Question:
Can we take reg.vitamin or just chewable after the surgery and why?

   — Anita c S. (posted on March 10, 2002)

March 9, 2002
Well, I would say only chewable. The fact that nothing remains in the pouch for very long (or the small intestine for that matter) means we don't absorb much. By the time the coating is gone from the vitamin it's almost out of the digestive tract! Also, I am 7 weeks out now and I can JUST BARELY get my hair loss (preventative) pills through the stoma (opening from pouch to intestine) and it's slightly smaller than an M&M. Be nice to your pouch, it will be really swollen for a few weeks and trying to jam a vitamin in is NOT pleasant.
   — Paula Prichard

March 10, 2002
you take chewables for a while but i'm now on prenatal.have to break it in half but take it with my other meds every day no problem
   — Mary H.

March 10, 2002
I take regular otc vitamins. My dr suggests if you have questions about any pill and if it will stay in the tummy long enough to be absorbed do the water test. Take about 4 oz of room temp water and drop your pill in. If it's dissolved in 20 min or less you're good to go.
   — Becky K.

March 11, 2002
For the first 8 weeks I stuck with chewables or liquids. At about that point I had such a headache that I was desperate and took a regular tylenol caplet. Since it went down fine and I didn't have any drastic consequences I have been pretty bold about taking pills even the big calcium ones that seem to go thru my little stoma ok but get stuck in my throat?!?
   — ctyst

March 11, 2002
I was on Flintstone chewable vitamins twice a day for 6 weeks and then given the ok for regular adult One-A-Day. I had a difficult time tolerating them, so I went back to the Flintstones for a few more weeks until I found the Centrum chewables (adult). They taste much better than the Flintstones, just like St. Joseph's Children's aspirin I used to get as a child. I take one twice a day.
   — Donna L.