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Problems with getting down vitamins



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I just had surgery on Tuesday. I am on day 3 post op and had to take my flintstone and calcium citrate Vitamins today. I used to like flintstone vitamins but this morning I had a hard time with the taste and getting it down. The Calcium Vitamin is huge! My husband crushed it for me and added it to Water. I had to hold my nose and sip it. Does anyone have any suggestions that would help me get them down easier? Does anyone know of a brand of the calcium that is not so BIG??? Thanks in advace for your help.

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I bought calcium citrate chews from my drs office. They taste like lemon starburst. I also do the Gummy vitamins.. much easier to chew and swallow. I take the chewable Iron from my drs. office too and its good. Also, I got B12 subligual pills to put under my tongue and they melt.. all easy to take. Ask your doctor about the Calcium and the iron. I got the b12 and the mulitvitamin gummies from Walmart. I am 5 days post op.

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For the first 4 weeks you should be on chewable Vitamins, including the Calcium. Bariatric Advantage has calcium chews that are soooo yummy. bariatricadvantage.com and Calcet makes some that taste like cake.

The chocolate, lemon and carmel from BA are the BOMB!! Also Calcet's lemon and chocolate are good too.

After 4 weeks you can take Citracal and Centrum. That is what I take now, but wasn't allowed to until 4 weeks out. I still do the chewable calcium and Calcet once in a while just because I like them.

Good luck to you!

Kelly

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I can't take the calcium chews until a month out but am taking huge ones right now, I won a bottle of cinnamon ones at my support group and I like them so much better than the berry flavored ones.

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There's also a combined multivite/calcium by Celebrate that is a powder, it's berry flavored. I haven't tried it yet but I have a single-serving. I think I may need to try it because the children's chewables I bought are DISGUSTING. I also had to buy chewable Iron and I'm dreading that too, it smells horrible. I may try to dissolve it in Crystal Light but not sure how much better that will be.

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I'm using Celebrate chewables. The Calcium pills are still horrible and big, and I don't particularly like the taste of them. The tangerine Iron pills are good though. Still, the pills are very easy to chew up, and I just make sure I have a sip of Water right after the calcium pill. Sometimes it helps to take a sip of water before I even swallow the calcium pill. I really like the Celebrate Vitamins because they are made for bariatric patients, but they are pricey.

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As I was taking my Vitamins today, I realized I was doing something that might help that I didn't even know I did! I hold onto the Vitamin and nibble at it a little at a time. This might help you, but it does make it take longer to eat your vitamins.

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Every surgeon is different, our hospital has us wait 2 weeks before adding in Vitamins, I use the Gummy multi-vits from costco, I have never taken the Calcium though and my labs were fine at 3 months.

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My Doc made me wait to start also... 4 weeks I think.... then mostly chewable.< /p>

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. LeighaTR

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
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