No vitamins. Am I making a BIG MISTAKE????

I am 2 months post-op form the sleeve.  I have NEVER done well taking vitamins, but now more than ever I can't do it.  They make me sick - literally.  Having said that, am I going to die if I don't take vitamins?  I have lost 40 lbs. so far, though it has slowed considerably.  I haven't started to exercise and I know I need to do it.  That is the hardest thing for me to get to in a day.  I have a terrible attitude towards it.  HATE exercise.  Anyway, my main worry is the lack of vitamins.  Anyone else have a vitamin problem?

Thanks All!

You absolutely must take your vitamins for the rest of your life.  If you don't, you will get very sick. 

Would other types of vitamins make you less sick?  Would it help to take them with a little glass of milk?  Have you tried flintsones complete with iron, optisource from Walgreens, viactive chocolate chews, or gummy vitamins?  Go to Walmart and stand in front of the multivitamin shelf.  There are tons of options.  What options did your surgeon give you?

You also really need to take an attitude of compliance right after your surgery and keep it for the rest of your life.  Your sleeve will only help you to lose weight in the long term if you follow the rules set out by your surgeon.  Just tell yourself that you have to do exactly what the surgeon told you to do and  you have no choice. 

I am an RNY-er and don't know if malabsorption issues are the same with the sleeve, but if vitamins are part of the prescribed routine, be sure to take them.

My doc warned me that for some vitamins, the damage done from deficiencies does not show up until late in the game, and can be irreversable. This includes neurological damange from shortages of the B vitamins, and bone loss from shortages of calcium.

Exercise? Yeah, we can talk about that separately. But only if you really want to!

Yes, you CAN do it. You have to. Take them with food; on an empty stomach (pouch) they'll make anybody sick. Try different kinds until you find something you can take. It really isn't an option!

Jenny

I did not have a sleeve but I did have RNY in 08. I have an extremely hard time taking vitamins in pill form. So I went back to chewables and I just did that. The doctor has also made me do B12 shots because I can't get them all down. Yes, I had to learn to give myself the shots. Here is what happened to me when I didn't take my vitamins. No I did not die but wanted to. I was extrememly weak. Hair fell out like I was a cancer patient, body ached like I had the flu, lost two inches in height (ostero) because of calcium and Vit D loss, foggy brain function, couldn't think or make decisions, and extreme fatigue.

So it is up to you. Like myself, I had to learn the hard way. I still hurt when I take them. So I do the drops under the tongue, chewables and shots. I have learned that it does no good to look good if you look old, wrinkled, crippled, and bald.  Just a way of looking at it.

OMG!  You all have scared the poop out of me!  I will start taking the vitamins....no matter what.  I don't want to go through all of this horrible stuff like hair loss, osteoporosis, extreme fatigue, or anything else that will make me look and feel like an old woman.  I guess with food is the only way.  Thanks for responding.  I have been feeling so tired lately.  Lack of vitamins is probably the reason.  I'm a big dummy. 

NOW.....tackling the exercise.  UGH!

You know you are setting yourself up to fail with that attitude.  Exercise does not have to be a chore!  I started a regular fitness routine 6 months before my surgery.  I had never had a regular routine before that- ever.  But I decided if I was going to put my life at risk with this surgery I was going to do everything I could to reduce the risk and improve the outcome from my surgery.

 I went to the local YMCA and signed up for a water aerobics class.  The class had older and larger people in it - I felt at home.  The water reduces the stress on your joints, keeps you cool, and controls your heart rate.  Because of that you can exercise harder and longer when you are just starting out.  I LOVED IT and I still do.  16 months later and I still do the class, plus 40 minutes on the elliptical, a Pilate's class once a week and now I am cross country skiing on the weekends.  When I was heavy I fell down a lot and broke my ankle, dislocated my knee- I felt trapped in a giant unmovable body.  As I have lost weight I have gained strength, flexibility, coordination.  I enjoy my fitness routine- and it is a routine. I do it like I brush my teeth and shower - it is part of my life.  I work full time so I have to be flexible - we had snow and ice here this week so I skipped the water aerobics (a 20 minutes drive) to use the elliptical here at work.  Sometimes I need to be at home (work men or whatever) and I put in a DVD and play on my WII instead. 
Over time - I have noticed I feel better when I exercise, I am less stressed and happier when I work out.  But you don't get that by deciding you hate something and you are going to force yourself to do it.  You get that by finding something you enjoy doing, by allowing yourself to take pleasure in it even if you can't do it perfectly, and by being patient and persistent.
I tried Yoga and it wasn't for me - but I did it for 8 weeks to give myself a chance to experience it and the improvements I would see in doing it.  I'm  thinking about a low impact land based aerobics class - maybe in a Zumba class as I progress and get stronger, more flexible and more coordinated. 
I am planning to buy a bicycle this spring and go on a bicycle touring vacation this fall in New England.  last year we went to the beach - I walked for miles!  picked up shells, swam, walked up and down the steps.  All because I was getting healthier and stronger everyday that I was exercising.
Th other thing - if you do a regular fitness routine you will see measurable progress.  I started at 6 minutes on the elliptical at a snails pace.  Slowly over time I have increased that to level 5 and 40 minutes - I burn 500 calories 2 or 3 times a week doing the elliptical.  The pride you feel in seeing yourself get better over time- it's really really good. 
And the stamina and strength you gain - do you have kids or a hubbie?  You can now go for walks, runs, rides, hike or bike in the summer.  If you are out of shape you will not enjoy it - but if you have a regular fitness routine you will be able to enjoy it and the people with you.
I know this is really long but I feel passionately that exercise is a critical part of this process and sometimes it gets ignored.

