Daily Vitamin Pic

 First, to newbies and pre-ops, I'm not intending to freak anyone out, but I also wanted to provide a realistic photo of the kind of commitment MIGHT be involved in your post-op vitamins needs.    Some of us seem to thrive on just a whiff of a few vitamins a day, some of us require more.   I am definitely in the "require more" department, as I seem to be a high malabsorber.   My sister lost the same amount of weight that I did, and takes half the amount of vitamins.   You just never know for sure.    The upside is that I pretty much eat what I want and don't gain weight, but the downside is that I MUST be extremely vigilant about my vitamin intake.   

So here's what my daily intake looks like.   The vast majority is calcium, and I take it in several forms.  The little tiny tablets are sublingual D and A.   I take them in addition to dry D and A.     I can swallow about six tablets at a time, and really, it's no big deal.   Really.   I don't have any alarms set on my cell phone, I don't choke and gag on them, and I don't get up in the middle of the night to take anything.    My vitamins probably cost about $100 a month.   

Julie- Thanks for posting this.  I love visual aids! I don't see this as being a lot, really.  I'm sure there are folks who, before surgery, had to choke down a lot of medication, so I don't see it as being that different. 

 That's always my rationale as well.....that the alternative to these vitamins could be several times daily insulin injections, high blood pressure meds, etc, etc.     When I do have to goad myself into taking them, I will sometimes remind myself that they are in exchange for this gift of having a normal body size!

where do you get those sublingual a and ds?

Good idea posting this Julie   I think this will give a lot of future/new DS'ers a good idea/visual on what is needed...even if you are in the "require more" category.  

Although my surgeon does not recommend an extreme amount for me "yet", I do not want to become deficient either.  It seems like I take a similar amount of pills to you already, even though I'm still a newbie/recent post-op.  I kind of follow Vita-lady's suggestions for now and intend to modify things to my needs as my labs are drawn.  I can't believe my first labs will be done in 2 weeks or so!

 Back in the day, sounding like the old-timer I am, GHP had me on hardly ANYTHING.....I was on a multi with added ADEK, and 1200 mg of calcium a day.    My labs ended up in the toilet, and I struggled forever to get them anywhere near normal.   The amount I take right now is based on my lab levels, and they'll adjust you accordingly.   Most deficiencies don't really rear their heads until around the one year mark.

GHP had me on the multi w/ADEK and an iron w/C supplement . Once those ran out I started using Vitalady's DS starter package, butI didn't get her reccomended dosage.usage sheet so I sort of  went thru the forums to see what people were taking and sort of modified what everyone sles was taking to make sense for myself. (Vitalady's site emailed me their list, but I had already sorted a couple weeks worth of vitmains and couldn't remember what was what so I figured I'd take them the way they are until I have to sort and store again.) I'll get my three month labs drawn soon. 

Here's what I'm taking right now, not including Prolosec or Ursodiol.

 Your pic didn't show up!

Drat. Let me try again.

This is pretty cool, thanks!

I'm sure I can handle all of that, lol.  I just need to be organised about it!!! Helloooo pill boxes!!!