I’m on Zepbound, not Ozempic, but they both share the nausea side effect, although Zepbound is supposedly less harsh for that since it has a lower level of two active ingredients and not just the high dose of the one. I haven’t had a lot of nausea, but what I’ve had, I’ve controlled with ginger candies under the Tummydrops brand.
FYI, Zepbound is a weight loss drug that uses the same medication as Mounjaro.
Ondansetron sometimes becomes less effective with long-term use, like chemotherapy or a term pregnancy.
I know a woman who had FOLFOX chemo for colon cancer, and her anti-nausea med was Aloxi, which is designed to work for several days. One day, shortly after getting chemo, she took some leftovers out of the fridge, and they smelled a little “off” but she thought it might be due to her treatment. She ate it anyway - and she threw it up! As unpleasant as that was, it showed her that it doesn’t work TOO well.
The brand name for ondansetron is Zofran. I have Restless Legs Syndrome, and it’s the only antinausea med recommended (most others can aggravate RLS).
I don’t love the concept of taking a new medication to deal with side effects of another med, in general, but it’s an option if staying on the Ozempic at the current dose is advised.
I managed most of a portion of lentils and rice today. Biggest meal I’ve had in a week.
I don’t think the 5HT3 inhibitors (i.e. Zofran) are absorbed rectally; just the orally or injectable routes are used. They’re also very safe for use in babies and young children; some of the older drugs are not, because they can lower the seizure threshold.
The older drugs, Phenergan being the best-known (it’s actually an antihistamine that they found out worked REALLY well for nausea, most of the time) is definitely absorbed rectally.
Back in my retail days, I once dispensed some to a young woman who had come from the ER, where she found out that she was pregnant, and she said, “The doctor told me that I have to stick these things up my butt” and I managed to keep a straight face and replied, “Yes, these are designed for rectal use.” I then told her how to store and use them.
There’s also a sublingual form of Ondansetron that dissolves in the mouth, in cases where the nausea is so bad that the patient may not be able to keep the pill in their stomach long enough for it to work. My wife was using that form during her chemotherapy.
I upped to 1.5 mg last night, then had dinner, then a little later threw up copiously. Today I started with a slowly-consumed salty miso-ginger soup with a few vegetables and an egg in it, then had a coffee, and two hours later, a skinny bagel and a little jam. If it sticks, I will try something more substantial for dinner.
I’ve also seen that used for people with severe migraines.
Of the Ozempic?
Sounds like it’s really hitting you hard. If you’re lucky, that will subside - how have things been in the past 2 weeks?
I went back down to the half milligram dose of Ozempic - using the various “click charts”. I skipped my Wednesday dose the week I did this, and took it on the Sunday; I had my second injection at that amount just this past weekend. I am feeling a LOT better. Vague queasiness some mornings, but so far not to the point of being worried about hurling, and I can actually look at pretty much any food without being worried about choking it down.
A friend who had a horrible time with the Ozempic switched to Mounjaro and says it is far less of a problem.
Now I need to focus on developing better eating habits, versus “what won’t have me running from the table”. I definitely need to work on the protein intake.
There’s a new twist on eating though: My POTS-like symptoms have evolved into extreme difficulty walking any distance, and significant trouble going up stairs. To the point where I try to limit that to one trip down and up a day. I scared the hell out of some friends, a week back - we were on a boat tour, and exiting the boat required hiking up a very steep gangplank - at which point I had to sit and rest, and barely made it to the car afterward. Ugh.
We live in a 2 story Colonial house. The food is downstairs. While I do have some protein bars up here, and I have a small fridge that I could stock with snacks, I haven’t done that yet.
That sounds difficult! I hope you’ll find some work-arounds.
I’m up to the 1.75 dose of Ozempic and managing okay. I’ll go to 2.0 tomorrow and see if it’s tolerable.
