Having trouble with vitamins

[mrsroyale 71]

So, today is my 6th day post op, 4th day home back from the hospital. I am doing better with my food and Water intake today. Still not great, but better, I was able to eat a bit more and drink a bit more and add some Protein as well but I am nowhere near where I am supposed to be limits wise. My biggest problem right now is getting my Vitamins in. I am able to get a few in but I am having problems with all of them. I was just wondering if this is normal and everyone goes thru it? I am not as tired today and was even able to walk on my treadmill, just the intake of foods, water and vitamins... Is it normal for gastric bypass?

[Maxthecat 37]

Patchmd.com. They are vitamin patches you wear for 8 hours. I love them.

And yes, it's normal. I would focus on Protein and Water. My Dr recommends 64oz of water and 60g of protein per day. I did Premier Protein shakes to get that all in and then ate little bits of food as I could. I'm just over a month out and get about half my protein from shakes and the rest from food. If I am low on protein my energy tanks the next day.

[mrsroyale 71]

I asked my NUT about the Patches but he said they did not recommend them but what is your experience with them? Have you ever had any problems? How are your levels?

[James Marusek 5,244]

After surgery, your body is in a major heal mode, so it is common to be unable to meet your daily requirements for Protein and fluids. Just keep trying and you should be able to meet these soon. But you should be able to meet your daily Vitamin requirements from the get-go.

Having said this, I recognize that it can be difficult. After surgery I discovered that I could no longer swallow medium to large pills. So I used pill splitters and pill crushers. This condition lasted for about 2 months and then things returned back to normal. I had to crush my calciums into powder and the only way I could get these down was to mix it with Crystal Light and drink it. But because it formed a white thick paste at the bottom of the glass, I generally had to repeat this several times in order to get them down.

It is important to put a 2 hour separation between the Vitamins that contain Iron and those that contain Calcium. So in my case I found that what works best for me is to take the iron supplements just before bedtime. I put my vitamins in a weekly pill container. I have one container for the morning and one for the night. And I use a very small glass bowl for my calcium supplements. I put my calciums in the bowl in the morning and take them throughout the day. If I am up and about I put my calciums in a ziplock bag and carry them with me.

[SleeveDreamer 383]

7 hours ago, mrsroyale said:

So, today is my 6th day post op, 4th day home back from the hospital. I am doing better with my food and Water intake today. Still not great, but better, I was able to eat a bit more and drink a bit more and add some Protein as well but I am nowhere near where I am supposed to be limits wise. My biggest problem right now is getting my Vitamins in. I am able to get a few in but I am having problems with all of them. I was just wondering if this is normal and everyone goes thru it? I am not as tired today and was even able to walk on my treadmill, just the intake of foods, Water and vitamins... Is it normal for gastric bypass?

My doctor will not allow me to take my Vitamins until,two weeks out.

[catwoman7 11,209]

re: vitamins: there were a couple I couldn't handle right away. The PA at my surgeon's office said a few days would probably be OK. You have a lot of Vitamin stores in your body. I wouldn't go too long - but a handful of days without probably isn't going to cause problems.

as for the patch, a lot of people have great success with those, but I've read about a few (on another forum) that had deficiencies with them. With my luck, I'd be one of the latter. I've considered buying a box to use when I travel, though - lugging all those bottles around is a pain - esp when I'm flying and want to take everything carry-on.

[Maxthecat 37]

I asked my NUT about the Patches but he said they did not recommend them but what is your experience with them? Have you ever had any problems? How are your levels?

They don't check my levels until three months out so I'm not there yet but my Dr has seen nothing but good results with patients on them. I'm also on another forum and there are many using the patches with success.

[SleeveDreamer 383]

I switched to the Bariatric Advantage multi that has everything but Calcium so I don't have to take so many. They are chewable. Then the only other one I need to take and chew is their chewable calcium, since you can't take that at the same time as the others anyway. Soo I got down from about six to only these two.

[InThisLife 7]

I asked my NUT about the Patches but he said they did not recommend them but what is your experience with them? Have you ever had any problems? How are your levels?

My doctor did not recommend the patch either.