need a place to buy vitamins

i need a place to buy the chewable vitamins for after surgery. if i bought everything i needed from BA website i would be spending over $130. i just used all of my tax refund to pay for my co-pay and outstanding bills to the hospital so im running low on cash. anyone know of any stores that carry everything i need? im in central texas so i have HEB, walmart, walgreens, sams, a natural food store and scott and white pharmacy to choose from.

and can i really take 2 flintstones instead of the chewable centrum?

thank you.

~starting liquid diet on Feb. 9th~
~surgery is on Feb. 23rd~

We are actually very lucky and have many choices when it comes to our vitamins.

I'm not promoting any one company in particular; however, here are a few links that can think of right off the top of my head:

http://www.bariatricadvantage.com/catalog

http://www.vitalady.com/

http://www.celebratevitamins.com/

One suggestion:  Try and make it to one of the OH Events this year.  Lots of vendors there with vitamin options & information, but best of all, free samples.

Good luck,
Lisa

 

Are you talking about the Chewable orange flavored centrum?  Look for the Berry flavored!  They are much better.

Some will tell you Fl inetones are fine, I disagree they don't have everything in them that an adult vitamin has.  Will they work for a couple of months, probably so but please don't depend on them long term.

I do recommend the chewable Centrium or store brand of Centrium.  Most pharmacies and Walmart have their own brands for various vitamins and such. 

Vitamins do not have to be expensive, oftentimes you will find buy one get one free from Walgreens, Krogers, CVS and probably HEB.  Some people have had lots of luck with the bariatric vitamins being promoted, others still have deficiencies.  I do recommend Vitalady (www.vitalady.com , email [email protected]) for help if/should you find yourself getting any deficiencies and/or sending your vitamin levels trend downward.

Talking about trending, I STRONGLY recommend you get copies of all your labs even those they take before surgery and put them in a spreadsheet to watch how you are doing.  Most surgeons and doctors do not worry about levels until there is a deficiency.  If you watch them, you can adjust your vitamin regimen to possibly prevent deficiencies.

I buy almost all my vits at Wal-Mart, Centrum Chewables, b-12 sublinguals, and the most I pay is now for my Iron which I do buy from Vitamin Shoppe, but it is a special one.  Other than that, really walmart is good, with exception to calcium, I do take the huge horse pills, but you might want chewable and they do not sell the correct one we need.  Make sure you get calcium citrate not carbonate.

And as Cajun said do not do Flinstones no matter what your doc says, because they do not work. Not enough stuff in them for us.

First- good luck on your surgery! I get my vitamins at WalMart except for the iron. I get it at Vitamin Shoppe- its Nature's Plus chewable iron and I found its the only one my stomach can tolerate. I also like a raspberry flavored B-12 sublingual I get at Vitamin Shoppe too. It tastes like jello.
My advice is to buy the smallest bottle of things at first until you know what you like and what your body likes. Then you can go to Sams or Costco and see if you can get it in a larger size.

I'm nearly 4 years post-op have always gotten my vitamins from Walmart and have had perfect labs every time.  I used Flinstones for over 2 years without any problems.  My doctor even recommended them.  I compared the amts listed on the bottle to those of the Bariatric Advantage ones and it was almost identical.  I also buy some from Puritan-they usually run buy 2 get 3 free sales. (google them online and see what their current sale is).

I do not use the expensive Bariatric vitamins and my labs are find at over 2 1/2 years out.  You will need more than Flintstones, though but you can get most everything you need at Wal Mart, except for the iron and I use this one:

http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp? id=NT-1168

It is easy on the tummy and kept my iron levels up and runs around $11/bottle for a 90-day supply.

For calcium citrate I found some of the powdered form in bulk and stir it into my cottage cheese every morning (then take tablets at night).

Good luck with your upcoming surgery!