Vitamin Recommendation From GB Hosp Site????????

Hi Anita,

I have heard a lot of stories about surgeons, that just do the procedure, but don't have any bed side manor.  There are even surgeons who just do the surgery for the money, nothing else.  I know someone who went in for surgery, and found out that the surgery she had was not what she went in for, it was butcher, and now she is suffering with a lot of medical problems for the rest of her life, and the surgeon took off and left the country never to be found, so this is not new to me.  It is so crazy, it is really scary.  I guess like Tracy said we have to be are own advocates for good health.  AMEN!!!! AGAIN!!!!

OH GAWD!  That's just awful...I really do live under a rock!  I have always been weary of doctors and people in general (when it comes to letting them very close to me)...but at the same time...I'm probably too trusting too because I believe that most people are generally good....and should be given the chance to prove that...

But these days...I trust no one...I even got rid of my doc of 12 years and got an appointment with a new one...So now I have to train this one too!  LOL I learn new things daily and I am a huge advocate of my own health care because I learned the hard way myself...I want to live a long long time like my grandparents (still driving and golfing at 90) 

This is absolute proof that anyone undergoing bariatric surgery needs to go to an established, multi-disciplanary program that includes the surgeon, nurse, dieticitan, exercize physiologist and psychologist/therapist.  The surgeon has little time or propensity to do actual research into the postop dietary, nutritional and supplementation needs.  Therefore, the dietician and nurse step up to the plate to fill that need.
I am proud to be the nurse director of an excellent bariatric program that fills those needs.
Cindy

It sure is!  Thank goodness my doc had a great team in place and I really learned almost all I needed, to go long term...but things change... Scientists are finding better vitamins and new lab standards and a whole slew of better information...UPDATED information... and we all need to stay on top of these things....because doctors can't always have that much time to research this stuff.  We live it and learn it thru each other and thru trial and error and formula...LOL  I have seem my surgeon 3 times ever...The initial consultation...Operation day...and release day.  That's it!  Never saw his face again.

The bariatric patients at your hospital are lucky as I was with mine...because I just didn't even imagine that someone would have surgery and not know what to eat 5 days afterwards...I read everything i could for a year before I even had surgery...I KNEW EXACTLY what I had to do...My nutritionist made us go out and buy our vitamins with her descriptions...She gave us 3 months to find all our supplements...We had to bring her the bottles of stuff and a sample of the kind of snacks we were going to eat...She checked all the labels and approved or disapproved the vitamins or protein!  I am serious!  We could not have surgery until our vitamins and protein were bought and approved. We made out menus of what we were going to eat along with our vitamin and protein supp schedules!  We had to have this all done before surgery...So...yeah...I was so ready!  This was not a free class either...I had to pay for it, but it was the best 200 dollars my insurance didn't cover!  It was priceless to me...

I just assumed that this was a standard way that surgeons doing such a surgery would do to make certain his patients were educated on how the surgery worked so they would SURVIVE and thrive for many many years....It still makes me sick thinking of that vitamin list...I just cannot get over it...

It is amazing to me how little some surgeons and nutrionist know about WLS  patient's needs! There is no excuse for some of this..but that is exactly why we have to do research and become our own best advocates!  Our systems are different than others that have not had WLS...then throw in the different surgery types and you get a mess! You wouldn't belive how many people think the RnY vitamin and eating needs should also be the duodenal switch's vitamin and eating needs. Some things just burn my bananas.

THANKS for brining this up and hopefully, the poster can find great information on her board!

Dianne from FL

i was told...................." take flintstone vitamin & tums"  when asked about calcium carbonate said.......... heck tums are good enough

good surgeon is not necessarily = to good nutritionist  !!!!!

Yipes!  That is almost funny if it weren't for so many new post ops and some older ones that think the word of their surgeon is "the only" word...and that right there takes the funny completely out of it. 

My surgeon is good at what he does in the operating room...I learned right away that if I wanted any questions answered I had to ask the Nutrionist that was assigned to my group for any eating, supps, maintenance questions, what to expect in the hospital...etc! Even the office clowns didn't have any patience for answering the same questions from new patients every single day and would give answers like  "Write down all your questions and bring to your next Nut class"...I knew I had to research everything myself or ask my Nut who was AWESOME!!! Well trained...Well researched...And very thorough...

I won't even go back there to my surgeon....unless it's an emergency and I need some kind of surgery...I trust him completely for that!  Otherwise, I get better care with my PCP who knows NOTHING about GB...I just hand her my list of labs that I want run...and I take the results and study them and check my levels with updated standards, because the Military (Tricare) levels are behind a few years and some of their "normal ranges" are actually deficiencies...

Tums huh?  Nice!  LOL I'll trade you some Ferrous Sulfate for them! Oops...I forgot...I threw that prescription on the lawn...

There was a really great nurse in my surgeons office but then she left.  I didn't want to post more in the original because i figured it might have been removed...........since dr name probably is in profile.  but he is a great surgeon for GBP.