One thing I don't like....

I am totally thankful for this surgery but there is just one thing I hate about it and that is how many pills I have to take in a day.  
Including all my vitamins I am taking 17 pills a day!!!  Since surgery I've had some issues with taking pills so I'm always leary of them and I procrastinate taking them every single day.   I usually can get all the perscription medication in every day but then I avoid the vitamins. 

Anyone have any tips on how to manage to get all 17 pills in each day? 

I really don't have any advice for how to get them all in, but I DO want to stress to you HOW INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT it is that you get all your vitamins in EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!

It's a part of what you signed on for when you made the decision to have this surgery.  Frankly, you can mess yourself up REALLY BAD if you fail to get them in.  THEY ARE NOT OPTIONAL!  Seriously - a person's brain can be negatively affected, permanently, if those vitamins aren't taken religiously.  You did NOT have this surgery to lose weight, only to have your mind messed up irrepairably.

If you don't believe me, come to a PNC support group meeting and ask the question - "what if?"  It'll scare you into being faithful with it.

Don't mean to sound harsh, you're doing great and coming here with your question is a GOOD thing!  I only have to take 5 pills/vitamins per day.  Hopefully, someone here will have better advice on HOW to get them all in!

Don't worry don't think your being harsh.  I think maybe being scared into taking them isn't a bad idea.  

Miss Darla, I need you and others to scare the **** out of me in this regard! 

I have not been religous about taking my vitamins - I mean REALLY not been good about taking them on any kind of regular basis since day one!  I seem to only take them if someone reminds me and basically watches me take them!

Give it to me, Sister!  I need a swift kick in the buttocks!

BEND OVER, TERI!!!  You come to PNC tomorrow night and I'll share some fear with you.  And I believe the nutritionist will be there, so we can ask her POINT BLANK what some of the serious, long-lasting consequences are.

 YOU NEED TO DO THE RIGHT THING, GIRLFRIEND!!!

I felt the same way as you did.  Until I found the chewable calcium citrate.  I went from more than 12 of those suckers, cut in half if I'm not mistaken, to two easily chewable tablets.  If your increase in pills is because of the fistload of cal citrate, consider switching to the chewables.

Or, space them out during the day.  Have a pill box for each day, something preloaded.  That helped me.

But as Darla said, way too important to mess with this.  Good luck!

Hi Kathy,

If the actual swallowing of pills is freaking you out - how about getting some of those vitamins in liquid form?  You might not find them on the shelf at Walgreens, but there are tons of websites where you can buy liquid vitamins.  I use Iherb.com for alot of my purchases of vitamins (not necessarily liquid).  They have everything I swear....if you can't find it on Iherb, you don't need it!  I've never had a problem with them and have used them for years.  You can do some research here too on the question/answer board for liquid recommendations probably.

Like Darla said - not taking your vitamins is NOT an option.  You know that - I've been faithful with my vitamins for 5 years and just found out I'm low on vitamin D at my last PNC checkup.  So - you never know...I've upped my vitamin D and will get it re-checked.  I'm not starving by any means either, so it goes to show - we still malabsorb!

The long and short of it is....I'd rather swallow a 100 pills a day than weigh 100 lbs more than I do now!

Good Luck!  Bottoms Up! 

YAY SISTAH!  You're so right on the money with your last statement!
I AM IN TOTAL AGREEMENT WITH YOU!

Sometimes increasing the strength of viamins is doable instead of taking a handful of lesser doses.

My pharmacy loads all my prescriptions and vitamins into a blister pak with them placed in times they should be taken and with what.

Since I'm pre op, is there a list of how much of what you need after WLS ?

I tried a liquid vitamin before, (VIBE) had to mix it with something cause it was really sour, but it was this:

http://www.liquidvitaminsleader.com/

Does anyone take a liquid vitamin that seems to be working well, and you can tollerate?

Wow!  17 pills!  Like someone else said - any way to cut down on that number?  I have days too where I have trouble getting everything in - not so much because I dread it but more because I'm supposed to take everything with food and with the water restrictions I often forget to take them at just the right time and then forget again.  This is something I am getting better about though.

For the person wanting the list, here's mine (I think different people have different lists):
Morning - 1 Flinstones chewable, 1 Actigall (to prevent gallstones - must take for first 6 months post op), 1 Vitamin D pill (labs already show that I am deficient), 2 Caltrate Petite, and I've been taking my HBP pill too as a diuretic (don't really need it for the BP anymore, but was retaining water like crazy).
Evening - 1 Actigall, 2 Caltrate Petite, 1 sub-lingual B-12 if I remember (not recommended by my surgery center, but I disagree with them on this)

If you're pre-op I would hold off on getting any liquid meds until you see how you do post-op.  At HCMC they will not discharge you from the hospital until you swallow a solid Percoset not broken in half - I've been swallowing some pretty hefty pills since the day after surgery.  It's usually not a problem.  About twice a month they kind of go into the pouch a little off-center and it feels icky for a few minutes and then passes.  A lot of liquid meds have sugar in them so you have to be somewhat concerned about dumping.