin, and i have asked my doctor to withdraw me from it. I wish you luck in your search for pain relief. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Gail B

Hi!
I had gastric sleeve Oct. 21, 2014 at the age of 61-1/2. Since the start of my weight loss journey I have lost 80-90 pounds depending on the day. Although I still have about 10-15 pounds to go, I had excellent results with my health issues. I no longer need 2 knee replacements (at least not now), my blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides are now normal and I am no longer pre-diabetic. I am also sure that the issues I have with my cervical and lumbar spines would be much worse if I didn't lose the weight.

I have issues at all levels of my spine: buldging discs, displaced discs, spurs, cervical and lumbar stenosis, arthritis, tears. I've had fibro but I believe I pretty much have that under control. Besides the shots, I've done the following: chiropractor, therapeutic massage, acupuncture, aquatic and land PT and I take Gabapentin (300 mg-1 in am/2 in pm). No pain meds. None of my docs believe in it except when I have a painful procedure like radio frequency ablation. I do have pain meds for other reasons so I use what I have left. I have hydrocodone and oxycodone. Neither really helps. I have Tramadol left from when I had a tooth infection. I found that helped. Before WLS I used to take large doses of prescription Advil. That worked the best but as you know, after WLS you can't use that and Tylenol does nothing. Besides, the Advil ate away at my stomach.

I am now 63. I have issues up and down my spine. I had no relief with the attempts made by my pain doc so I had surgery done by a neurosurgeon. I had C5-6 disk replacement 10 weeks ago. So far, so good. I was having great success with shots in my lumbar spine until 2 shots ago. I am giving it one more try; if the shots don't work I will think strongly about surgery. I will see my neurosurgeon the week after my shot so I will know which way to direct the conversation.

Good luck!
Ronnie (GINSBERGr)

grandmaR, I see that you have had Radiofrequency Ablation. I am supposed to have that soon. Did it work for you? How painful was it?

I too am a gastric bypass patient since 2004. I have major back problems from 3 car accidents and a serious slip and fall. I have been going to Pain Mgmt since 2012. At first I had Epidural shots. They worked great the first time and for 8 months I was out of pain. When the pain came back, I went back in and had them again. Unfortunately not only did they not work then, but I tried them a 3rd time and they did not work again. I ended up on Oxy and after a very short time I told my doctor that I could not funtion on them and to try something else. For the next 11 years I was on 30 mg of Moraphine ER which is a time release capsule. It worked very well. It never made me feel high and I was able to continue working. I took Diluidid for break thru pain but did not have to take that very often. After 11 years, I just recently decided to get off Morphine because I noticed, as did others, that I was having short term memory loss. It wasn't fun getting off the meds but if you do it slowly, you can do it. I've been off all meds for 2 weeks now and hope to have a procedure called Radiofrequency Ablation done on my back soon. This is where they use hot radio waves on the affected areas that burn the nerve endings so they won't send pain to the brain anymore. Sure hope it works!!!

Hello @peacocks5577 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Thank you for joining the discussion and sharing a little about your story with members.

When is your procedure scheduled for?