Big, Fat, Bariatric Vitamin Blues

After more than a decade, I'm back on a complete bariatric vitamin and mineral regiment which is going to set me back quite a bit this month, when I get the first bottles of everything I need. Of course, I've had my vitamin and mineral regiment changed frequently, sometimes a few times a year, by different doctors. Now I'm back at square one, but this version makes more sense to me, and actually contains all the stuff that the doctors have been suggesting merged into one plan. 

 A lot of this stuff I can get in bulk, 2 or 3 months at a time. The helpful thing about my team is that they gave me brand names and locations to buy different options. It looks like I can reduce my current costs (which has in the past range from $80 to $115/ month, or something like half to 2/3 of my food budget) to something that will be closer to $30/month on average, but of course it's the STARTUP cost that is a pain, and I'm back to scheduling my day around taking pills 5x a day on most days, and 7 times a day a couple times a week.

 I am not sure yet how sustainable this is long term. I'm not even sure it's going to work long term. I might be investing a heck of a lot in pills I'll only end up tossing if they change everything again, something I've had to do a number of times... a total waste of money and product.

Most of the people who read me now didn't follow my Fabulous@50 blog (or it's predecessor, Fabulous@40) and don't know my entire weight loss and fitness story, although a lot of people I know online has seen me go through some pretty extreme weight changes.  I stopped posting about weight loss and fitness when I started experiencing the negative side effects of my surgery, some 2-3 years out.  Since then it's been a constant struggle with mal-absorption, hypoglycemia, bile and acid reflux, and kidney stones.  For the last three years I've been looking at reversal. 

I don't know where this is all going to go.  I know that today I'll be placing orders for all this stuff on my credit cards, which means I'll be paying not only the high cost of starting up on all this stuff, but also the interest charges on the store cards.  I am watching my plan to be debt free in 3 years fly right out the window.  If we can tweak this to improve my health, I can hope for an improvement in my kidneys and no future iron infusions.  I still have the reflux, the hypoglycemia, and the weight to deal with.  

There is a lot going on in my head right now.  I try to feel hopeful about my health.  I know that my health plan is making for a miserable diet, with few foods (mostly proteins) and little or no vegetable matter (which is undigestible) and no fruits (which cause reactive hypoglycemia) and no grain (which causes hypoglycemia),  it has to be all unspiced (because of the reflux) and limit nuts and seeds (because of kidney stones and fat).  Part of me feels like I can just put Soylent Red on my plate, although I guess Soylent Green would be better, if it still contains some heme iron, which is more easily absorbed than non-heme iron in Soylent Red. 

It looks like I'm looking at the rest of my future being having egg whites or chicken breasts on a plate of pills... at a per plate expense higher than if I were having a lean steak and steamed veggies. 

Ask me again, now, if I would make the same choice, knowing back then what I know now.