I've never had vitamins prescribed for me, I've always just researched them myself.

I'd say that Steph's list looks fairly standard to me. I take an iron-free multi, a calcium-D-magnesium supplement, fish oil, and a super green supplement. And melatonin to sleep. And that's just the non-Rx stuff. So not so different from Steph except I take thyroid meds.

My own, lame observations:

Totally not lame. Totally spot on. And added to the Monarch and Mrs. Monarch thing - they're also the best *parents* in the show. Cookies!

I had prenatals prescribed to me, but I think with the copay it ended up being a wash. I keep thinking I should take Calcium or Niacin or various things, but I can never keep it up for long. And I don't see massive improvement when I am taking them, so maybe I don't need to. I could use my HSA for them if I remembered to, which is at least pre-tax and gets some employer contributions.

(see? It happens all the time. She just slaps my hand and says, "He's straight, boss." Which is true more than 98% of the time.)

wait, what? In Seattle more than 98% of the cute boys are straight?!

Is the calcium/magnesium best done at night? I take mine in the morning because the pills won't fit in my nighttime pill caddy. And I'm on an adult multi and the calcium/magnesium. Also Osteo-Biflex (glucosamine/chondroitin) because Hubby's joint surgeon recommended it when Hubby mentioned my knees are unhappy.

I take a multivitamin and either chia oil or flax oil, depending on which one the store happens to have in stock when I run out. I'm pretty sure that the only things I actually need from the multi are D and B-12, and I do try to get those from sun and food, but I figure it'll cover any gaps if there are any. The chia and flax oil is for the Omega 3-6-9 stuff.

Yay! the wierd lumpy thing in Mal's leg was indeed sub-c fluids, confirmed by Today'sVet and is now mostly gone. He still doesn't want to eat food but gobbled down his pill pocket so he is certainly medicated.

I am eyeing his wee little muscle relaxants as my back is spasming something awful but if i take one of my flexeril's (or even half) i will still be asleep tomorrow morning when tis time to be saving lives and such. I keep telling myself that kitty dose wouldn't touch my large primate muscles. Yup. Totally not.

I'm glad Mal's leg thing was innocuous.

I'd be doing the heavy-duty vitamin regime if I could only remember. I have the multi, b-complex, c, e, calcium-magnesium, and some cartilage thing sitting on the back of my microwave. I never think to take them. At this point they've probably soaked up enough stray microwave radiation to give me superpowers, so maybe I should start. My zoloft and wellbutrin sit next to my computer, so I'll be sure to remember them.

I have one of those weekly planner dealies, four compartments for each day. Since i only do two rounds of meds daily each refill lasts two weeks. Every other week i sit down and fill up each compartment, then go day by day. When i'm on crazy night shift i use a dry erase marker to write the TIME next to each row so that i stay about 12 hours (or 24 hours) apart on each dose. It works really well and i don't forget anything important. Sometimes i still forget calcium or multivit, but only because they are too bulky to fit in the compartments with everything else. *sigh*

You guys are making me feel so much better about my Howard Hughes regimen of supplements! (I say, having just taken my calcium/magnesium).

Is the calcium/magnesium best done at night?

I take it at night because (1) magnesium is supposed to help with sleep, so I like to take it near-ish to bedtime, and (2) my multivitamin (which I take in the morning) has iron in it, and when you take iron and calcium together, they sort of fight each other, and the result is that neither is absorbed as well as it would have been if you'd taken it without the other.

Steph and Jilli and others, were you prescribed all these vitamins and supplements so that they're covered? Now I feel like I should be taking lots of pills.

I wasn't prescribed any of them -- it's mostly my guesstimate based on my general food intake, as well as the hideous heart disease in my dad's family. Oh, and the IBS. I figure the multivitamin fills in the gaps where my daily diet misses things, and then the B and fish oil might keep me from having 5 heart attacks, and the probiotic helps my guts to not mutiny.

I started taking D because I'm more tired than I think I should be, way too early in the evening and way too often, and I've read a lot recently about D being great for energy *if* your D levels are low.

I haven't actually had a D level test run, but I researched what might happen if you take more D than you need, and there are really no adverse effects until you get to insanely high levels (like, well beyond 50,000 IU/week). So I figured that even if my D levels were normal, taking extra wouldn't hurt. So I've tried it (~5,000 IU/day), and I've noticed NO change in my energy over the past month. Not even a bit. So I'm going to abandon it when they're done.