Vitamins

PS. I only made the "mostly chewable" plan at threat of death. I think we pay nearly double to NOT SWALLOW a pill and I'm agin' it.

But once the seed is planted that "we can't swallow pills", it's hard to dislodge that thought. After all, people who've never had any WLS on their own body would certainly more about it (the receptionist in the office?) than those of us who DO live with altered guts.

I do not the the mostly chewable plan is adequate beyond 90 days or so. Sure, use up the big bottles, but start buying the swallow versions ASAP. Way cheaper for higher doses.

And no, it doesn't hurt my feelings if ppl buy their multi and C at Costco. I didn't want to offer them in the beginning, anyway. But some of my locals didn't want to have to park in that big lot. Yeah, ok. And if I go get it, I have to run it via the state and so on.'

Yep the free ship threshold is $300. Once a person gets a hang of it, or watches the sales, then's when you stock up on the stuff you KNOW for sure you need forever. Hint: anything with a Tender label is on sale when we are on tour. LOL

Um, we are not on tour now.

Also, the laws on this have changed, but I think that if you get your doctor to write you a prescription--it used to be a note that said it was to TREAT--not prevent...TREAT--malabsorption, it could be paid through your Section 125 cafeteria plan if you have one.

I started out with the basics right after surgery - calcium, multis, D, B12, and B complex. As time went one, I adjusted based on my labs. I ended up with a SUPER long common channel (not by choice), so I thought I would be able to get away with fewer vitamins. Wrong. By the time I had my first post-op labs drawn, my iron had already dropped by more than half from pre-op, so I knew I needed to add iron (which also came with the addition of vit C). My vit A was also dropping, so I had to add that as well. Over time, labs showed my B1 and B6 to be high, so I ditched the B complex, but my copper was also high while my zinc was hovering on the lower end of normal (the two sort of balance each other), so I added a zinc supplement to bring the zinc up a bit and hopefully bring the copper down a bit. In the beginning, I also took extra magnesium and daily stool softeners to battle constipation. Now, I take a calcium with magnesium already in it, which means I have to take 4 calcium capsules at a time for a full dose instead of just 2 at a time (and still at least 3 doses per day, so I take 12 calcium capsules daily).

So, no, I didn't start with Vitalady's plan. But there are only a few things on her plan that I'm NOT taking now, and I believe that's primarily simply because I have so little malabsorption compared to normal DSers. Oh, and I don't supplement vit E separately, but I do take a "hair, nails & skin" combo supplement (4 times daily) that includes vit E (and biotin and folate and whatnot).

I don't worry about the number of pills I take per day - I couldn't tell you even how many it is without sitting down and counting them, You are going to have to take pills at LEAST 3 times a day (likely at least 4), and I can swallow more than 1 pill at a time, so I am not concerned with the actual number. All that matters to me is that I take my supplements 4 times a day.

So, start with whatever you want, but expect to have to adjust, and not necessarily way down the road. Those high ADEK multis might be something comfortable for you to start with, but chances are you're going to have to move away from them so you can adjust your A, D, E, and K levels individually. I've had to adjust my A and D levels multiple times, both up and down, and have yet to find just the right happy medium after nearly 2.5 years (of course, I'm also pregnant now, which also throws a bit of a wrench in the works, especially since high vit A during pregnancy can be quite dangerous, but you certainly shouldn't have to worry about pregnancy!).

Thank you for everyones help.  I do have all my labs, bone scans and everything else all within the last 6 weeks.

I am going to place my order with VL for the mostly chewable and sublinguals starter pack for 90 days.  That way I don't have to worry about swallowing pills for 3 months.

Now with all the sublinguals can you put them all in your mouth and one time or a couple at a time instead of one at a time?