vitamin A tanked, cancelled surgery, getting pretty depressed now.

I posted this on the DS forum and then thought I should ask for help on the correct forum, nutrition forum... duh on me!  It is like I am asking my doctor how to repair my car and not asking my mechanic.  Sounds silly eh?  So here goes, my vitamin issue and I am hoping to get some assistance.  Thanks!

So my Vitamin A has been in the low 20's since Feb. when they tested it for my 3 month checkup.  I started taking more and more vitamin A as the months went on.  It has been tested 4-5 times since Feb. 2009.  In July it was still low (bouncing between 20 and 24) and Dr. Rossi talked with me about having my panni removed.  He gave me a quote good for 90 days and I told him I was looking at November 19th.

I borrowed the money because my insurance will not cover the panniculectomy.  October 12th I had my 1 year post op appointment with Dr. Rossi and he said he wanted me to see an Endocrinologist for the vitamin A deficiency.  I ended up having to drive 3 hours east of home to see an endo doctor.  Now the new doc wants me to see another specialist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, which my insurance company will not cover.  Dr. Rossi will not do the surgery because my vitamin A is low.  Which I understand but I am irritated about Dr. Rossi not sending me to a specialist in July or even before when the excess vitamin A didn't raise my levels.

Now, how do I raise it up or what are my options.  Is there a vitamin A shot like the B vitamins?  I am taking huge amounts of vitamin A and it isn't going up at all.  It was 43 pre-op last Sept. 2008 so it wasn't very high in the first place. 38-98 in normal.

I am taking 40,000 iu of vitamin A as paltimate (10k q.i.d.), 10,000 iu of retinol in my multi-vitamin (5k b.i.d.), 80,000 iu (20k q.i.d.) 65% as carotene and 35% paltimate, which gives me  52,000 iu carotene/28,000 iu paltimate.

When I break it down I am taking a total daily of 62,000 iu vitamin A as carotene and 68,000 iu vitamin A as paltimate or a total of 130,000 iu of vitamin A daily.  But it is broken up into four daily doses not taken all at once.

I also take vitamin D, copper and zinc.  I am also eating more vitamin A rich foods to try and help in any possible way.

If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it.  Thanks in advance.

-Jaime

I'm sorry to hear that you have cancelled your surgery.  I'm def. not a doctor, but have a few ideas about your vitamin A deficiency.  During your most recent blood tests, what did they say about your iron?  Is it low or normal?  Sometimes when you are anemic your body will not absort the vitamin A like it should.  Also found that some people have underlyng condition that may cause a maldigestion of the vitamin A even though you are doing everything right your body will not absort that certain vitamin. I agree with your doctor that you really need to take the necessary steps to make sure there no underlying condition or issues that is causing this. I would, however tell your doctor to cut the cr*p and tell your what is going on. If you are not getting anywhere with this doctor I would not delay in getting another doctor involved.  I wish you luck and would like to see more posts from you on you are doing later on.  Take care.

I ended up being able to have the surgery.  I have had to give myself shots of vitamin A, aquasol A to be exact.  100,000iu daily for 3 days then 50,000iu daily for two weeks.  I take my last shot tomorrow.

I know you asked about my iron and it is normal, all of my vitamin and mineral levels are normal.  My surgeon is very good and when I questioned why he waited so long he said it was normal to fight with vitamin levels while the body loses so much weight and it throws everything into disarray.

Thank you so much for the reply, hopefully these shots get it raised up and the vitamin regime will keep it at normal levels.

-Jaime

I know it has been along time since your post but I just came across it.  I hope you have gotten your levels up but here is my recommendation.  You say you are taking 130,000 units of vitamin A a day but 62,000 units of it are from beta caratene.  We can't absorb betacaratene, so it is useless to swallow.  You may as well just through it away.  You need to take the entire 130,000 units in Dry vitamin A - you can get it from Vitalady.com - I get it from there and Biotech is very good. My other question is -do you take Topamax or any other anticonvulsants?  If so, you can't take vitamin A with anticonvulants - they block the absorbtion of vitamin A.  I was taking Topamax with my vitamin A and my vitamin A level plumitted.  Once I separated them and increased my dose, my level went from 39 to 80 in 1 month. 

