What Size Pills Can We Swallow?

Ok, I had my one month post op with my surgeon yesterday and I told him of my troubles with these gross chewables and crushing up pills. So, he said to go ahead and swallow pills.

I've had no problem so far with my spironolactone and my prevacid, as they are smaller round pills.

I've had trouble with those gross Flintstones chewables which of course don't have all the vitamins we need. So, I looked up small multi vitamins on the internet and found Carlsons Mini-Multi Vitamins and of course you can't see them through the dark brown bottle, but when shaking them they sounded small.

So, I went to Vitamin Shoppe today and purchased them. The outside of the bottle even has TINY written on it. I opened them and they are not huge horsepills like some vitamins but I had hoped they were round but they are oblong.

I thought about cutting them in half, but then I've heard that the sharp edges of pills cut in half could make them get stuck?

I need to take these, but I'm a chicken about them getting stuck.

IF they did get stuck, what happens? Do you throw up? Or will they melt?

Thanks as always!
Wynter

Go ahead and try the pills.  I had no problem early out like you.  Been swallowing pills ever since about a month out.  Good luck to you.

I take Centrum Silver multivitamins. They are smaller than the usual giant size vitamins.
I don't recommend cuttingyours in half. Its very unlikely they will get stuck. Take a sip of water before to lubricate your throat.

Just about any size pill you could swallow pre op, you can probably swallow now.

If you do take one and feel like it gets stuck, just drink a little warm  water or warm tea.  It will dissolve.  If you wanna see, put on in a glass of slightly warm water.

If you cut it in half, that should not make it get stuck but the sharp edges might not feel good in your throat going down.

I've been swallowing pills since about a month out as well.  I get the Citracel pills and to me they seem HUGE!  I cut them in half at first and it would hurt going down.  I stopped cutting them in half and they go down just fine.  You should be just fine.

After solving the issues with my strictures, I was able to swallow any pills.

At times, I do have issues getting those huge, horsepill vitamins down. I lay them longways on my tounge and try to swallow them like that and they seems to go down better, than if they turn on my tounge and go down my through side to side insteadof up and down.

They do get stuck in my throat at times, but never in my pouch. I just have to another drink or two and then they will get unstuck. 

If I cut the big pills in half, they still will get stuck in my throat at times, and it is even more painful because they will have the sharp point. It's just easier to swallow them whole.

I always just make sure I have a full glass of water when I take my vitamins, so that I have enough water to get the pills down, especially if one gets stuck in my throat. I also may "rest" between taking pills. I will take a few pills, and then I will wait another 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how I feel, to take the rest of the pills. This way I don't over fill my stomach with the pills and the amount of water I am drinking. Feeling full/sick is not cool with me.

I will say, the only pills that I do have issues getting down now, are potassium pills. My potassium continues to go low at times since my surgery, and I will be prescribed them, or given a dose in the ER, etc. I have a very hard time swallowing them and they break apart and expand quickly once they hit moisture. Once, one got stuck in my throat and began to expand. It was not comfortable and was very scary to me. With more water, I got part of it down and part of it came back up. Since that experience, I have anxiety about taking potasium pills.

Just take it slow when taking bigger pills and see how you handle it and what will and will not work for you. 

 Thanks for this post because I had a DS but now I have a pouch and was scared to swallow pills.  I need to know can we swallow capsules.

Yes, we can swallow capsules.  They usually go down easily.  The capsule part is usually made of gelatin and dissolves easily in water.

 Thank you so much I will be able to stop opening up these pills.

 i'm gonna say don't cut them. i foolishly cut all my vitamins (the whole bottle) and it makes it way harder to go down. if you get the uncut side to go down first its fine, but they usually flip no matter how hard you try