I went for blood tests yesterday. My A1C continues to drift lower. I had a sharp drop from 7 to 5.7 after being on Ozempic for 4 months and I’ve continued to drop by .1 each test so I’m sitting at 5.4. Random blood glucose was at 5.7 after breakfast and cholesterol is also looking good.
Excellent A1C results!!!
Terrific!
Interesting blood test results: I was looking at my lab work online for other reasons, and noticed that my triglyceride levels are INCREASING.
156 in March 2023. 183 in September 2023 (just before I started Ozempic). 196 in February 2024, when I’d already lost 40 pounds or so. To be fair, it was quite a bit higher earlier than all of that. I haven’t tried graphing A1c versus triglycerides (might be a fun exercise) but in general, I’d have expected them to correlate - and at a glance, they do… until the one in Feb 2024! Or one back in 2017 when the triglyceride level was great next to an A1C of 6.7.
Hmm, interesting.
More fun - mostly NOT related to the Ozempic: had a really, really bad bit of diarrhea for the last 9+ days including nearly going to the ER one day, and actually doing so 2 days later. I’ve been afraid to take my weekly dose (due on Sunday) because, while my gut crud did not involve nausea, my appetite took a huge hit, and of course what little food I did ingest got onto the express lanes immediately.
I’m going to see how I do Wednesday before deciding to take that overdue dose. If the gut settles down some (no signs of that yet, dammit) I may risk it.
Definitely not. I’ve been using Wegovy since March, and am on the 1.7 mg dose now. I’m down to about 275 from 312 (37 lbs, 12% of my body weight!) and no nausea so far.
Honestly, the only negative side effects I had were rather strange. For a couple of weeks in April, I felt bloated, had the sulfur burps, and had some abdominal pain. Then an evening of violent diarrhea, and all was well. Before and after that, nothing other than at first, a tendency toward heartburn if I ate too late, probably because my stomach wasn’t emptying as quickly and I was heavier.
It’s been an absolute godsend for me- not quite magic, but close.
I was off any injections from about March to June, due to the shortage. During this time my hunger didn’t really come back. Maybe a little bit. But I think being used to not eating much has trained my stomach and hunger reflexes a bit.
When I stopped I was on 10mg Mounjaro, and when I got back in June I started at 2.5mg. I did get a little queasy when re-starting. After a month I went back up to 5mg.
I’ve stayed at 5mg and haven’t really experienced any return of hunger. In fact I did notice my hunger going back down. I’ve gotten back to being able to have breakfast, a mid-day snack or late lunch, and then a small dinner.
My weight didn’t go up when I was off it, and getting back on it I’ve lost about 8 lbs. I just had my A1c done and it was…5.5! That’s the lowest it’s been since I was diagnosed with T2D in 2015 or so. Lowest it’s been since starting any injectible (in 2018?) My last test in January was 6.1.
Mind you, my summer was wild - I spent 10 weeks living with my mom after she had surgery, and having to make sure she ate 3x a day thus I was also eating 3x a day, and fairly healthy food. Also I think I’m starting perimenopause so my hormones are craaaaazy.
So, who knows if it was lifestyle disrupt or medicine disrupt or just the medicine doing its job. I’m pleased I didn’t lose any progress when I was off the injection and pleased to be holding steady on a lower dose now that I’m back on.
Oddly enough my neighbors just told me they were on Mounjaro too. They’re overweight but active people. He has a bad back and she has bad knees. I don’t think either is diabetic. But they’ve lost some weight - although he has retired and gone from sitting at a desk to doing home improvement all day, so that has helped his journey. I don’t think she has been able to lose much.
On the flip side my friend’s mom has been trying a long time to get on an injection. She’s obese and has got bad hips and knees, and is having heart issues. No one will prescribe it for her. I wonder if there’s hesitancy to prescribe it to older folks?? My neighbors are in their 60s and my friend’s mom is in her late 70s.
Our primary care doctor wouldn’t, and our insurance wouldn’t cover it. We switched doctors and are self paying at a compounding pharmacy. (about $200/month)
Because of your age or because you don’t have other indications of needing it?