Vitamins, vitamins, vitamins??????

At Dr. Simon's office I received the following: 1. Protein drink: no problem there 2. Megavitamin: tablets, big 'ol green puppies, NOT chewable, according to directions on bottle take 8 (yes indeedie, eight!) a day 3. Chewable vitamin C: again no problem 4. Calcium in the form of caps, three at night so I'll just open them and mix with drink. 5. Iron tabs, again not chewable, but I only take one of these and they are not as intimidating at the multis. So I'm thinking this is more trouble and more confusing than need be. I'm not sure of the dosage I need of each so I called the Dr.'s office on Friday but so far no call back. My surgery is in the morning (yeh!!!) so I'm not going to worry about it for a few days. Any suggestions will really be appreciated. Thanks so much. Vicki

Hey Vicki - Good Luck with your surgery!! Sounds like way to much trouble to me too! But everyone is different so be sure to check with your Doc. I take a Liquid Vitamin I get it at Sams Club called Liquid Max, actual taste good. Has plenty of Vitamin C and everything you need in regards to vitamins & minerals and then I take a TUMS 1000mg Calcium and my protein drink. I think I am getting what I need ?!?!?!? Good Luck!

Candi, Thanks so much for the info. Sounds like you are getting exactly what you need. I am surprisingly calm now re the surgery. My husband and even Henry (our 2-year old beagle) are both pretty hyper, but all will be better tomorrow. Thanks again. Vicki

Vicki, Good luck with your surgery. I am intimidates with the vitamin & supplements, but friends have told me that I will find different things as I go along that work for me and have the same nutrition. Let me know how you are doing. Robin

When did you have your surgery? Are you bypass or band? Tums is a horrid calcium for us since it is calcium carbonate and known to cause kidney stones. The better calcium choice for bypass patients is calcium citrate. I have a page on my web site with some calcium information on it if you are interested. www.acdlady.com/WLS_Calcium and it will help you understand the resources behind my statement. Also, calcium is best taken in amounts of 500 mg at a time to enhance absorption w/o wasting your $. Are you taking any B vites beyond a sublingual B12? I have a listing that is mostly up to date of what I take at 3+ years post-op from an RNY at www.acdlady.com/WLS_Vitamins I tweak my vites/minerals based upon my extensive lab tests. You can find a list of suggested lab tests too at www.acdlady.com/WLS_Labtests if you are interested. I have 12-15 vials of blood drawn every 6 months now that I am over 3 years out. Sandy

Hi Sandy, Thanks for your reply. I had the Bypass surgery Wednesday morning, and came home this afternoon. I am on the search for liquid vitamins to replace the ones I spent $200 on at Dr. Simons office! I'll go to sprouts, Sams and so on until I find ones that are convenient to use and are the right ones. This is afterall a lifetime deal. The surgery went well Wednesday morning. The nurses at Phoenix Memorial for the most part are great. Found out they are closing the hospital on May 31. There was a situation in finding my veins. Anyway, I'm home and feeling really full! Must be the water because I've only had a few bites of jello. How long does this feeling last? I'm really tired so more later. Thanks for all the good thoughts. Vicki

Vicki, Congrats on your surgery! Wow your doing good if you had it Wednesday and are on the computer today! Good for you! I hope your recovery goes quickly and easily! The full feeling will probably last for a while. It was 8 days before my first food after my surgery, and even then i didn't want to eat. Like you i could hardly eat even a few bites of jello a day. My doctor said it takes about a month i think for your pouch to get feeling back as far as being hungry or not hungry. Actual hunger pangs didn't kick in until about month 3 for me, but everyone is different. Enjoy it and take advantage while it lasts! Unfortunately the munchies do come back eventually. About month 5 for me before i started getting the salt or sugar cravings again. But they did come back Welcome to the losing side! How exciting!

Vicki, Also remember to make sure you Bcomplex has B1 in it. Mine didn't and my labs came back showing my B1 was low so i had to switch B complexes. I was taking a liquid one that was cherry flavored. I don't remember the name of it, but it didn't have the B1 in it. Apparently you can get paralysis without the B1 and it is one of the vitamins that we have malabsorbtion with. I've tried a bunch of different ones, and not one of them so far tastes good. I don't know what it is about those B vitamins but they are just plain nasty. They are better now that i am father out because i can take much more water with them. But when i was right out of surgery i could only take sips so it was a struggle to get it down without gagging. Yogurt helped sometimes, but not all the time. Good luck with them!

Wow, you are a new post-op. Congratulations! I purchase most of my supplements and all of my whey protein from www.vitalady.com and over the years have found that they keep my levels up where I wish them to be. I also found that capsules was a great way to go with vitamins and minerals and do that as much as I can. I hold them in my mouth to begin the softening process and then swallow. Although, the first six weeks post-op I would open and dump them into my protein shake. Any tablet form I would crush and still do. I am convinced that crushing aids my body in absorbing more from them instead of wasting its time dissolving them on the short track through. Of course, chewables work fine too. The fullness feeling lasts until the swelling goes down. That is different for each person. Just keep pushing the fluids so that you can stay as hydrated as possible. I am over three years out now and have NEVER done sugar since surgery. I made a vow to myself that I would not do it again since it was my weak point pre-op. I don't crave sugar because I drink 3-30 gram whey protein shakes a day. I specifically use a combination of Champion Pure Whey Stack and Champion ProScore 100 for each shake at 167 calories and 30 grams of protein. I had a lot of health issues after my gastric bypass and the end result is that I never reached goal or anywhere close to it. I now have a problem with rebound weight gain that I am trying very hard to control. You would think that giving up sugar and chocolate would be an aid ... Take care of yourself and get plenty of rest. Remember helpful experience advice is only a keyboard away. Sandy

Vicky - good luck with your upcoming surgery. What kind of surgery are you having? I am a 3+ year RNY postop. You will see some links in my response to someone else in this thread that will take you to some of my web site pages for some good information. Basically, calcium should be calcium citrate and we absorb about 500 mg at a time. Over the years I have found that MOST surgeons do not suggest nearly enough supplements for their gastric bypass post-ops to keep them healthy. Many have suggested the wrong kind of calcium (carbonate). Unfortunately there is a learning curve to taking vitamins/minerals that we need. But, it all comes with time. I just began learning a bit at a time. I also lurked on the Yahoo group Graduate-OSSG so that I could learn from long term post-ops. That group and the fact that I took their input seriously saved me from any serious deficiencies that some members are facing. Good luck with your surgery and I do check in here from time to time to see if I can be of help. Sandy