Vitamins/protein shakes

Hi!  I had my original RNY in 2001--just had a revision 7/12/13. Prior to my surgery, I was taking juice plus vitamins. Love them. They are powder filled capsules, so I can't swallow whole, but do you think I could crack them open and mix the powder with water? Also...protein. Ugh, protein powder is horrible--I would appreciate any and all suggestions. I'm doing the carnation sugar free, but I don't think that has enough protein. I do get to move to stage 3 today, so I can have eggs & cottage cheese, that will help, I just want to keep my protein up. Thank you!

Cari

The "High Protein" Slimfast ready to drink shakes are really good and each one has 20 grams of protein.  I also enjoy the Pure Protein Frosty Chocolate ready to drink cans which have 35 grams of protein each.  The Slimfast tastes the best though.

The only slimfasts I have found all too high in fat and sugar I was told 3g or less fat snd 5g n under for sugar. I really need a good rtd for work and on the go. I bought the nectar and like it like the unjury too.

Yeah, you can mix the vitamin powder with water.  It might not taste good, though.  Why can't you swallow capsules?

I have to take a capsule that I have to break open (but it's more like little beads not powder), and my surgeon's office recommended mixing it with a Tbsp of unsweetened apple sauce. It seems to work well. As far as the protein drinks, I didn't really like any of them !! But I have found 2 that are pretty good. Unjury chicken broth was my savior at first when the thought of sweet protein shakes made my stomach turn !! Since then, I've found Syntrax Nectar Chocolate Truffle is pretty good. But instead of water, I mix with unsweetened almond milk (so it doesn't taste like disgusting chocolate water). Also, I mix in a little sugar free chocolate pudding mix to make it a bit more chocolatey. It's a few more calories, but at least it gets the 21g of protein in me !!

Thank you! I have seen others mention that Syntrax Nectar, you have to order that online, don't you?

I LOVE the Syntrax Nectar cappuccino. I order it from netrition.com

I thought they were too big?! When I did this originally in 2001, there weren't a lot of support groups, etc, I learned a lot by trial & error. I took ibuprofen up until I started this process for my revision---little did I know it was bad for my stomach. I'm just paranoid about doing something to hurt my pouch. I've had to take levaquin (got pneumonia after surgery) and those I have to crush up--they are like horse pills!

Unless they are HUGE, they probably aren't too  big.  Capsules are made of gelatin, just like Jello, and dissolve easily in a warm wet place like your pouch.  I swallow calcium pills whole, which are pretty big.  I had to take some potassium pills right after my RNY and those were HUGE, I had to break them in half.  But most things you could swallow before surgery, you should be able to swallow  now.  The surgery didn't do anything to your throat.  Even if it doesn't go through your stoma right away, it will start to dissolve quickly and then it will fit through.

Ok--thank you for your advice. Yeah, I had to take potassium thru an IV at the hospital when I was in for pneumonia --I took one look at those pills and was like no way! (However, looking back, the IV was no picnic) and I know my throat is still the same size---I just worry about what happens after I swallow. Again, paranoia. I'm going to that website today and ordering some of that protein. Thank you!