bone pain
on 8/19/15 4:22 pm - WI
When did you have your last lab work done? Bone pain,leg cramps, and restless leg syndrome can be from a lot of different deficiencies. Low levels of Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Iron (Ferritin), D-3, B-12, and many more can cause the problems you describe. B-12 deficiency can cause permanent nerve damage and manifest in leg pain and tingling in the extremities.
You should be taking at the very least 1500 mg of Calcium Citrate daily (not Calcium Carbonate which can cause kidney stones) I take 2 Citracal tablets ( swallowed whole, not chewable) three times per day. You will only absorb about 500 Mg at a time, so you MUST divide the doses throughout the day.
I hope you've been taking the rest of your vitamins regularly. Vitamin deficiency is REALLY hard to come back from. It could be life threatening! I'm sure you were told that, after RNY surgery, you would have to take vitamins for the rest of your life because the area where you absorb vitamins from food has been by-passed.
Get you lab work done so you know where to start!
yes, i was good on vitamins the first year with the exception of iron - I KNOW I KNOW ... i take b12 off n on when i remember and my iron level is way super low i have no reserve but i was like that pre surg it almost DQ me ... I don't take anything else I am sure i am low and I have not had any labs for prolly a year and half... I live in NV and Dr here are weird and I don't like them ...U swallow the calcium whole why ? I thought chewing makes for better absorption er helped at least
on 8/19/15 1:39 pm, edited 8/19/15 1:43 pm - WI
I have never used chewables. My labs are good, so I'm absorbing them. We are not required to take chewable vitamins.
You HAVE to treat your vitamin regime SERIOUSLY. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that your life depends on it. I have seen some pretty bad scenarios from people who were non-compliant with their vitamins. No excuses! This is what you signed up for when you had RNY surgery.
What do you mean, you take them "when you remember"? I'm sorry if I sound harsh, but WTF are you thinking? You are playing Russian roulette with your health. This is NO JOKE! Get your butt to a doctor, whether you like them or not!
I actually have spreadsheet so I can track my vitamin trends when I get my YEARLY labs. If I see that one of my levels trending down, I can correct it before I get deficient.
You CAN NOT depend on others to advocate for YOUR health. You have that responsibility squarely on your shoulders. Get with the program before it's too late!
i was told only chewables and as a matter of fact most bariatric supplement are in chewable form for this reason as the stomach is removed and thus no acid to break down the vitamin and thus not being broken down enough for the small intestines and large intestines to absorb.
Trust me DOLL ... if my life depended on a pill i would die .. cuz I just dont remember or have a regimen.... i set an alarm and it does go off but i dont always stop to take or wait a min then forget ... You can sound HARSH if you wanna - I does not make a diff to me .. im not playing Russian roulette ... = Im telling you how my life is I am glad u are regimed and good about it ... Its hard for me i work double swing shifts and have twins and am a stay at home mom ... im busy
First of all, many people take vitamin pills with no problem whatsoever. Other than needing to take B12 in some form OTHER THAN tablet (sublingual, nasal spray, or injection) because we cannot absorb it orall at all, we can absorb vitamin pills just fine. Some surgeons just recommend chewables instead because that is easier than worrying about people getting pills stuck early out.
Sorry, but NO ONE is too busy to take 60 seconds a couple of times a day to take vitamins when an alarm goes off! That is an excuse (and a lame one at that). When you signed the consent for surgery, you were agreeing to do YOUR part, which means taking vitamins and getting your labs checked at least once a year.
Your "busy" life excuse forces me to ask you to clarify something. Which is it... Are you employed working swing shifts or are you a stay at home mom? (You cannot be both.)
You ARE playing Russian Roulette by not taking vitamins. It is not a question of whether you will develop a deficiency... It is just a question of which one(s) first and how quickly. If you don't take your vitamin and nutritional status seriously (which boggles my mind if you have children who depend on you!), and you aren't concerned that your iron level is tanked (and you don't care enough about the rest of your nutritional levels to bother to have a doctor -- ANY doctor, even your PCP -- check them), and don't want to hear any advice from people here, why did you bother to post?? What exactly is it that you are looking for?
If you are just looking for someone to pat your hand and tell you that it is ok to not take vitamins and not have your labs checked, you're probably in the wrong place.
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
also my surgeon says SUBLINGUAL was fine for B-12. All surgeons are Different and require diff things. When I had surgery my Surgeon was #1 in the Nation so I am gonna go with what he said
I am not looking for a pat on the hand - i was just simply sharing my issue see if anyone has had similar and what they are doing about it. Obviously it a concern for me which is why i am seeking information and wondering what it could be. my iron levels have been an issue b4 surgery and as long as I have no other effects from it the concern is not that high.... i just cant get shot or stabbed cuz i will most def bleed out.... and YES LORA - i can be both and I AM BOTH a STAY AT HOME MOM and WORK perhaps not possible for you but I DO IT EVERY DAY !!!!
I posted to get input not be belittled or berated and bullied - i know there is an issue and I am going to try to work it out - I am addressing it - I was looking for people who have similar issues and seeing what they did about it
It is fine to go with whatever your surgeon said -- if you re-read my response, you will see that I, too, indicated that sublingual B12 is one of the three types needed (so I am not sure why you made a comment on that) - but I am SURE your surgeon told you to TAKE THE VITAMINS (which you are not doing)..l so you are NOT doing what he said.
You said you are looking for other people who had problems and what they did about it... But you got snippy when people TOLD you what you need to do about it... So clearly you eitehr aren't looking for answers OR you only want certain answers (which again begs the question of why ask and then get defensive). If you felt the responses were "belittling" (NONE of them were "bullying"!), perhaps you should re-read YOUR responses so you can see why people replied as they did. (Pretend that you had taken time out of your day to try to help some stranger on the Internet who is in serious physical jeopardy and then the poster basically blew you off...)
People here are very willing to help and to give you the benefit of many, many years of collective experience, but you have to be willing to listen. When you aren't taking any of your vitamins and then you ask what the problem might be... well, it could be almost anything... Which is why you need to start taking the vitamins and get lab work PDQ. The same symptoms can be caused by a deficiency of several different vitamins, so having someone here GUESS is completely pointless.
Lora
14 years out; 190 pounds lost, 165 pound loss maintained
You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there.
i was told only chewables and as a matter of fact most bariatric supplement are in chewable form for this reason as the stomach is removed and thus no acid to break down the vitamin and thus not being broken down enough for the small intestines and large intestines to absorb.
Trust me DOLL ... if my life depended on a pill i would die .. cuz I just dont remember or have a regimen.... i set an alarm and it does go off but i dont always stop to take or wait a min then forget ... You can sound HARSH if you wanna - I does not make a diff to me .. im not playing Russian roulette ... = Im telling you how my life is I am glad u are regimed and good about it ... Its hard for me i work double swing shifts and have twins and am a stay at home mom ... im busy
Trust me, PAL, you are headed for trouble. Not just the vitamin thing, which of course CAN kill you. But trouble because, five years out of surgery you seem to know almost NOTHING about what you are supposed to be doing, REFUSE to do what you know you should, make LAME excuses for why you can't, and CRAP on people that are trying to do you a big favor. Remember, you came here looking for help, we didn't go looking for you.
Rude, condescending and vitamin deficient is no way to go through life, son. Part of me is really ok with you not taking vitamins. Darwin wins again.
6'3" tall, male.
Highest weight was 475. RNY on 08/21/12. Current weight: 198.
M1 -24; M2 -21; M3 -19; M4 -21; M5 -13; M6 -21; M7 -10; M8 -16; M9 -10; M10 -8; M11 -6; M12 -5.