I appreciate your response.  I am on Lamictal for bi-polar but my doctor says I am not bi-polar and the psychiatrist that I was misdiagnosed me.  I just came off the Lamictal and other than my vitamins I only take an antacid, Nexium (the little purple pill, L0L.)  So Lamictal can cause my Vit A to not be absorbed properly?  That stinks but you are great.  I am doing some research right now.

My labs were just checked last week and I am still waiting for the Vitamin A results.  I am no longer taking 130K iu daily.  I cut it back in December, after my panniculectomy and after seeing a specialist.  I am taking 40K iu daily now, plus what comes in my multivitamin.  Apparently checking your vitamin A via the blood doesn't necessarily give you an accurate count.

Besides my PCP, surgeon and nurse practitioner I did see an eye doctor (who consulted with another eye doctor) and three specialists (Peoria, Bloomington and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis who consulted with someone in Chicago) and none of them could find any ill effect of my vitamin A being so low for such an extended period of time.  I'm not currently, nor have I in the past, shown any of the effects of a vitamin A deficiency.  The slew of doctors came to the agreement that my levels aren't hurting me but the will continue to monitor me in case something does start to go awry.

I ended up injecting Aquasol A for a couple of weeks giving me a huge boost and getting my levels where they need to be.  I am taking a different set of vitamins and hopefully all is well and I am maintaining finally.  People can laugh and make fun of me all they want but I started taking the multi-vitamin from Amway, plus I buy vitamin A from the local health food store.  My labs came back better since pre-operative since I started using the Vitamins from Amway.  I originally thought, "What the heck, I will give them a try.  What can it hurt to try them for a month or so?"

Keep in mind, I am taking tablets not softgels and I keep track of the amounts so I know I am getting the proper intake.  I am really impressed with those vitamins.  Anyway, I will update as soon as I get the results back.

Thanks again,
-Jaime

I am glad that things are going better and that you got the injections of vitamin A.  Please be careful, even though you haven't had any lasting effects of vitamin A deficiency, they can catch up to you very quickly and once they hit, they are very difficult to reverse.  I really recommend you get Dry vitamin A from Vitalady.com.  They come in 25,000 units per pill from BioTech and are very good.  I take 2 a day and for you I would recommend either 2 or 3 day depending on where your level is right now.  If it is normal now, I would take 2 a day - 50,000 units and if it is low, then 3 a day, 75,000 units but please take the Dry vitamin A - we absorb it so much better than the stuff you can get in the stores.  Most of the stuff in the stores are part beta carotene - very few are palitamate or retinol which is what we need.  Tablets aren't as good at the capsules - capsules are the Dry and we absorb them better. When I went from 25,000 to 50,000 units of the Dry A, my level went from 39 to 80 in one month, so the stuff really works.

So I got the results from my latest Vitamin A test.  For the first time in over a year it was normal, not even at the bottom of the barrel normal it was about halfway.  I am stoked that it is up and holding, so far.  Now if I can keep it up all will be great.  I think it is an attainable goal since I am taking all the right vitamin supplements now.

Thanks to all who helped me with this.

-Jaime

I am so glad to hear that your levels went up.  Now the hard part is keeping them up.  Please make sure you are taking the Dry Vitamin A that I recommended.  When my levels went up so fast I cut back my dose a little bit because I was afraid that they were going to keep going up, (they doubled in 1 month) but to my dismay - once I cut my dose a little bit, my levels went back down.  It is so hard for us to keep our numbers up.  I just went back to taking the higher dose and I won't cut it again.  Apparantly I need the larger doses everyday.

Do you have trouble with vitamin D?  You want that to be around 80-100.

All my numbers are good.  I am taking the proper vitamin A and so far so good.  At least I know how to get my vitamin A back up if it falls and a simple vitamin regiment won't raise it back up.

Not that I enjoyed the shots but they sure did the trick.

Thanks again for your suggestions,

-Jaime