Getting in vitamins and calcium

STILL having trouble with taking my vitamins and calcium. My tongue keeps getting sores on it! Makes it hard to talk/eat/etc. I'm still taking the chewables, I'm 3 months out. Are there supplements that are small enough that I can swallow? I know Centrum makes a petite, but looked at the bottle and it said you are suppose to take 2, so I guess I would have to take 4. I guess I could do that, but....would go through A LOT of pills! Calcium...no clue. I know all the calcium pills I've seen are really big. My son takes them (not calcium citrate) and they are pretty thick. Not sure if I could cut them or not! I looked at Costco the other day and they had a few brands of calcium citrate, but you could not see the pills, so no clue how big they are. Any suggestions?

You should be in a pattern by now in your vitamins.   That is so important!!!!  Get online and buy Up-cal D that you mix in yogurt, pudding, juice anything really.  It has no flavor and find I can mix it up just fine in my yogurt.  You take it three times a day.  What has the doctor said about the sores in your mouth?  What has he said about you not getting your vitamins in?  How do your labs look?  Questions you should be asking your surgeon.  Vitamins are not something you can be lax on, this is for life.   Jane

My surgeon does not check labs until 6 months post surgery.  Last labs he did were before surgery.  I saw him last 1 month post op and he told me it was ok if I missed some calcium, but try to get the vitamins in.  I have really been trying, but my tongue really hurts.  When I said something to him and the nurse (the dietician wasn't there that day for some reason, so had to talk to the nurse instead) they just looked at me like I was nuts and didn't have any suggestions.  I don't go bac****il 6 months post op.

To be honest, I don't really trust my surgeon or his office.  I had a nasty infection in one of my incisions and they kept telling me that as long as I didn't have a fever over 101, that it was normal.  It was draining so much that I had to change the gauze every few hours and it was extremely painful - this was 2 weeks after surgery.  His office is 3 hours away, so they never saw me.  Finally I went to my local doctor's office and they sent me to the ER and I was admitted for 5 days of IV antibiotics and then 10 days oral antibiotics and ended up needing the wound packed and a wound vac!!  It was crazy.  Then when I saw the doctor for my 1 month post op visit he told me that he thought they over reacted......the wound had closed up quite a bit by then (was on the wound vac).  The wound clinic had sent them pictures of the wound from the beginning of treatment, but....no clue if anyone ever actually looked at them.

I am thinking I should call my local doctor and have labs done.  I did ask my local doctor about the sores on my tongue, but he didn't really have much to say either.....he was more worried about my severe depression at the time.  I am doing better in that regard, but very tired and very sore.  Apparently I have rheumatoid arthritis as well as fibromyalgia.....and no meds for either right now.  I see my new rheumatologist next week I think and she wants to start me on meds, but wanted to wait until my wound had healed completely first.

Not really sure what to do!  There aren't ANY WLS surgeons in my area.  In fact, only two cities in Montana even do the surgery and I had to go to the one that accepted Medicare (the ONLY one in Montana that is approved by Medicare).  There are only 2 surgeons in that town that do this surgery...... 

I will go look up the vit D you suggested.  Right now I only have $300 to get through the rest of the month and there are 4 of us.....sigh.  Hopefully I can find a way to get it!!!  I'm sure if I really need to, I could borrow from my brother or parents or something.

Thanks!

I hated taking the chewable vitamins at your stage post-op.  I was using the Opurity chewable which is huge and it is worth two multivitamins and B12.  After 8 weeks I bought a pill-splitter and cut it into 8 pieces and swallowed the pieces.  Cut up the calcium pills too.  After 4 months I switched to a non-chewable multivitamin and started swallowing them whole. No issues.

Judy

Upcal is a great idea if you are struggling with swallowing large calcium pills. Also, there are some calcium brands that sell minitabs.  You have to take more of them, but they are smaller.  As for the multivitamin, I would just split the pill until you can swallow them whole.

I'm assuming you are taking chewables because it still bothers you to swallow large pills (I couldn't either for the first few months) and not because you were told you always had to take chewables (as some patients are told).  

I was just told to use chewables at first and still have some, so have just kept taking them.  I have other meds that I can swallow fine, but nothing as big as a calcium pill.  I did have to take this HUGE antibiotic though and I had to cut it into fourths to get it down.  It wasn't as thick as my son's calcium though....might try cutting one of his up just to see (not the right type of calcium, but....for an experiment!).

Which brands are you using now?

I am taking centrum chewables for my vitamin right now.  Can't think of the brand of the calcium, it's from Walgreens online....bariatric something, but you have to take 4 of them.

I think the problem might be the vit C or the flavor or something.  I get the same sores on my tongue when I drank a lot of orange juice.

Hi!  Sounds like you are a few weeks ahead of me (my surgery date was 10/30/12).  I take the calcium citrate + D pills (2 pills/twice a day)- they are BIG but you can split them or even better- you can put them in your bottle of water & they will dissolve/break down.  They dont complete dissolve- there will be a grainy substance left- but it doesn't change the taste of your drink & since you need to push water based liquids anyway- you kill 2 birds with 1 stone.  

Just remember you shouldnt take Calcium WITH your multi-vitamin (I take Flintstone complete with Iron chewables).  you need to space them out atleast 2 hours apart.  So what I do is take my multi-vitamin (and my xanax) around 730a, calcium citrate (2 pills) around 11a, calcium citrate (2 pills) again around 3p.  then my evening multi-vitamin &xanax) around 730p.

it sounds like alot to remember but once you get into a routine, you'll be ok. I'm just now getting comfortable with the schedule.  And setting a reminder on my cell phone & work email helps too!

Feel free to add me as a friend- especially since our surgery dates are so close.  We can help each other through this process! :)

I think I will try cutting up the big pills.  I was just afraid that I would break my pill cutter trying!  Not sure I could handle putting them in my water.....probably totally psychological...haha.

I just sent a friend request.