I want to encourage all of my WLS Buddies to...

[This is a copy of a post from my friend Charm on another WLS board. I thought it was serious enough and important enough to post it here. Dee] Keep up with their labs. We will forever debate calcium citrate vs. calcium carbonate, protein from food or shakes and all the other stuff pertaining to vitamins and supplementation. But, the only way you'll know if what you're doing is right is to get your labs checked at least 1x per year. I cannot go into details since I don't know who lurks here but we hear of the debilitating things that can happen as a result of wls and malabsorbtion. Ladies and gentleman, I've not seen it with my own eyes but my best friend works with someone who is totally malabsorbed and could possibly die. My friend has given me updates for the past year and a half. This person will die since he/she refused to have proper follow up care and proper suplementation to take care of the malabsorption. This person still, even after his/her teeth has started cracking and falling out refuses to admit that there is a problem. I can only guess that this person is mentally sick. I have copied and forwarded lots of information found on the grad group, trying to help from afar but to no avail. I can't give more information but trust me, this is not simply hearesay, it's real. So, can we all promise ourselves and each other to keep up with our labs for life? Even if we haven't done something right (like me and my iron), we will know soon enough in order to hopefully correct the problem. Even if your labs were good last year, something else could be deficient so never get too complacent. [Please lets take care of ourselves! The doctors are telling us to supplement for a reason. No not get too lax about taking your supplements. Just because you feel good does not mean that everything is OK inside. Once the deficiency is caught, the damage has already been done. Now, lets all say it together... Protein, vitamins, water! For the Rest of our Lives!!!]