Lapband to RNY revision
Here's what the ASMBS says you should start with:
A multi with 100% of the RDA of most nutrients. Take two a day. Stay away from kids' vitamins and gummy vitamins, because those will not have what you need. Even though Flintstones says “complete" on the bottle, they really are not complete. They recommend a multi with iron. If you take a multi with no iron, you’ll need additional iron at a separate time. They say to start your multi as soon as you get home from the hospital.
If you want chewables, you can use chewable Centrum. Or you can request some samples from Celebrate and Bariatric Advantage if you want to order online.
1500-2000 mg calcium citrate. Make sure it's citrate, not carbonate. That means no Caltrate and no Viactiv. They say you can wait up to one month to start your calcium – not that you should wait, just that you can.
It's really hard to find chewable calcium citrate in stores. I like Upcal D, which is a powder. You can mix it in any drink and it has no taste. Calcet creamy bites from Celebrate are yummy and the Bariatric Advantage chewy caramel calcium is pretty good too.
One thing you might want to try is ENS from Celebrate. It is a protein shake with 25 grams of protein but also contains a multivitamin and 500 mg calcium in each shake.
18-27 mg iron for menstruating women, unless your labs show you need more. (If you’re using a multi with no iron, that would mean you’d need 54-63 50 mg iron.) We absorb carbonyl iron better than ferrous sulfate. Ferrous sulfate will also make you constipated. They say to start your iron as soon as you get home from the hospital.
B12. You can use a sublingual, 350-500 mcg per day, a patch once a week, nasal spray once a week, or shots once a month. Unless your labs show you need more. They say you can wait up to three months to start your B12 – not that you should wait, just that you can.
They say a B complex is optional.
Many people also need D3 so you should get your vitamin D level to find out if you do. Don’t take the prescription vitamin D, because it’s D2 and in oil so we will absorb very little of it.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
I am so glad we have had this conversation.....I have been on the Citracal gummies since b4 my surgery and all of my labs have come back fine. This is where I love this forum cause what we may think works may not and we have you experienced veterans to keep us on the straight and narrow!!! ha. I am glad you have pointed this out or I would have not known. I am sure if I would have continued to take these it would have caught up w/me down the road.
Thank you for eye opener and I am gonna change my calcium!
Thanks again for your input!
We should get our PTH checked when we have labs done, which is parathyroid hormone. When it's high, that means we are probably leaching calcium out of our bones. But to really see what our bones are doing we need a bone density scan.
I think the Citracal gummies have kind of tricked a lot of people because most Citracal products are calcium citrate.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
