Good Morning. Appointment with the NUT and tweaking vitamins

Well, she's more than a NUT, she's a Registered Dietitian working on her Masters and she listens to us old timers that are doing well and would love to have some face-to-face time with Vitalady.

What I take with me to the appointment: labs, updated lab tracking spreadsheet, proposed changes to my vitamin plan & schedule and a copy of my responses to Menus & Miles for the past 2 weeks.

So, the last labs I had done were kind of strange, some going up and over, some dropping, some even went low for no apparent reason. I haven't changed anything since 6 months ago except for my vitamin A which was planned. Oh, and we cut my iron supplements by half 6 months ago.

Keeping the iron supplements the same even though my ferritin was high. She thinks it's likely the 3 months of inflammation in my shoulder that sent it up and over the top, which drove my transferrin down below range, which may be affecting my copper. So, copper will be taken separate from my iron to see if it comes back up.

Most of my B vitamins were too high except folate. Stopping the weekly C-complex completely for 6 months, reducing the separate B-1 to 3 days a week, reducing the B-12 to 3 days a week and increasing the folic acid to every day.

Stopping vitamin A all together for 6 months. Needs to come down.

Reducing the dry D3 to once a day rather than every day and another dose 3 days a week.

Doubling the vitamin K1.

Keeping the calcium, boron, mag citrate and vitamin K2 the same. Not sure why the PTH rose a bit but it can fluctuate.

Zinc went down but I have only change source of the zinc. NUT says go back to Vitalady for zinc and forget VitaminShoppe for 6 months. She wishes there were more quality controls on the OTC vitamin industry but thinks BioTech, Vitalady's supplier, has great quality controls.

Bottomline is if you can get your levels at optimum levels, you may be able to adjust your doses of vitamins down.

--gina

Wow, that's a lot of tweaking.  I'm glad you have someone knowedgeable who is willing to work with you.  I know that DS malabsorbs more and longer than RNY does but I wonder how many have the support or knowledge you have.  Pretty scarey potentially.

I go for labs for D3 and calcuim on Monday then the follow up appt to see how we are doing.  Full labs soon too for my 2 yr appt.

Gina, sounds like you got to lower and drop off a few things.  Do you do yours every 3 or 6 months?  My surgeon only does mine annually so I get some(not all) done by my PCP in between.  She won't order everything. 

I go in a couple of weeks to get my results.  I have changed my D3 to every other day instead of every day, this was the second year in a row they said mine was too high - but I don't have the numbers yet so I'm not willing to stop it. 

I think the spreadsheet is one of the best things ever to watch for the trend that they might not catch because they are just looking at the last one or two draws.

Linda

I get mine drawn every 6 months. If there are things that are really off, the dietitian will order again in 3 months but just a few things. I don't see the surgeon just the dietitian right now. If we get a know-it-all dietitian in the future, I'll go back to seeing the surgeon but I'm good for now.

I'm so glad you are so knowledgeable! If it weren't for you none of us would know how important it is to get our labs done!

Most of us don't have a NUT or Dr. that understands how important it is for us to keep on top of these things.

Awww...thanks, Roz. I really do care. Before I was even thinking about WLS, a friend at work told me about her sister who had the RNY and didn't take her vitamins. She was in such a poor state I never forgot it. The sister had broken ribs from nothing and unexplainable bruises all over. She was just vegging in her house doing nothing but refused to take vitamins or see her doc. Ugh, that's not a life, that's slow and painful suicide.
 

My friend that is about 6 or 7 years out now looks terrible.  She lives on chocolate and chips.  She has never taken protein or supplements.  Her DR. said she is burning herself up from the inside out.  Until I had surgery she didn't even know she was suppose to be getting her levels checked every year or concentrating on Protein.  Now she knows and she still isn't willing to change.

I don't know if you answered my question about hair loss and I can't even remember on what post I asked you about it. 

I've been noticing hair loss lately.  I don't know if it is because of menopause or because I might be lacking something.  Any suggestions?

Yep, I asked how your iron markers were and asked about protein...maybe zinc, vitamin A and selenium. My first guess would be iron markers.

I'm doing good with the Protein and take a Vit. A every day. I don't know about my iron or zinc levels and I don't know what selenium is. I can see myself lacking iron. I don't eat much red meat or vegetables. Iron supplements give me such an upset stomach. I burp constantly after taking it.