Patch Vitamins - TWH

So I just got kind of a stern email from the nurse at TWH post follow up ... apparently the dieticians are not happy with people using Patch vitamins.  This is what they said.  

"Patch vitamins were not recommended by our team. 

There has been no evidence that these patch vitamins work.  Patients who have used them in the past have found that their blood work results have deteriorated over time.  You are likely still showing good results, based on the reserves within your body. 

As a result, we recommend that you switch to the vitamins and supplements the Dieticians recommend for patients within our programme."

Anybody using them?  What they are saying doesn't seem to jive with the anecdotal reports I have from people who have been using them for long periods of time here and in the US.

I'm pre-op but on the RNY thread there are many people who swear by them; one user is 3 years out from TWH and is very happy with them. I was planning to use them tbh, but maybe I will wait for a bit.

Interesting... I brought the patches up to the dietician at HRH and she just said they didn't have a lot of data, but if I wanted to investigate the can be ordered from patchmd.   She didn't endorse them, but certainly didn't put me off them either.   Just wanted to make sure I did my homework.

Some dietitian's feathers got ruffled.  Patches work better for us than pills, because they don't have to go through our altered systems.  We have not been using patches long enough for them to have enough data to reach the conclusion that they don't work.

I had RNY in May of this year. I switched to using PatchMD vitamins around one month post op as I was having a lot of trouble with the chewables (would gag, extreme nausea, etc). I put one multivitamin patch on one shoulder and one calcium/vit D patch on the other shoulder each night before bed and take them off in the morning. I also get a B12 shot once a month and each morning I take my prevacid with a baby spoon of applesauce. I don't take anything else.

I was worried about telling the team at my hospital (Humber River) at my 3 month follow up appointment but was completely honest and actually brought them with me so they could look at them. I told myself that if my blood work came back deficient then I'd ditch the patches and follow their recommendations since I take my health very seriously. I told them that.

My blood work came back and the dietitian called me to say that of all the patients that day I was the only one who said I was using Patch vitamins and the only one whose blood work wasn't deficient in any area! My blood work was "picture perfect and keep on doing what your doing" she said and then she asked me if I could tell her again where I got them and asked if I would share with her how much I paid for them so she can let other patients know if they are having trouble taking vitamins orally.

I get of course that I'm only 4 months out but so far so good. I will continue to monitor my blood work and adjust as needed but for me PatchMD was a saviour and has made life so much easier for me!

Good luck on your journey and sorry to hear that it sounds like the folks you dealt with were a little close-minded - hopefully it was coming from a place of worry and concern for your health and not control.

Nikki 

I think the thing that bothers me the most is the inconsistency of the messaging at TWH.  Three people messaged me privately to say they are using the patches and told them at TWH and that no one raised any issues because so far their bloodwork has been ok.   The other thing that is bothering me is that all their literature and information is geared to people who have had the RNY.  I know there are way less of us who have had the sleeve, but in some instances, the medical information is different and they treat us like we don't exist.