I have seen posts where people talk about chewable vitamins after surgery. My doctor hasn't given me any instructions on medications or vitamins. Will I not be able to take pills post-op? Any advice on the best vitamins to take?

Most doctors say WLS patients will need vitamins be taken for life, as you will not be able to get all your vitamins through food.. My Dr has me on a lot of vitamins and I hate taking them everyday. Please bring this subject up with your Dr before surgery. I personally could not stand any chewable vitamins so I swallowed all mine with no complications.

I take, estimated list:

multi- vitamin....centrex ? Spelling

Iron

C

B-12 sublingual

Folic acid

Calcium

Biotin

Please discuss with you Dr, and take your vitamins daily... Its must for your body!

When I left the hospital, I was given a list of medications that I needed to take that included a chewable vitamin (I had taken these same vitamins for two weeks pre-op). After surgery, the chewables made me extremely nauseous. I called the phone nurse and got permission to take my regular multivitamin with water. Those went down just fine. At my two week post-op appointment I was started on vitamin B12 and restarted on vitamin D. At six weeks they said I could take biotin if I was noticing that I was losing hair. I started it immediately as a precaution. I go for my 3 month post op appointment this week and expect they will add iron and calcium supplements.

I was hoping that after surgery I could take significantly less medication. For me, I have switched medications to control high blood pressure and diabeties for vitamins. I still take the same number of pills. I guess thats a good tradeoff?

Pills are certainly do-able post op, though they are more of a PITA than pre op - instead of taking a handful of them with a gulp of water it's one at a time with each sip, and taste becomes more of an issue. That's why chewables are often suggested but not really necessary. After a few weeks thing begin to normalize and pill taking is much the same as pre op - several at a time with a swig of water, though some of the bigger horse pill type supplements like calcium are often still more palatable in a chewable form.

Overall, it is a good move to trade meds for vitamins. During this intesive weight loss period when we aren't eating much the supplements are essential to maintaining nutriional balance. As things progress and you can eat more, more of your nutritional needs can be met by your food intake. But that is something that does need to be monitored since it is unlikely (hopefully) that you will be eating the volume that you did before. Even without WLS, most of us should be taking some supplements, even if it's just a good quality multivitamin, simply because of the classic American, coupled with the lower nutritional value of many of our foods relative to historical values, doesn't provide everything we need. Many WLS post ops take additional supplements simply because they are better educated than they were before.

Thanks for the clarification! That makes sense.