I've lost 150 lbs, give or take. I figure I have a really good parking place. I have to pay for it by putting some coins in the meter every few hours. I'm used to it, but sometimes it is a nuisance to take them with me. But I'm not willing to take them back by skimping on my "coins".

You won't die for a long time, but here's a quick run down on taking too low a dose by trying to skim by with a multi or not taking daily. This is based on the things that we tend to lose, regardless of surgery type.

protein - hair, skin, nails, appetite control (major weapon in your arsenal) and when it's gone, your heart stops

iron - color, hair, keeps your heart beating, brain functioning. when it drops too low, your heart stops, but wow, you feel way lousy first

calcium - bones, teeth, as you know, but its primary mission is to keep the heart beating in a correct rhythm. First teeth crumble and/or break, fractures in bones happen with minor falls, and ultimately, your heart stops. Magnesium and potassium work in a different way, but support the heart and lack thereof results the same way

zinc - supports protein uptake and your immune system. ugly break outs and open sores. it takes more steps, but ultimately, your heart stops

A - eyes. first symptom is night blindness. one of my friends will lose a cornea , so she'll have to wait for a donated one, but she can no longer see thru that eye anyway. She can't go back and undo her stupid. And she did know better since we spent a lot of time IRL together. A also is involved in immune things, so when you run completely out - you guessed it- your heart stops

B vites - tho each is a little different, what you feel is tingling in hands/feet, lack of memory, scrambled sleep, feeling like your brain is in chilled molasses and you have trouble processing simple information. Another friend (as IRL, spent a lot of time with me) was thinking her multi was good (how she could get from HERE to there - ?) and she called me when her family had started arranging for her to be committed to a mental facility. By the time she talked to me, her Bariatric Beri Beri was so advanced that she couldn't make it to the end of a sentence, because she'd already forgotten the beginning! And eventually, your heart stops, b ecause without enough B12 and folic (another B vite), you can't make cells.

Both of these ladies are young and genius level IQ.

C - immune, helps with iron, and as mentioned, without, your heart stops

D - always known for bones and teeth, now mood, brain function, cardiac function, and prevention of some cancers. The list grows longer every week. Can help the symptoms of some autoimmune disorders. So, no D and all that other stuff goes first, fractures and so on, but D works with calcium and without calcium - your heart stops

K is similar to K in the calcium support

I could go on down the list of vites that are less likely to kill you in their absence, but you asked, so I'm giving you the simple form. I've been serving the WLS community for 5 yrs and have attended way too many memorial services to beat around the bush. Seeing someone who just turned 40 losing a cornea, one eye vision and not much left in the other eye; in a wheelchair from B vite issues; regular fractures? She was active in the WLS community for about 7 yrs, had the $ to buy her vites and stay on program. She also saw with her own eyes people who had left the WLS world and were near death. But somehow, she got the "can't happen to me" thing going on. When her husband called me, she could not speak in sensible sentences. Thjey'd spent a fortune on docs, Mayo Clinic, but none checked her vit A level. To me, simple, but then I only work with a certain subset of vites. When they called me back with her A level, it had not registered AT ALL.

Sounds like I make this stuff up. But these were my buddies. I knew them thru their first surgery, watched it fail and helped them thru their revisions, and we held each others' hands thru family crises. This was way too up close and personal.

The vitamin requirements for a sleever aren't as extensive as they are with RNY or DS.  Sleevers don't malabsorb vitamins, except for Vitamin B-12 because of the loss of most of our stomach. B-12 must combine with a thing called Intrinsic Factor in order to be absorbed in the small intestine.  Intrinsic Factor is produced in the stomach, meaning sleevers have very little capacity left to produce it.  You'll need to take your B-12 sublingually (under the tongue), which allows it to enter the bloodstream more directly.  Very easy, Trader Joe's makes a little pink B-12 1000 mcg, which I take every day.  Lack of B-12, as VitaLady indicates, can lead to a host of issues, most notably neuropathy (permanent nerve damage to hands and feet; the first symptom is tingling but eventually you can lose the use of your hands and feet.)

As far as I know, no other vitamin is malabsorbed in a sleever.  However, we don't/can't eat enough food to get all the vitamins we need from food.  Along with my PPI, I take a multi every day, 1000 mg calcium citrate (I get about 500 from food), 4000 IU of D3 (in little gummies of 1000 IU each), taken with the calcium, and the B-12.  Depending on my next labs I may start taking iron.  Take calcium citrate (not calcium carbonate) because the carbonate form requires an acidic environment to be absorbed, and the PPI reduces acidity in the stomach.  (I also take biotin despite lack of any evidence that it will help when my hair stops falling out, LOL.)

Get crackin girlie!  :-)  The two month since surgery are not a problem, but if you go a year or two, you could start seeing vitamin-deficiency health issues.

I couldn't tell you if you have issues like RNY's do but I started slacking off on my vitamins a while back and didn't take them so religiously as used to at the beginning. I have been out five years and have done very well with everything but let me tell you this. I had to have a blood transfusion in Dec and that scared the BAJESUS out of me. I will NEVER take my vitamins for granite again. I would skip days and forget and be to lazy to get up and go get them. Well let me tell ya its not a good thing to not take them. There are all kinds of side effects of not taking them. It is just part of your life now.... So please take them in whatever way you have to....Margaret