I recently went back to all my providers to talk about my regain and deal with labs.

I had a nice long visit with the nutritionist. She gave me the program's  vitamin sheet. There was Flintstones on the list. I  was...WTF? She shook her head yes in agreement.  She said  there is such overall poor compliance with taking any vitamins at all that the Flintstones takers come up with better labs than those that take none.

As someone who is years out the vitamin thing is always there. You get to deal with it for the rest of your life. 

I'm always looking for new and better ways to meet the requirements.  I always have bariatric advantage calcium chews because they are candy.

I've had to rearrange med schedules to get them all in without affecting other life long meds i need to take.

IMO I think brand new surgery patients should cut themselves some slack.  Hard enough to get protein and water down.

Don't worry.  You will have years to play!

Deb T

Hey Deb,

My plan had flintstones on it and my nut said the same thing. Here is the deal (as described to me). They have enough problems with patient compliancy when the vitamin is something people are familiar with and is TASTY. Can you imagine if it is something that cant be chewed, tastes bad if it is chewed, or is unfamiliar.

Yes-I think it is a total rat screw. But in this case, they are just trying to get something/ANYTHING into their patients. Evne a marginal vitamin is better than no vitamin.

Remember those of us on the boards are probably "better patients" than the average patient that they see in the sense of : 1) we are self motivating 2) introspective 3) identify potential problems/pitfalls  and 4) discuss our problems/pitfalls and seek workable solutions. 

Maybe I am prejudiced but I feel the Mayo Clinic is the best in the world and they had me on Flinstones and Tums with added C. My labs were great. !!!! Until last year. Who's fault ...Mine.....got slack on taking vitamins. Moral of the story take the vitamins 

I have been on them for the past 3 years. My blood work has come Bach just fine. 

Good luck with that music.

I don't understand why so many people have trouble taking good quality vitamins. We all knew going in that it would be necessary, for life. It really isn't a burden.

Some complain about the price. Yeah, many "bariatric" vitamins are expensive, but there are good brands out there really cheap. And how much are we saving on food, for crying out loud?

Taking vitamins every day is a heck of a lot easier than a (short) lifetime of cholesterol, blood pressure, heart, and diabetes meds.  Much, much easier than the inevitable insulin shots.

I get a kick out of people who say they take no vitamins, or crappy children's chewables or gummies, and brag their labs are just fine -- some nimrods just three months after surgery. You can get away with doing stupid things for a while, maybe even several years. Hey, obesity and its related diseases didn't kill us either, right? But sooner or later, deficiencies will catch up to us, and it will be really, really ugly.

Find a good, complete vitamin, and take the damn things. Keep up with your labs, and track the results. It's really not that hard.

I am a total newbie, but I went into this acknowledging that taking high quality vitamins and supplements was required, and for life. I planned for the extra costs and decided it would be worth it.  What I didn't consider was how little I would be paying for food (by comparison) and the savings I would incur from no longer buying take out, junk foods, etc. I am stunned by the impact to our grocery bills alone! And of course, long term my health care costs will be so much lower. 

I guess it's a trade off I am willing to make.  It's just a no-brainer to me.  I have this huge investment in my new digestive system and I'm going to protect it!  That's just my two newbie cents. :-)

There you go...getting it right!

For me early out it was difficult to get vitamins down. I just kept working on it and I sent a lot of mistakes to my friend who could stomach any vitamins.

All these years and I'm still on automatic shipment for my faves.

My favorite B12 is from trader joe's. So easy to take.

Deb T.