Note to self - when you buy vitamins with a higher dose, it also means a bigger pills
Since I have increased both my iron and my vitamin C by a lot, I am taking a LOT more pills everyday. I was using 500 mg vitamin C pills, but when I bought more, I bought 1000 mg. That's because I now take 2000 mg a day, and I thought hey, I'd rather take two vitamin C pills a day instead of four.
I don't know why it didn't occur to me that the 1000 mg pills were going to be bigger (like, probably twice as big, right? Duh!) than the 500 mg. I don't have trouble swallowing my big old calcium pills, but these 1000 mg vitamin C are awful. It's hard to get them down and they taste kind of icky. I think I'm going to try cutting them in half, since I bought two bottles of them (they were on sale), but I'm really wishing I had stuck with the 500 mg pills.
I need to just buy one bottle of stuff, even if it is on sale, so I can see if I like it before I buy a bunch.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
I've been lamenting this issue lately too. I switched to some 45mg iron pills, but they are like more than double the size of the 25mg ones I've been taking. And it doesn't cut down all that many pill I have to take, AND with only 60 in each bottle, I'm flying through the bottle. Back to the little perfect iron ones I go.
I never switched the Vit C, as I have a ton of the 500's. I'll stick with them, thanks for the heads up. Oh and I think they are hard to swallow at the 500 size and taste gross.
Heather Mom to 3
Surgery August 9, 2012
HW = 225, SW= 205, CW 135 
I was thinking of ordering the 60 mg carbonyl iron from vitalady, which has 400 mg vitamin C in it, but now I'm wondering how big those are. I'm thinking they must be pretty big. I think I'm sticking with the Perfect Iron too. Right now I am taking 12 of them a day, but at least they are tiny. I can easily swallow four at a time.
These 1000 mg vitamin C are about the size of calcium pills, but my calcium does not taste icky like they do.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
I have been wondering how you can take the big vitamins and supplements without a ton of water. I am pre-op and don't have much trouble taking big pills but I do need a big drink or two to wash them down. From what I have read on here that may be difficult to do for a while. Did you go straight to regular pills or did you do chewables until you were further out? I don't mind the chewable vitamins but the chewable versions of calcium citrate can get quite expensive. You can get two giant bottles of calcium citrate at Costco for $10. Much better than the $12 for something like the calcet bites.
I take a big drink with big pills.
i started with chewable vitamins but was swallowing other pills the same day as my surgery. I never had trouble swallowing pills post op.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
on 9/2/13 11:43 am - WI
I take the Vitalady 60 mg Iron with 400 vitamin C. They are capsules about 1/4 inch wide by 3/4 inch long. They are about the same size as a regular size Citrical calcium pill. I don't have any trouble swallowing them. But... if you don't eat something with them...they leave a "fishy" taste in your mouth. Yuck!
HW 270 SW 236 GW 160 CW 145 (15 pounds below goal!)
VBG Aug. 7, 1986, Revised to RNY Nov. 18, 2010
on 9/3/13 9:48 pm
Kelly,
Is there somewhere I can read all about vitamins? My son (bypass patient) told me that I had to chew all of my vitamins. There are a few supplements that I BELIEVE in and have had a tremendous positive healthy benefits. I am not willing to give them up, so want to figure out how to take them in my educational months. I take 10,000 -20,000 IU of D3, 800 mg of magnesium, 100 mg K2, and 100,000 -300,000 IU of serrapeptase. (This is one that I may be willing to give up, but never the D3 or K2. Magnesium must be taken with D3, plus, it helps me greatly with sleep and muscle spasms.) The mad and D3 that I currently take are gel caps.My son tels me NO GEL caps. This is an area that I'd love to read as much as I can on. Any info you can share and any direction you can point me to treading? Most docs don't get the D3, but it has helped me tremendously. I used to have chronic, severe sinunitis, but not once since my D3. K2 and serrapestase because i have read the studies . Thanks for any info. BTW, my vit C is also a gelcap. It is the easiest way to get it down.
Here are a couple links to the ASMBS guidelines:
http://nutrition.otago.ac.nz/__data/assets/file/0005/4784/Ba riatricNutritionReading.pdf
http://www.meltingmama.net/files/asmbstos2013guidelines.pdf
According to the ASMBS, you do NOT need chewable vitamins.
If by gelcaps you mean capsules made of gelatin (as most capsules are), those are fine for us. They dissolve easily.
If you mean softgels, those little football-shaped things with oily stuff inside, we malabsorb fats, and oil is a fat, so we don't absorb vitamins in oil as well as dry vitamins. They won't hurt you and you'll absorb some of them, just won't absorb them fully.
Kelly
Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR. If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor. Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me. If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her. Check out my blog.
