Pain medications after a gastric bypass.

[Huni40]

I had my surgery 3 months ago and I am doing well with that. Along with being overweight, I was dealing with the after affects of an auto accident five years ago. I've had a cervical fusion which helped with migraines I suffered from and severe lower pain pain. My neurologist is so understanding but I now have him stumped, the Norco that I took before my bypass no longer works. I take a dose and I have pain relief for 2-3 hours and then the pain is back. I was told by friends that due to the bypass, my medication was not fully being absorbed. My bariatric nurse says the same dose should work as it always did, my pharmacist says you have to increase to a stronger pain med or take the same medication more often. I feel terrible asking for stronger meds or more meds but I don't know what to do, everyone seems to have their own opinion but unless you've lived it.....Any suggestions or opinions welcomed!

 

[TwoMas]

Hi Huni, Welcome. This is something your prescribing physician should have consulted with your baraiatric surgeon on. My guess owuld be that the same malabsorbtion issues that take place with food are taking place with your meds, however more might not be better. You should have your two doctors consult with each other, there are others here that are on pain meds I am sure they can tell you how they delt with it. Keep us posted. Tom

 

[Pat99]

Huni-Welcome to the forum. I started taking Norco (10/325) late in 2008 after a back surgery and it worked pretty good for a few years. I then had issues with a bad hip (need replacement) and I started having issues the Norco wearing off after a couple hours so the doctor gave me a prescription for MS Contin extended release 30 mg 3X daily. He told me to continue to take the Norco up to 3X daily for "breakthrough" pain. Eventually he had to increase the MS Contin to 60 mg because the lower dose stopped working entirely even while taking Norco. The 60 mg MS Contin did the trick and I didn't need to use as much Norco. Sometimes I can go without Norco for weeks at a time and sometimes I need to take it 1X to 2X daily depending on how active I am. After my RNY the pain meds still continued to work the same. Talk to your doctor about adding a different pain med. Some work better than others depending on what is causing the pain and some work much better when a secondary med is given to help give things a "boost". It can take many attempts until the right combination is found. If your doctor won't work with you on this you can always find one that will. There are also doctors who specialize in pain control which I didn't know about until my niece told me. A lot of the specialists use alternative methods that do not involve narcotic pain meds. I hope to have a hip replacement soon and lose enough weight to be able to stop using pain meds