Lesson: do NOT forget to take off the inner plastic cover from the needle assembly.
I did my shot on Sunday, and thought “hey, it hurts even less than usual, cool!”. Then I went to put the outer cover back on to dispose of it, and realized what a dumbass I’d been. 225 bucks in the trash!
Haven’t done that one yet, but it’s surprising how you can barely feel the needle. Drawing blood for my glucometer hurts more.
To those who are taking these meds for obesity:
Do you plan on staying on it long term or weaning off at any point?
I understand that it helps decrease appetite and “food noise”; do you find it is easier to eat a healthier balance of food as well, or, alternatively does the fact that you are able to lose weight without paying as much conscious attention to the quality of what you eat give you some subconscious permission to pay less attention to that?
The former of course my hope, the latter the fear.
I thought this was a maintenance drug at least as much as a change drug. Although my husband has stopped taking statins, which are similar that way.
It’s a long-term intervention. My diet was healthier before using it, but now I have a very hard time eating oil and meat, and most vegetables taste bad, so there’s the trade-off for me.
Do vegetables taste worse when you are on the drug than they used to? Or do you just not care for most vegetables, making it harder to choke them down?
Have any of you hit the weight loss plateau yet? If so what percent of body weight did you lose when it hit?
If not what have your docs told you to expect?
As far as statins: has your husband had other changes, where statins are not necessarily needed any more? I have not yet had my cholesterol re-measured so I don’t know what the levels are like, but stopping the statins would definitely be worth considering (at least on a trial basis) if they are lower. I had been on Crestor years back, but my levels improved so much when I started metformin that I was able to stop for a while.
My weight seems to be plateauing at the moment - or at least the loss is slowing down. I’m only on 0.5 mg of Ozempic right now, though, and it’s expected that I’ll go up to 1.0 mg after my next visit. It’s my understanding that this is a lifetime medication.
I get the feeling that we just have to decide when “enough is enough” and freeze the dose at that point. I don’t know if I’ll try to get to “normal” BMI, or stop somewhere in the “overweight” category. I’ve got only about 14 pounds to go to get to “overweight”; 45 or so to get to the high end of “normal” for my height. If I get somwhere in the middle of “overweight” I might call it done.
I’m on it for T2D, not weight loss but I’m coming up to a year on .5mg. I no longer have the food aversion side effects I did when I started, I’m simply less hungry and quicker to push my plate away when I’m full. My weight is drifting down very slowly still at about .5 lb per month. I’ve got my next A1C next week so we will see how things look. I went from 7.0 pre-Ozempic on Jardiance and Metformin to 5.5 on my last A1C.
I’ve lost about 8% of my body weight.
Does the the discussion center around where the plateau happens to happen (which varies by person I am gathering), around a target weight, or by achieving other health metrics (HgbA1c, BP, lipids, ability to exercise, etc.)?
Everything is somewhat nauseating. My normal Mediterranean Diet absolutely doesn’t work.
ETA: I lost 20#, 8 of which have come back.
I started off at a high weight of 337 when I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes. I lost about 40 lbs between then and January 2021, but there wasn’t a really precipitous drop. First I was diagnosed so I was on Metformin + Janivua (oral), then I started Bydureon in 2018 and I also got my CPAP in 2018 and I feel my CPAP helped me lose some of those 40 lbs. Plus I was exercising more during that time.
I have lost another 28 lbs since 2021. I do have the data for that:
m-yy | Wgt | A1c | drug
1-21 | 296 | 6.9% | Trulicity 1.5mg
7-21 | 290 | 6.5% | Trulicity 3mg
1-22 | 282 | 6.5% | Trulicity 3mg
7-22 | 280 | 6.5% | Trulicity 3mg
1-23 | 272 | 6.3% | Trulicity 3mg
7-23 | 274 | 6.1% | Trulicity 3mg
1-24 | 268 | 6.1% | Mounjaro 7.5mg
We upped my Trulicity dose in July 2021 because my A1c was creeping up. In 2023, my A1c was doing pretty good but my weight had stalled big time, and my insurance was being weird about Trulicity, so my doc just threw out Mounjaro as a solution and we went with that. 2023 was a hellish year for me, I literally spent the whole year in the hospital with various family members, so I probably could have done better on weight loss if I had a moment to myself.
