Vitamin Aversion!

[JennsJourney 205]

I started taking my chewable multi-Vitamins a few days after surgery as I was instructed by my doctor. (Along with my Vitamin D, B and Calcium) They all went down fine even during the 2 weeks of nausea following surgery. My doctor had me on 3 weeks of full liquids and then I began adding in soft foods.

The food went down well but then a couple of hours later, I chewed up my Multi-Vitamin and within 1 minutes I had a violent reaction and all I had time to do was grab my trash can! I then switched to a different chewable Vitamin and again, as soon as it hit my stomach, I was slumped over my toilet.

After that I stopped taking my Multivitamin but still felt terribly nauseated and could not eat or drink almost anything for several days. My doctor told me to go off all my Vitamins except B12 and the nausea has gone away. But I know I need my vitamins but definitely don't want to go through the throwing up stage again!

Anyone else experience this??? TIA

(I'm 5 weeks post-op)

Edited March 14, 2016 by Jennifer Waters Shelton

[JamieLogical 8,710]

Are you not allowed to just swallow regular pills by now? I was allowed to swallow my multi-vitamins at 7 days post-op. I'd think by 5 weeks you wouldn't have any issues.

[talking mountain 26]

Yes! It happened at about the 3rd week for me, too. It is probably nothing, but you really need to call your doctor to see if there is a possibility that you have developed a stricture or ulcer.

I had to have an Upper GI (most places seem to do an upper endoscopy, which I would have preferred) and that showed that things were in fact "hanging up" just before entering my pouch, but that there was not a stricture or anything serious. For some reason, things were just taking a long time to move from the bottom of my esophagus into my pouch. But boy, that "hanging up" time was miserable! Pacing the house in agony, retching violently, trying not to panic.

Eventually it got better (I'm 3 months out now) but in the meantime, here's how I coped, in case it is of any help to you:

- Take pills only when standing up.

- Tilt chin up slightly when taking pills, so that esophagus is kind of in a "straight" line.

- Take only one pill at a time, with a small bite of soft but sticky food (toast or a saltine worked best), and wash down with a small sip of Water (doctor said it was okay to do food and Water together for this purpose).

As soon as I could, I switched to PatchMD Vitamin Patches. They have been a godsend in that I don't have to take any Vitamins at all now. However, I haven't had any bloodwork yet so I can't tell you if they actually work. They actually cost less than most bariatric Vitamins which surprised me.

Good luck to you!

[JennsJourney 205]

Yes! It happened at about the 3rd week for me, too. It is probably nothing, but you really need to call your doctor to see if there is a possibility that you have developed a stricture or ulcer.

I had to have an Upper GI (most places seem to do an upper endoscopy, which I would have preferred) and that showed that things were in fact "hanging up" just before entering my pouch, but that there was not a stricture or anything serious. For some reason, things were just taking a long time to move from the bottom of my esophagus into my pouch. But boy, that "hanging up" time was miserable! Pacing the house in agony, retching violently, trying not to panic.

Eventually it got better (I'm 3 months out now) but in the meantime, here's how I coped, in case it is of any help to you:

- Take pills only when standing up.

- Tilt chin up slightly when taking pills, so that esophagus is kind of in a "straight" line.

- Take only one pill at a time, with a small bite of soft but sticky food (toast or a saltine worked best), and wash down with a small sip of Water (doctor said it was okay to do food and Water together for this purpose).

As soon as I could, I switched to PatchMD Vitamin Patches. They have been a godsend in that I don't have to take any Vitamins at all now. However, I haven't had any bloodwork yet so I can't tell you if they actually work. They actually cost less than most bariatric Vitamins which surprised me.

Good luck to you!

I had never heard of PatchMD! Thanks for that tip. I'll look into it. I also relieved to know it wasn't just me who couldn't get down the vitamins.

[laura_rose16 27]

I too had an aversion to Vitamins. I am drinking Vitamin Water zero currently. I still need to take Iron separately. The chewables were disgusting. I am only 5 days post op so hopefully will get better.

[talking mountain 26]

@@Jennifer - I just realized that you were using chewables, not trying to swallow solid Vitamins. So your aversion is probably not a stricture.

Most likely the chewables you are taking contain a sugar alcohol such as sorbitol, erythritol, xylitol, maltitol, etc; most do because it's a way to keep calories down while making the Vitamins palatable. Surprisingly, even most brands of chewable bariatric vitamins contain sugar alcohols, although I do recall there were one or two brands that don't.

A lot of RNY patients get super sensitive to sugar alcohols after the surgery (so read labels on "sugar free" products carefully!). For me, sugar alcohols upset my stomach even more than real sugar! Unfortunately this has meant an end to my favorite Mocha Soy Frappe because Starbucks' sugar-free syrups contain sugar alcohols

Sucralose ("Splenda") also bothers some people, myself being one of them, but this seems to be fairly unusual.

Also many RNY patients get lactose intolerant after the surgery, so check your vitamins for that (lactose is the sugar that naturally occurs in milk). My general dairy intolerance got much worse after the surgery, so I try to avoid anything with dairy components (lactose, whey, casein) in it unless it's near the very end of the ingredient list. (Hard cheeses work fine for me though, go figure!).