Vitamin help please????

I was given a page and a half of vitamins and supplements to begin taking now from the Post Op Manager at Kaiser.  I don't have my scanner hooked up yet from the move (not sure where it is) so I will have to type it for you to look over. My question is should I just go to Vitalady and ask her what I should be taking etc.?  Or does this list look good?  This seems overwhelming to me UGH!  Here it is:

Multivitamin - Centrum Silver is okay (chewables) but I must add 18 mg iron daily
Calcium w/Vitamin D3 - choose calcium citrate - 1500-1700 mg per day (you can only absorb 500-600 mg at a time.  Divide doses (1 tab 3 times per day)
Vitamin D3 - 2000 Internation Units total every day
B1 (Thiamine) - 50 mg 3 times per week
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) - 1000 micrograms sublingual,  3 times a week
Beta Carotene - 25000 International Units twice weekly
B Complex - 1 tab per day (didn't mention mg etc)?
Vitamin C - 1000 per day

*All vitamins shoud be taken with food at meal time except iron.
*Do not take calcium all at once.
*Take Iron and Vitamin C.  Tke 2 hours apart from tea, meals, mutivitamin and calcium as these decrease absorbtion.  Avoid Ferrous Sulfate or slow release.

That's very similar to mine.  I don't have the B1 or Beta Carotene, but otherwise, that's what I have.  I also take a proton pump inhibitor (Aciphex) .  I take B12 every day, but I was deficient before surgery.

Looks like a good list to me.

Two things:

-You really need to take 2x the adult dose of your multivitamin. That's an ASMBS recommendation

-It says 1 tab 3x a day for calcium but a lot of calcium citrate is 2 tabs per 500 mg. So be sure to read the label to make sure you are getting enough.

-Vitamin D may or may not be enough. If you had pre-op labs, you know if your Vitamin D is already low. If it is, you may need more than 2000 IU a day. If it's not low, then that's probably fine to start

This is a very minimal approach to your vitamin needs and while beta carotene is fine for itself it is poorly absorbed and converted to vitamin A by those of us with malabsorptive surgeries. Here's the link to Vitalady's RNY plan. My money is on her plans over Kaiser's and I'm living proof they work. --gina

Chewable Plan: www.gblcreations.com/Resources/Gina/ProgramChewable2-2010.pd f

Basic RNY Plan: www.gblcreations.com/Resources/Gina/ProgramPRNY2-2010.pdf

Gina,
I sent Vitalady and email along with my list from Kaiser.  I'm going to put my money on Vitalady's list and tell her you sent me!  Thanks for your help.

Amen.   I'm just going to follow you around and say Amen, is that okay Gina? 

Ruthie,
Do you use Vitalady's products or shop around for better prices etc?  Do you use chewables?  I'm thinking about chewables because I'm a bit queasy lately.

D. All of the above  LOL

Remember that you will be starting out very slowly and increasing as time goes by...

I follow Vitalady's recommendations but have to be more concerned about pricing than convenience, so yes, if I can go to the source website and find an item cheaper I will do so.  Most of the time, she is the better deal though, as long as you are buying enough to save on postage.

I purchase from Vitalady, Celebrate, Bariatric Advantage, Mybariatricpantry.com, Vitacost.com, Proferrin.com, Walmart.com and Puritanspride.com  depending on the product and the best deal.  It's time consuming but I save a few bucks.  Someday I hope to start one stop shopping through Vitalady... but, today is not the day. 

If you message me your email addy I'll send you my spreadsheet as soon as I can.

Gina,
Do you purchase everything from Vitalady or do you shop for better prices etc?  Also, lately I'm a bit sensitive/nauseated and the thought of swallowing ALL those pills makes me want to gag.  Have you tried any of the chewables? If so what flavors were your favorite? 

I use some of her sublinguals (under the tongue) but almost everything else I get from her is capsule form. There a couple of exceptions but for the most part all capsules and much easier than pills to take.

I buy just about everything (vitamins and protein powder) from Vitalady and if you reach $300 with your order, shipping is free. Start taking her plan but ease into it. Slowly at first starting with your multi vitamins, D3, and calcium. Add vitamin K or A the next week and continue adding as you feel ready. When you start adding the iron, take that real slow and add a pill every few days until you can get the entire dose in. Her Tender 60mg iron capsules are pretty easy for me, some folks prefer the chewable 25mg pills. Both are carbonyl iron and fairly easy on the guts. She also carries Proferrin (heme) iron which causes no problem at all with most folks' systems. Your doc may be able to prescribe Proferrin Forte and save you some money.

--gina