How many daily vitamins? Insurance coverage?

Insurance doesn't cover most vitamins (some folks get their iron and potassium covered), but my company has a medical flexible spending account, and every year my PCP writes a letter of medical necessity for all my vitamins and I get them reimbursed. 

And I take about 30 pills a day divided into 7 doses.  It's pretty routine after a while ...

How many pills taken greatly varies from person to person based on the needs shown by their lab results.

For me, I take a total of 10 pills per day directly related to my DS... in the morning I take 2 multi-vitamin (centrum equivalent), I take 2 Calcium Citrate (which is one dose) and 1 D3-50 capsule.... and in the evening I take the same thing.  I'm lucky in that that's all my labs show I need... in fact, my D has been slowly and steadily on the rise since I initially brought it out of the toilet years ago by MEGA-dosing for about 2 months.

regarding insurance, short answer is no coverage...

long answer is that if your labs show a severe deficiency in something (let's say D because that's the most common) then they WILL cover prescription vitamin D.... problem there is, the PRESCRIPTION form of vit D is more or less useless for a DSer, because it's D2 (less bio-available) and oil based (less absorbable)... we NEED the "dry" D3 (like most of us get from Vitalady) which is not something that a script can be given for and covered by insurance.....

HOWEVER... if you have a flex-spending account through your work (or your hubby's work), vitamin supplements ARE in the list of items reimbursable WITH A DOCTORS NOTE.... and it doesn't matter if you buy them at Walmart, CVS or VitaLady (just be sure to save all your receipts and get that note from your surgeon or PCP)

Good luck

I take vitalady's list of vitamins basically but I take a dose of something 7 times every 24 hours because I want that much calcium.  I take 6 doses of calcium a day and I take iron in the middle of the night.

I take 2 big batches and then the other 4 calcium doses also have magnesium and 2 of them have D.

I would rather take vitamins like this forever than take prescription drugs for all the **** I was taking.

I highly recommend that new DSers build up to VitaLady's schedule during the first weeks post op and then tweak from there based on their labs.

~Becky

I was taking 11 prescription medications pre op.   Now I take vitalady's schedule of vitamins.  I estimate my cost per month is 50.00 because  I shop sales from vitalady.com, swansonsvitamins.com, and vitaminshoppe.com.    I was spending
WAY more than that on the prescriptions, doctors visits, testing supplies, etc... and that was just paying my copays. 

It is just as easy to swallow a vitamin as it is to swallow a prescription, so don't let that get in your way.  It becomes habit after a while, and I am the worlds worst about remembering things.  Some people set alarms on their phones as a reminder, some people just follow a wake up, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime approach. 

As for the number it depends on what you are taking.  If your goal is 1200 mg of calcium citrate and you buy 200 mg pills, it will take you 6.  If you buy 400 mg capsules, it will take you 3.  Kind of simple terms, but you get the idea.

The thought process is to spread them out so that your guts will absorb throughout the day.  Since one big batch would just go thru, we need many smaller batches to get the best effect.  So there is a reason to the madness.  And a goal in sight.

As for insurance, they are paying for my UroCitK (Potassium Citrate) but that is after I showed a deficiency. And not too many DSers get this.  Alot of normies get it. 

I am going to look into the flexible spending account thing though. 

Hope this helps.  In my eyes it boils down to:  pay for the vitamins or pay for the prescriptions, take the vitamins or take the prescriptions and continue to fall apart.

Dr, Stewart makes his own multi for DSers, so I take it 2 times a day, 4- 300 mg calcium , Vit A 1 time a day. That is all I have been told to take, along with a prilosec. I got the Vit D shot in the butt to last the entire year. It cost $40, but now I don't have to worry about it. I am only almost a month out, so I haven't done my labs. I am just doing what I am told.

That vitamin D shot will NOT last all year. It is nothing more than a boost to your needed oral supplementation.

You're going to need a lot more stuff than you're on now, but you can build up to it in the next month or two.

 That is not what I have been told from Dr. Stewarts nurse practitioner Sue B..  She says it would take care of my needs as long as I follow this program.  I guess labs will tell.  She seems to be most interested in how much protein I am taking in.  I compared Dr. S multi with other regular OT multi vits and it has significantly more "Stuff"  in them.  It is formulated for DS specifically.  $40 for 3 months supply. my Calcium Citrate has Vit D in it aswell.   

I bet your NP will tell you a vitamin D at the bottom end of the normal scale is just fine, too.

Thank you so much for the feedback.  It's very much appreciated:) 

Everyone varies. You have to supplement based on your own nutritional needs. Some people oversupplement. Lots of people undersupplement.

I float somewhere around the 20 supplement pills per day mark. It's a hell of a lot less than the 19 prescriptions I used every day, including insulin, and being on oxygen 24/7.