Vitamins

We have to leave at 4am for the three hour drive for my PAT (#2) for RnY surgery on the 13th.

Went vitamin shopping today as they were on sale at Rite-Aid.  I got 2 large-size bottles of 500mg Citracal w/D3 as they were buy one, get one half off (and will be needing 4 per day), got the sublingual B-12 as they were on sale and got some B complex cause it was on sale and I used to take it a long time ago and I think I felt a little better when I took it.  I do not think I will need extra iron.  I have enough of the generic Centrum for Women +50's to last for awhile taking 2 each day.

Kelly - Thank you for the schedule.  I have it in my desk where I will be taking my vitamins.

Things are now starting to become very REAL for me.  Cannot wait to be on the loser's bench!

Is the citracal chewable? I have been looking for chewable but haven't found them in stores. I don't think anyone can take pills for the first 6 weeks with RNY.

Good luck on your surgery let us know how you do.

The only chewables Citracal makes are tricalcium phosphate, which we can't absorb after RNY.  We need calcium citrate.

Some patients prefer to take chewables after surgery and some doctors recommend chewables, but others take pills right away.  I was swallowing pills with no trouble 12 hours after my operation.

Lots of people take pills almost immediately after surgery, just cutting any larger ones in half, and have no trouble at all.  Many surgeons don't make their patients take only chewables or crush pills into applesauce or whatever.  Unless the pill is very large or your stoma is very swollen, swallowing pills isn't usually a problem.

Lora

I am not getting any chewables.  I have some larger pills that are going to need to be cut, but I will be swallowing pills right after surgery even though my place recommends chewable or liquid for a bit.

Look for the Petites if you have trouble with the full size ones.

The pain meds they gave me in the hosp were tablets. I was was cleared to swallow vitamins and calcium at 2 weeks.

Good luck!!!

We bring our own vitamins to the hospital and I also cart my box of meds along with me because of an issue in the past where they did not have a very important drug I needed.

I also have a pill cutter in there as I have some that will probably need to be cut in 1/4's.  The Citrical ones that I bought are huge and might need to be cut more than once as well.

Taking any unusual or hard to get meds with you is a good idea.  The ASMBS says to start vitamins when you are discharged from the hospital, but if you're going to be there more than a day or two, it makes sense to take them with you. 

Most hospitals, by the way, will NOT have the vitamins we need in their pharmacy.  I was in the hospital for five days in November, and they only had calcium carbonate, not citrate; only D2, not D3; and only ferrous sulfate, not carbonyl iron.  I had someone bring my own vitamins from home.