RubbaDubba1
Explorer
Oh man, that sounds rough — sorry you had to go through it. That nurse really proved she knew her stuff! When you mentioned the permanent malabsorption part, it caught my attention, since that's something that can come with the DS. Not anywhere near as severe as your situation, but my mom also had a DS and had a hard time keeping up with her vitamins. During that 1st year she ended up at the doctor's office more than a few times — lots of blood work, plus me threatening to bring her to the ER — before she got back on track and was taking vitamins throughout the day. We brought up the idea of a revision more than once, but in the end everything turned out fine. She's still 175+lbs down today and doing pretty well.FarmgirlRebel said:
Biliopancreatic Duodenal Switch/DS nearly cost me my life. We discovered that ordinary multivitamins and supplements simply weren't doing the job — my body wasn't taking in Thiamine no matter how much protein I consumed. That led to Wernicke's Encephalopathy, and I ended up spending several days in the ICU.RubbaDubba1 said:
Was it RNY or DS? My VSG was 17 years back.FarmgirlRebel said:
To be honest, I would pick pinning over taking yet another vitamin or supplement any day...ugh.
In 2021 I had bariatric surgery (really wish Tirz had been an option at that time), which was drastic and resulted in permanent malabsorption, meaning I have to take vitamins and supplements every day or end up in the hospital.
Luckily, while I was in the ER I could still speak clearly enough to whisper Duodenal Switch, and a nurse who was intrigued by my case wound up saving my life by starting a Thiamine push while they were treating me for a TIA.
Sorry for digging up unpleasant memories, but I'm glad you were willing to share that.