Will they postpone surgery?

[123mollie 13]

I’ve been debating having vsg done for about 2.5 years.. and I finally started my 6 month insurance requirement in January. I’ve been approved by my insurance and it’s scheduled for July 9!! I’m SOOO excited and ready to have my health back! BUT I’m terrified that it’s going to be postponed for low Vitamin D! Mine is always low.. and last time it was checked in March, it was 19. Has anyone had their surgery postponed for that? I’ve been taking Vitamin D religiously but it’s always been difficult to raise my vit D level. 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

[RickM 1,747]

Probably not - my doc's practice started testing for D pre-op about ten years ago not because it was important for the surgery, but because they were seeing a fair amount of deficiency post op, and wanted to know how much of that was the surgery and post op diet/supplement protocols and how much was intrinsic to their patient population.

Best bet would be to contact your surgeon's team and express your concerns and ask if there is anything that should be done at this time. If necessary, there are OTC D3 supplements at up to 50,000 IU per tablet available that can bring levels up fairly quickly - some take them weekly or several times a week or even daily.

[Creekimp13 5,838]

My doc wanted my D level up before surgery. I started taking 5000 iu a day and raised it enough in a month for him to be comfortable.

[Matt Z 4,138]

7 hours ago, 123mollie said:

I’ve been debating having vsg done for about 2.5 years.. and I finally started my 6 month insurance requirement in January. I’ve been approved by my insurance and it’s scheduled for July 9!! I’m SOOO excited and ready to have my health back! BUT I’m terrified that it’s going to be postponed for low Vitamin D! Mine is always low.. and last time it was checked in March, it was 19. Has anyone had their surgery postponed for that? I’ve been taking Vitamin D religiously but it’s always been difficult to raise my vit D level. 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

More than likely they won't. My D was 10 points under minimum before surgery and no one said anything. I'm on a 50,000 IU pill a week, but, they didn't even blink an eye at it.

[Jodi1980 63]

4 hours ago, Matt Z said:

More than likely they won't. My D was 10 points under minimum before surgery and no one said anything. I'm on a 50,000 IU pill a week, but, they didn't even blink an eye at it.

I'm on the Vitamin D 50,00 IU 1x/week as well. Vitamin D deficiency is not at all uncommon. The want me to repeat blood work 3 months after I take the last dose to see where I am at.

p.s. doc said sunlight helps too!

Edited June 22, 2018 by Jodi1980

[Matt Z 4,138]

2 minutes ago, Jodi1980 said:

I'm on the Vitamin D 50,00 IU 1x/week as well. Vitamin D deficiency is not at all uncommon. The want me to repeat blood work 3 months after I take the last dose to see where I am at.

p.s. doc said sunlight helps too!

Sunlight helps for certain areas, sadly the farther north (or south if you are south of the equator) you go, the more exposure it takes to get 1000 IU of D from the sun. Hell, in the Boston area, there are stretches of months where it doesn't matter how long you stay out in the sun, even fully nude, you won't make any D from the sun.

[Creekimp13 5,838]

10 minutes ago, Matt Z said:

Hell, in the Boston area, there are stretches of months where it doesn't matter how long you stay out in the sun, even fully nude, you won't make any D from the sun.

Are you speaking from personal experience, Matt?

[Matt Z 4,138]

10 minutes ago, Creekimp13 said:

Are you speaking from personal experience, Matt?

Maybe....

[bobbielholland 1]

Mine 2 years ago was at a 9. It took 1 year of 4000iu a day to get it to 22 then 12 weeks of 50000iu a week to get it to a 30. I just had my pre-op visit with the hospital and she said that even if mine was a little low that was okay since I’ve had problems with it for years. Just to make sure I keep taking my Vit D and that I may need extra post op

[Mhy12784 423]

They're not canceling your surgery for low Vitamin D. But it is one of the easiest labs to improve.

I was a bit of a dumbass and decided to boost up my Vitamin d before surgery to optimize my health, and ended up having my Vitamin D levels sky rocket through the roof, just into the toxic range (honestly even vitamin d toxicity doesn't really do much until you're way way way up there).

But of course I was taking incredibly high doses for around 3 months.

Obviously talk to a doctor before doing this but you can easily take 30,000 to 50,000 iu of vitamin d a day for a few weeks to boost your levels. You just wouldn't want to do this the week or two before surgery because it effects bleeding (and vitamin d is fat soluble so you can take incredibly high doses and your body won't just pee it out like most other vitamins)