At my orientation the nurse said that after surgery I’ll need to have a vitamin B12 injection once a month for the rest of my life. However, there was a post op patient in the room who said the doc told her she could do daily b12 pills every day and not need a monthly shot.

Do any of you do the B12 injections? Or do you take a pill? Do you notice any difference?

I give myself a B12 shot once a month. Yes, I notice a difference with my energy and mood. I have a history of low B12 (lifelong vegetarian) and so I need to do the shots - they are easy to administer. I buy the B12 online and the syringes from Amazon. Easy peasy. Trouble is with pills is you tend to just pee them out.

That is a good question. I don't know from personal experience, but I work in a medical clinic and we have patients that come in for monthly injections and swear by them.

22 minutes ago, froufrou said:

I give myself a B12 shot once a month. Yes, I notice a difference with my energy and mood. I have a history of low B12 (lifelong vegetarian) and so I need to do the shots - they are easy to administer. I buy the B12 online and the syringes from Amazon. Easy peasy. Trouble is with pills is you tend to just pee them out.

Good to know! Thanks for the information!

With a sleeve, you generally don't need to worry much about B12 - some may be inherently low on their own pre-op, so they need to continue doing whatever it is they do (or start doing something to make up for always being low...) Pills usually work fine with the sleeve; the bypass is a different animal and usually needs B12 either as an injection or a sublingual tablet, as their stomach doesn't process it well.

The real test is what your labs say over the years as that will guide you as to what you need. I had already been taking a B complex pill before surgery and continued it after and that always pegged my B12 well above the normal range; I don't take it anymore and my B12 remains in the high end of the normal range just from diet.

YMMV (your mileage may vary)

I was very week and shaky at about 2 weeks post op. I wasn't sure what the issue was, but my surgeon's office gave me a B12 shot and it cleared up nearly immediately. I then got regular shots for the next few months. Once I wasn't going in as regularly for check up, I switched over to a once a week sublingual, and have been fine since.

RNY patients can take either sublingual B12 tablets (but not regular tablets) or B12 injections. VSG patients are not as prone to deficiencies, so you may be able to take a regular tablet. But if not, I would think sublingual would work for sleevers as well since they're fine for RNY'ers (who again, are at greater risk for vitamin deficiency).

I give myself an injection monthly. In fact I took it last night. I'm not sure if it gives me more energy, but I have my 6 month appt today.. Hopefully my labs will be good.