Vitamins

My DS surgery is Sept 16th.  Since everyone in here has had DS surgery what vitamin schedules do you follow.

What I mean is I know some follow Vitaladys which seems like a lot of pills to take and the Bariatric center has their list www.grandhealthpartners.com/default/our-process/forms for each type of surgery which is less than half the pills.

Is one to much and going down the sewer and the other not enough? Will that list grow and its a starting point based on labs?

Im prepared to do what I need to do, but I know some people go overboard on things and sometimes its all truly needed and since we all will or do have special needs with our surgeries which one is which?

It's up to you. Do you want to take fewer pills and only address the labs you see dropping, hoping your surgeon is drawing all the labs that are important or do you want to take more pills and adjust up or down if you see labs trending too high or low? I choose to take more pills, follow Vitalady's advice and adjust as needed.

--gina
 

 Tony,

Like Gina said, the choice is yours.  Like Gina, I chose to follow Vitalady's plan.

The only thing I see with Bariatric Multis with High ADEK is you do not have the option to adjust the individual vitamin (Vitamin A, D, E or K) as necessary to address issues.  Following the Vitalady plan, you can adjust the individual vitamin.

My two cents worth.

ETA:

I did get to speak with Michelle (Vitalady) about this.  Supposedly, you only have the large expense once.  Then you reorder at monthly or every other month intervals.  It works out to about $4.00 per day if you follow the Vitalady 90 Day vitamin & supplement suggestions.

I feel my health is worth $4.00 a day.  I forgot that both myself and my wife are following this plan.  For one person, the cost is half that or $2.00 a day.  Even at twice the price, it is a bargain.

I regret not being more aggressive from day one with my supplementation. It's a lot easier to prevent deficiencies than to treat them. That being said, I have not had many deficiency issues. But the ones that do give me problems are, well, problematic. I wish I'd had them built up to nice high levels before surgery and then kept them that way from the start.

How you do it is up to you.

I've been reading this forum for over two years on an almost daily basis.  I have rarely seen a person who followed Vita Lady's vitamin and supplement plan have any problems other than some folks who just don't absorb iron and must get infusions.

I do see people who try their surgeon's inadequate plans come here in terrible shape and have to struggle to get themsleves straightened out.

You start on her plan and then you adjust your vitamins up or down based on your labs.  Your labs decide what you need.  But by starting on her plan you don't wind up deficient and trying to bring up labs that have totally tanked.

So I think it is a combo of taking her vitamin schedule, getting your protien and doing ALL the labs you need and getting those labs looked at by people who know what to look for.  Your surgeon or pcp just is not going to have the expertise of these folks on this forum who study these labs and vitamins almost as a full time job.

I certainly don't think that Vita Lady's starting plan is overboard in the least. 

~Becky

Well its not about the cost or anything for me. Its one of those things where you just wonder if someone is going overboard or not.
When you never had to experience anything like this before the only experience you have is what happens in everyday life and it makes you wonder and ask questions which is why im asking everyone here.
I like the idea of not having to take a lot of pills. As for the cost monthly its about the same.

I also look at this from a position of my stomach iss not going to hold much at first too so it would seem like the less pills I have to swallow the better in the begining

I also look at this from a position of my stomach iss not going to hold much at first too so it would seem like the less pills I have to swallow the better in the begining

Tony, You can gradually ease into taking your Vitamins after surgery because your body will have some stores on which to rely.  Start with a chewable multi and then you can dissolve your calcium citrate in water or crystal lite or something.  After about one week I found I had no problem swallowing pills.  YMMV  To improve your stores in the next couple of weeks, daily take:

1 complete multi vitamin, like Centrum             

1500 mg calcium citrate with D                             

vit C, but not more than 4000mg
5000 IU, Vit D3 (Most Americans are low in D)
150 mg carbonyl iron (Sundown is one brand sold in     grocery stores, etc.)

I would also try to get a pre-op lab baseline done through your surgeon or PCP.  This can be very helpful by letting you know your starting point so that you'll know if you start trending low. Get at least A,D,E, K, Calcium, PTH, B1, B6 ,B12 and Iron panel with ferritin. A bone scan would be good, too.

I highly recommend Vitalady's schedule till you can get some labs in and know how you are doing.  Try not to get yourself into a hole 'cause it's hard to dig out. 
HTH, Jenny

As  a previous band  to DS, I had horrible issues with swallowing,,
 
I was worried about all the pills to take,

So for me , I did not worry about taking ALL of them right from start, I started up slowly..
I took....

 3 centrum, or walmart brand of same,  am, noon and pm , the first three weeks, then added

1 iron, during night, so( don't taste it, has metalic taste fro me)
A 25.000(2) , D50,000( 2), E(1), K( 1)  all seperate , yes from Vitalady, dry version
1 cal/mag/D (3) times a day

At a year,  changed  to (4) centrum , cal/mag/d  to (4)

AS for  my labs, keep a flow sheet of each draw, watch you levels,  Had my 18 month done and every thing is all upper  range. but  my pth went up slightly by 28, from  15  so I will add more calcium.

As a nurse myself   I did not want to over do , but let my labs show me where I needed to be, and no I don't go by the Nuts  advice,,,,,

Read read read,,, and you will learn even more of the ranges of vites and nutrients...

And as much as I adore VitaLady and prefer to patronize her, I disagree with some of the previously offered advice.

I'd suggest starting with what you KNOW.  You KNOW that you won't absorb Vitamins A, D, E and K.  Most MO people are sorely lacking in Vitamin D.  And A and Calcium go along with that.

For starters, that's where I went.  I took the BA multis with dry A D E and K.  I took BA chewable calcium.  I took Vits A and D and calcium.  And then I waited until I got my labs back and adjusted as indicated. 

NOW...in the interest of full disclosure...Vitalady's shipping is free when you spend, I think, $300.  And even the manufacturer of the Dry Vitamin D isn't going to sell it to you as cheaply as she does.  And you're going to want to try SOME protein shakes and she sells samples.  So it makes sense to find a way to spend that money at ONE place instead of shopping for bargains here, there and everywhere and paying a fortune for shipping.

It looks to me that her "DS mostly chewable starter package for 90 days" is a bit over $600.  I'd cut the quantities (don't kill me, Michelle) in half, get a six-week supply, take out the stuff I don't understand...like why there are two Vitamin D's and Kirkland stuff since I have that available locally...and I'd add in some protein and still keep it around $300 for the free shipping.

But that's just MY idea.