Calcium

 I have to take calcium 2 times a day now.  The stuff taste terrible to me. Since my surgery the pill is too big at this point form e to take so it is powder form for me at the present.   Somehow after surgery my taste buds have changed.  No one else in my family finds the stuff aweful tasting!  It taste like salty orange juice strained through dirty socks.  I am scared to find out what else will now taste aweful to me.  

But what I would like to know is what are others doing to handle this calcium problem. 

Thank you for your input,

Kimi

I use the calcium chews....I buy all the flavors and mix it up so it doesnt become mundane! :-)

Actually, the ASMBS says you need calcium citrate three or four times a day (500 mg at a time).

You might like Upcal D, which is a powder you can put in any drink.  It has no taste.

You might like the Calcet creamy bites from Celebrate, although they are kind of expensive.

Typical 600mg calcium citrate pills are large and difficult to swallow for some. I initially tried cutting them in half, but the jagged edge from the cut seemed to make swallowing more difficult.  I tried the calcium citrate powder, but those tended to be gritty, and would only stay in suspension in a thicker shake--powder would settle out in watery liquids.  Yes taste buds evolve post op. No two post ops have the same likes or dislikes either.  I found that using the calcium citrate capsules from vitalady.com makes swallowing so much easier. Although similar sized, the rounded smooth nature of the capsule makes swallowing them much easier.  I use the Calcium Citrate only (no D3 it it), since I already take a 50K IU dry D3 daily to keep my D levels around 90.  This form of calcium is really 1035 mg of calcium citrate, BUT the importat part is that each capsule has 300mg elemental calcium.  So 2 capsules AM and two PM total 1200mg of elemental calcium daily. I've done this for some 3 years now, and my labs look fine.  DAVE

I have tried several brands of Calcium Citrate. I have not found the ones that you talk about and do not want anything like it is coming via a dirty sock. I tried cutting those big horse pills and like others it made it even harder to swallow them. I tried grinding them into a gritty mess and that was very bad as well. Some were good, but way to expensive. What I am now on and find expectable to me are from Bariatric Advantage. Thy are 500mg so I have to take 3 per day and I get them in a tub with 270 chewable tablets in Chocolate flavor. Not bad tasting. The first order I got the tablets were kind of hard, but the last batch I got were softer and easier to chew up and the taste is even better to me. 
Yes your taste will change over time. I was a Crystal Lite  junky. After surgery it tasted like chemical like stuff and I could not stand it. Now however after 3 months I do have some flavors, Orange, and lemon that I like again. So just be aware that you may be able to tolerate others things later that you do not like now. I am still not able to eat fish of any kind even though I loved it before surgery.   

I used to buy the Bariatric advantage calcium chews. They were good! I would buy chocolate, raspberry and caramel flavored ones. But, I eventually got tired if them and now I just swallow my pills. I buy the Kirkland brand and take that 3 times a day.

Dee I don't want to take over this post, but did you ever try to dissolve one of those pills over night in water? One of the people in my support group tried taking a pill and I think it was calcium and it got stuck in his pouch and he had to go to the hospital and have it taken out. Scared the hell out of me, and I was wanting to try the ones at costco, but was afraid. Let me know if you can and thanks. 

One postop found that it takes only about 10 minutes to dissolve a Citrical in a glass of water. She suggested that for those who have trouble with swallowing pills, they can put a pill in their water bottle and/or protein bottle and let it dissolve naturally. All it left was a little bit of grit at the bottom of the glass. with the addition of saliva, which is an enzyme that is supposed to break down stuff like this faster than water.

I buy the Bariatric Advantage calcium chews. I love the Raspberry & I like the Caramel as well. It can be costly but I like knowing I'm absorbing them as I was passing the pills before.

I purchased the chewable calcium citrate ones -- they are freaking HUGE!! My NUT suggested using chewable tums for the first few months, and switching to the other when I'm all healed. The tums have 750mg of calcium citrate, but no vitamin D3, so I make sure to take those supplements together, several times a day.