Planning out your medicine schedule

[Malkia mzuri 6]

Hi! I'm wondering if anyone would have any good tips on planning out the schedule of taking your medicines after your procedure? Is this something that the nurses and your doctor comes up with or does it fall mainly on you? For a little bit of insight, other than the recommended medications my surgeon and his staff gave me to get before my due date (Dec 6! So excited 😊) I also take medicine for hypothyroidism. Now with that medication I know you can't take with other meds, but because there's so many new ones that's going to be in my daily lifestyle soon how do I plan my day/schedule?

Thank you for any and all advice you may have!

[ShoppGirl 3,422]

I only take a multi with Iron and two calcium citrate and my rx meds. I am able to take the rx meds with the multivitamin in the morning and I take the Calcium at noon and three. I just set alarms. Some people like to use Breakfast, lunch and dinner and/or bedtime. It really is dependent on how many doses you have to separate and what works best for you to remember.

[BigSue 1,322]

You can ask your clinic for advice, but it's probably going to be up to you to figure out, mainly because you have to work it around your schedule. It can seem complicated at first, but you get used to it. I take a Multivitamin with Iron plus an additional iron supplement, Calcium 3x/day, B12, Biotin, and D3. Calcium and iron are supposed to be at least 2 hours apart, and I also take a prescription thyroid medication that's supposed to be 4 hours apart from calcium and iron.

I use a free app called Medisafe to track my medications and remind me. It's really useful because you can track what time you took everything, and it also tracks how many of each you have left and reminds you to refill. You can set reminders at whatever time you want. I set reminders as follows, but I usually stay ahead of schedule.

• 6:00 am - Thyroid prescription
• 10:30 am - Multivitamin with iron, B12, Biotin, D3
• 1:00 pm - 1st calcium
• 3:30 pm - iron
• 6:00 pm - 2nd calcium
• 8:30 pm - 3rd calcium

I also recommend getting a pill organizer with 3 or 4 compartments for each day, where each day has its own removable box (the one I have looks like this one: https://smile.amazon.com/Organizer-Compartments-Moisture-Proof-Medication-Supplements/dp/B07Q9JSHMP). I distribute my pills in that once per week, and then I can just grab the box for the day.

[Sleeve_Me_Alone 654]

Generally, I don't think doctors give med schedules, but it certainly doesn't hurt to ask! You could also speak with your pharmacist, who may be able to help.

There are a few good points to remember when timing your meds/vitamins:

• You can only absorb about 500mg of Calcium at one time. Most bariatric patients are encouraged to take ~1,000mg so you'll probably want to split that into 2 doses at least a few hours apart.
• Some research indicates calcium can inhibit the absorption of Iron so if you take an iron supplement or a Multi-Vitamin with iron, you'll want to take it spaced out from calcium by a few hours.
• Early out your supplements may very well upset your stomach. Spacing them out even further, taking with food, etc. can all help. So don't get too hung up on a rigid schedule. Getting them in is most important; you can adjust as you go.

Personally, I take my multi, a Biotin, and a calcium along with my regular meds (no interactions) after I've had a Protein Shake each morning. I take another biotin and another calcium in the evening after dinner. My multi does NOT have iron, but when it did, I would take my first calcium with lunch instead. Hope that helps!

[ShoppGirl 3,422]

Ooh yea the most important thing is that you take that multi if it has Iron with food or shake. And I mean like with the last sip of the shake so your tummy is coated. And separate the Calcium doses from each other and from the iron. It seems daunting at first but once you figure it out it will just become second nature. I use my alarms on my phone (you can set them to be recurring everyday). I usually remember beforehand and I’m sitting there holding the Vitamin or whatever when the alarm goes off at this point but sometimes I do forget even at a year and a half out so I still have my alarms to annoy everyone. Lol

[Malkia mzuri 6]

Thank you for all the many tips! They're very helpful! Since I have a month left before surgery I believe I can figure out a good schedule now so I don't have to worry about that later. Thank you again for all of your helpful information and advice!