Vent: Pregnancy early post-op

Chelle,
Thanks for the info and no I haven't had any of my levels checked. I don't see my OB until August 12th and I see my WLS surgeon on Aug 20th. Should I demand my OB to check all viatimin levels or will my surgeon do that? I also have an appt to see the nutritonist on August 16th, so I'm winging it until these appts. So I should take my prenatals and my mulit vit? I do take Viactive wit Vit D daily 1500mg, but I'll up it to 2000. I did do a "Prenatal Panel" blood tests last Friday....do they check viatimin levels in these?

~~Gina

Hi again.
Viactive is the wrong kind of calcium for gastric bypass patients. You need calcium citrate, calcium carbonate will not be absorbed since you have very little stomach acid left. A common brand is Citrical that you can find in the stores, or you can order chewables online. Your surgeon should be the one checking your vitamin levels, a full panel is like 20 tubes of blood so you would know if it was done by now. Also, show a copy of the results to your OBGYN. Another thing I forgot to mention is B12, rny patients have to either get a shot or take it sublingually. I get a shot once a month at the drs and when I actually get preggo, I will take a sublingual a couple times a week. B12 cannot be absorbed in regular form for us.
Oh and of course, Iron. You will have a better idea of what you need after the vit panel is done, but keep in mind that deficiencies can take a while to show up. All my calcium citrate has D in it but I still take an extra 1000mg tablet once a day. Oh the joy of RNY, lol
There is a girl Andrea on the RNY board who is very knowlegable about this subject, and has a link about vitamins and post op preggos in her signanture.

Chelle you are a god send!! Here I am taking the wrong calcium, but I do have the B12 injections monthly that I administer to myself. The panel they did was about 8 tubes of blood last Friday. I've sent an email to my OB to see if she can order a full panel prior to my appointment on the 12th, so I'll see what she says.  I take Bifera (Heme and PIC Iron blend) for an Iron supplement because I am anemic, but I'm switching to Calcium Citrate and laying off the yummy Viactiv :) . See you ladies don't know how great you are to women like me going through this with limited info. Thanks again sweetie :)

~~Gina

 Make sure to continue to take a vit D with your calcium to help with absorption as well.

Thank you for clarifying! I do agree that no one should try to get pregnant early post op and that we all should be as careful as possible to avoid pregnancy until the reccomended time. I do see how it can be frustrating when we see posts from women stating that they know they should wait but the "clock it ticking" or they have " baby fever" etc, etc, etc. That is just stupid!

 I got pregnant 6 months after my surgery my husband was deployed we had no intention of him coming home early however he did come home for emergency R&R and I got pregnant. I had PCOS before my surgery, we weren't as careful as we should have been but you see we lost our only biological child together when he was 4 months old and we really wanted another baby. The heart wants what it wants and sometimes that out ways logical. I didn't not think I would get pregnant but I did and baby pull away from moms who haven't had weight loss surgery!! I think that you are allowed to have your opinion but things do happen and the women who do and have gotten pregnant early out do not need to hear all the negative bs!! They need encouragement and a friend not someone judge them. I don't care what you think about me, I don't think somebody should get pregnant in the first month or even 2. I am only 26lbs away from my goal and I am healthier than I have ever been!!! 

Well being one of those women who got pregnant early out from surgery, i will take this post as a chance for me to comment.  I agree with one of the previous post that say why should you care.  I had been trying to have a baby for over a decade to no avail.  I wanted a baby and had been told that there was probably no chance that I would be able to have one without the help of a fertility specialist and there were still no guarantees.  I love the way that some people get on this board and talk about being irresponsible, not heeding to warnings.  I am sure that before you had your weight loss surgery people told you if you cut back on calories you could lose weight or that allowing yourself to become morbidly obese causes other health problems and could even lead to death, but that did not stop you from getting to over 300 pounds.  You never know what happens that causes people to be in their situation, so maybe you should just sit back relax and mind your own business.  If you don't like seeing the posts then don't read them. 

i agree. ive also been here a while and have seen the "i have baby fever" post over and over again by the 2-3 month post ops... at 3 months out really its hard to maintain your own body not to mention the little parasite that is taking everything you have from you.. i was 4 years out when i had my son.. 5 when i had my daughter... my daughters pregnancy was very hard... i had a 9 lb weight gain ( 7 of it was baby and te other 2 was the crap that comes with them) .. i vomited non-stop.. so much so that blood came up more then once from the irritation of the acid and vomit... i could barely keep up my vitiman levels from all the vomiting... even tho i took my vits... my iron got down to a 7 by the time i was to deliver.. i couldnt keep my blood sugar up.. i was eating all the time... getting pregnant early out on purpose is in my opinion quite.. well.. dumb

O Kso maybe I just interpreted this post differently because I have read so many of Tabetha's posts and "know" her a little better, but I totally agree. There have been a lot of posts of people TRYING to get pregnant early out (we're talking less then a few months). Your body is barely healed from a major surgery at that point and they are considering putting the greatest strain ever on their bodies.

I know there are cir****tances where it is in someone's best interest to get pregnant right away and a Dr will advise if that is the case. Open communication with your surgeon, nutritionist and OB is your best bet.

I was told at 19 years old that I would never be able to conceive because of my PCOS with IR. I was married at 25 YO and while my hubby told me we would do what we needed to for our family and he would be OK with never having children I wasn't OK with that. In 2006 I decided on WLS, I had lap RNY and lost 150 pounds over the first 18 months post op. My labs were always perfect and I was diligent about taking my vitamins. At my 2 year post OP appt we discussed pregnancy, adjusted my vitamins and got my body in the best position it could be to conceive. After a miscarriage in June 2009 (blighted ovum discovered at 11 weeks) I got pregnant in August of 2009. My beautiful little girl was born in May of this year and my levels tanked. I went from an H&H of 14 to 6.8 in about 12 hours. Here she is 10 weeks old and I am still stuggling to get it above a 9 (it should be at least 12).

I had baby fever horribly right after my WLS (I blamed it on the release of estrogen that was stored in my fat), but hubby and I continued to use condoms and I was on the pill. To me the most important thing was to be as healthy as possible (meaning being at a stable weight and having good labs for 6 months) so that my baby had it's beginnings as healthy as possible.

Just my 2 cents.