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I feel so defeated.... it feels like every time I try to improve my health I make things worse. A small bit of back story first.... I had my WLS back in 2000, and was never told a lot of what they tell people now. I was simply told to take Calcium, stool softeners and a multivitamin.... not what kind or what it should include etc. I was then told years later I was anemic, but after 2 years with that (PCP) doctor she never addressed it even though I inquired. Due to an extremely large hernia and pain I was having, I went to the bariatric doctor and he said to fix the hernia I would need to lose weight. I was losing weight again (after many years) and was feeling tired all the time. I asked my team about the low iron/anemia and asked if should I address it. I was advised to take 18 mg of Iron daily so I bought the Multivitamin with it included.... I bought a year's worth.... several days in, I became painfully constipated. Nothing worked but suppositories. I also increased my Water intake and Fiber both in food and with Benefiber. I was finally able to go without extreme pain after 2 days. One day of not using the suppositories and I am right back to not able to go again. I don't know if this is something that my body just needs to adjust to or if I messed myself up with all the years of taking stool softeners (that I don't even know if I was getting benefit of because I took soft gels)... I did message my team to ask advice, but with so many here going through similar stuff I thought I'd rant here also! I hate to think I wasted over $100 on the Multivitamins that I can't take now. I'm a retired teacher with limited funds.....lol....

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Posted (edited)

Do you spread out the Calcium into a few doses separate from the Multivitamin? That’s the only thing I can think of to help. I believe calcium is known to cause Constipation as well as the Iron so if your getting both at the same time it could be too much.

Edited by ShoppGirl

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(too much) Iron is notorious for resulting in Constipation.

i'm not a doctor, but the first thing i would say is to stop doing whatever is causing you pain and go do your PCP immediately for further guidance.

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I agree with @ms.sss. Stop the Vitamins & go to see your doctor. Ask to look into why you may be anaemic. Is it an absorption issue, do you have some internal bleeding/blood loss, etc.

In the past, I’ve always bought the non constipating Iron. Can’t recall what makes them different though. The link below gives some information about other drug & Vitamin interactions you may find interesting. Also advice to avoid caffeine - reduces iron absorption by up to 60%.

https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0036/931698/c-lifeblood-iron.pdf

Hope you can get some help soon.

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Thanks to all responding.... I do spread out the Calcium and I did initially ask about taking a gentler Iron because I was worried about it bothering my stomach...... then I was pointed in the direction of these multivitamins which already had iron included made specifically for bariatric patients.... I spoke to my team and they recommended a cap of Miralax daily (which has also been suggested in the forums here) so that is where I am now.... today was day 1 of doing that.... I was using Benefiber which bulks up while Miralax softens..... fingers crossed..... again thanks for the support.... ❤️

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