10/29/07

I am due for my 3-month follow-up with Dr. Khalili November 12th. I had my bloodwork last week. I got my results from my PCP’s nurse today. She said everything was good except my vitamin D was low. Aaaaaah! How can it be? A vitamin deficiency only 2 months after surgery? Geez!

I’m in shock.

I have been taking my 2 Centrum chewables daily, plus calcium and B12, religiously.

One thing I noticed maybe a month ago, however, is that Centrum chewables have the wrong kind of vitamin D. They have ergocalciferol (vitamin D2), when we get the best absorption from cholecalciferol (vitamin D3). Finding this out made me a little nervous, but I didn’t worry too much because the calcium supplement I take has 400 mg of vitamin D, and it is D3.

Another thing I must mention is I did screw up with my calcium early on. On 9/23/07, slightly more than a month after surgery, I realized I had misread my calcium bottle and was only taking 1 wafer (250 mg) when I should have been taking 4 wafers (1000 mg). Yikes! So for a month I was not taking enough calcium or vitamin D. Plus, I did not find out about the vitamin D in Centrum being the wrong kind until some point after that. At that point, I upped my calcium to
1250 mg per day.

If there’s a lesson to be learned here, it is:

Make sure you read the dosage correctly!

It appears that both of these issues contributed to my low vitamin D.

The nurse did not suggest I do anything about it. I assume they want me to discuss it with the surgeon.

In the meantime, however, I am glad I ordered Bariatric Advantage multivitamins and calcium 2 weeks ago. I started taking the Bariatric Advantage calcium 2 days ago, and I just ran out of the Centrum chewables today, so I will start on the BA multivitamin tomorrow.

I’m relieved that I’m not anemic though. That was one of my biggest fears since I’ve had anemia at least twice in the past due to stupid diets.

However, vitamin D deficiency is no joke. It can lead to osteomalacia (softening of the bones which causes easy fractures). Plus vitamin D helps calcium absorption, and I already know I screwed up my calcium intake for a month. I am going to discuss upping my calcium to 1500 mg per day with my surgeon. Vitamin D and calcium go hand in hand, so now I am really scared about my calcium intake, as well.

In a way, I’m glad I’ve had this slap in the face early on. Now I know little slip-ups, and even the fact that the surgeon’s office says Centrum Chewables are okay (when in fact its’ vitamin D is useless) can cause deficiencies. I will stick with vitamins for bariatric patients from now on.

I do have to warn people. What vitamin deficiencies people end up with is very individual. This doesn’t guarantee anyone else will have the same or any deficiencies.
Taking megadoses of everything is NOT the solution! There are certain vitamins, such as fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, & K), iron and calcium that can actually be very harmful in large doses, so I will be working with the surgeon about upping my dosages, and not trying to diagnose and treat myself.

Oh yeah, and I didn’t lose a single freakin’ pound this week. Boo hoo! I’m not going to go whining on the forum, though. Nope, not gonna do it. I’m not like those other newbies…LOL!

Ok, ok…I’ll admit it. I already did the whining on the forum thing a couple weeks ago…hehe!