New DSers with vitamin ?s need to LISTEN TO THESE PEOPLE!

I am 11 month post op DSer who took my surgeon's advice regarding vitamin.  I came on this forum, asked a few questions, got a few answers I hated (go to vitalady, take a ton on of pills a day, better to not have to chase, etc...) and didn't listen.  I responded the way my surgeon and nutritionist/dietician people said.  They are the experts, right?  Well guess what!  I am happily the proud owner of the DS VITALADY pre packaged vitamins.  My levels were low, and didn't come up at all with what my doc said.  To my defense, i am not sure I would have been able to get all these vitamins in before 9 months, but nonetheless, I wished I would have tried.  

I will be fine.  I will catch up with my vitamins, and my levels will even out.  but I am on the wrong side of this situation.  And believe me, this is no game.  By the time you realize that it actually does matter if you miss that one day of vitamins, or that you really might have long term effects caused by vitamin deficiency, you need to hope that you can change your plan in time.

I don't say this to scare, but to first give credit to the people *****spond here... Thank you for your advice.  I am a little late, but I am there.

Thank you vitalady for offering a service tailored like yours.  Some people can buy there vitamins separately and batch them on their own.  I am not sure I could.

And thank you to this site for being one of the ONLY resources for me.

I am 130 lbs down, 40 more to go.  DS is the best, but remember to respect it!

I love seeing that you are on the right track now! I am a revision patient from a failed RNY, and I learned this lesson the hard way a few years back when I was nearly hospitalized for deficiencies! I am 11 weeks post op from my DS, and have been on Vita Lady's DS regimen since 4 weeks out! It's tough to get them all in, but I don't want to be sick again!! Keep up the good work, and thank you for posting this for others to read!!!

I also will be buying the pre packaged pills so I don't mess it up.  I don't mind paying extra to prevent me from my stupid self sometimes.  Question, what went wrong for you if you don't mind me asking?  Did you not take them at all?  Or skip days here and there?  Thanks, and sorry for being personal, but this right here... the vitamin piece, is what scares me the most.

Awesome!!   I'm so glad you listened, and I agree, thank God for Vitalady. 

--gina

I think it is great that you are on the right track. Also, thanks for the followup on your vitamin decisions.
It's a very important topic for all new post-ops and even some of the people that are further out.

I wonder is there anything anyone could have said that would have changed your mind?

My thought is
you made the best decision you could at the time and you were willing to change your mind when your
labs showed you that your plan then wasn't working.  Some of these decisions have a high emotional 
aspect (trust in your surgeon, fear of the new life, being overwhelmed by the options people present).

I think that is all anyone can do. Either your ready to follow an alternative plan or your not.  It may be more important
to stress the part about following your labs. Low lab values can be very convincing.   I wasn't ready to follow
Vitalady post-op and for me that was an OK decision. I made it I live with the results and change according
to my labs. Of course, I didn't follow my Docs vitamin list either.

I often wonder what the right approach to talking about vitamins is.  I see so many different ones and some I think are counter-productive.

Pete

Where's the like button!! ;-)  BTW congrats on the loss too.

I wish ppl wouldn't freak out about the number of pills or the sort. You'd never think of it if no one had planted the seed!

Really, we have RNY pouches with DS intestinal arrangement.

We've been using regular pills and sorting since 30 days out. Granted, at first we did 7 days, then 14, then 30. Now we do 90 days at a time. Starting with fresh labs, we do the 90, then again unless new info comes in, then time for the 2nd set labs, and we sort to that. Twice. And so it goes.

I see the phenomenon over and over. Ppl are told they can't swallow pills, so they can't. We were told to use chews or break pills in half, if we wanted, for 30 days, then we'd be "fine". So, the seed was never planted that we might have a problem with swallowing pills.

Anyone who knows me knows I DO have a problem with pills. But it's in my head, and thank goodness for a creative mommy who came up with a plan for me. I'm nearly 20 years, I've had vites stick in my stoma ONCE. A multi and a Hair, Skin, Nail tablets stuck together in an X. I know this because when I got the instant replay, it totally cracked me up. No easy thing, to be giving myself the instant replay while laughing like a fool.

Lesson learned. Tablet + capsule together. No talet + tablet. No. Bad Thing. Not doing that again.

You can be thankful for 3 rather pushy men for the pre-packs. I kept insisting it couldn't be done. turns out all we needed was an endorsement to our protein-sample certification.

I only stalled it off for 10 years, right? LOL

Wrong again. Or should I count the ways?

You wrote: "turns out all we needed was an endorsement to our protein-sample certification."

What do you mean? 

I'm 8 years out and since I started your recommended regime I've never had a bad lab. I've tweaked D to get my levels to them to high normal, but thats about it.

Thanks Michelle for all of your hard work in educating our community.