Anyway…plateaus in both A1c and weight. My other health metrics are really spot on.
If I lose another 30 lbs now with Mounjaro I’d have lost 100 lbs since being diagnosed with T2 and that’s pretty cool. I’ve already knocked 9 points off my BMI.
You might want to let the manufacturer know this.
Just had my annual colonoscopy yesterday. I weighted 4.5 pounds MORE this morning than 2 days ago (at the beginning of my all-liquid day). Unfair!! I chalk it up to the very high volume of fluids, which were all carb-heavy. It’ll be interesting to see if that drops off soon - I was definitely running to the bathroom more often yesterday afternoon.
And possibly related to Ozempic:I came around afterward with the worst case of dry mouth I have ever experienced. I found out that they gave me glycopyrronate, due to excess salivation during the procedure. I’ve never, ever needed that before. It was several hours before I could eat anything remotely dry without choking; I spoke with the anesthesiologist today to confirm what went on. He was surprised it hit me that hard for as long as it did and suggested I may be more sensitive.
I’ll have to make sure, next time, that they know to try a half dose if they need to use it at all. Anyway, I’m sort of wondering if the Ozempic may be partly to blame for the salivation.
I did go back on it last night - the procedure just delayed the dose by one day, since I’d tweaked my schedule in anticipation.
I lost weight while taking Ozempic as I wasnt hungry, in fact sometimes on weekends by the time I started thinking about food to pick to eat dinner with my parents, I was already quite low on blood sugar. (weak and shaky). However when I couldnt get Ozempic from September until I could see my Dr in january and was given a differnt prescription, I again couldn’t seem to stop eating.
I know that that starving all the time is a symptom of Diabetes because it means that your cells are not able to take in the glucose in your blood so it sends signals to your brain that they need to food. On Ozempic and now on Monjaro, amoung other things it does like slowing digestion, it helps your cells absorb the glucose. There also seems to be a distaste for some foods and textures like for me lettuce, smoked meats, meats cooked in sauce, fried foods. so that also helps with losing weight.
Just found this thread. Been on Ozempic for about 6 months now. Currently at full dose of 2mg per week. Got there through progressive increases each month.
I’ve had on and off stomach discomfort and other side affects but always minor and temporary. I’ve lost about 24lbs (255lbs down to 231lbs). I still take the full compliment of type 2 meds for the diabetes but my last A1C showed the first significant drop (8.2 to 6.1) and I have my next A1C in first week of March and I expect it to go a bit lower. I’m regularly getting low blood sugar warnings vs. seeing high blood sugar through-out the day and night. So hopefully it’ll go down a bit more, I’m hoping for mid-05’s, and I’ll be able to pull back on some of the other mediation.
I find my appetite and amount of food I can eat varies and I don’t know why. Some weeks I can only eat small portions and anything beyond that results in a wicked case of feeling like I over-ate. Other weeks I feel I can just eat as much as I could before I started Ozempic. Obviously I try to maintain good eating habits regardless but it’s odd how some weeks my stomach feels it cannot handle any volume whereas others it seems business as normal.
The absolute hardest part is supply and demand. I’ve had months where pharmacy’s could not source Ozempic for weeks resulting in my refills being substantially delayed. Then there is the cost. I have the Ozempic discount card but even with that, and with our insurance deductible, these monthly refills at the beginning of the year when our deductible hasn’t been paid down are really hard to swallow. Last month it was over $800.00. I expect the same with my next couple refills until we meet our deductible.
Yep - it triggers your body to release insulin.
They did a spot check of my blood sugar Monday morning, just before my colonoscopy. I told the nurse it would likely be through the roof, as I hadn’t had Metformin in nearly 24 hours at that point - and of course several of the beverages I was drinking for the prep were sugary drinks (something I normally never drink).
It was 93.
On a normal day at home, if I check, it’s maybe 115 first thing in the morning.
My gut is displeased with me today. I had taken the Ozempic on Sunday the 4th, as you need to stop it for a week before anything involving sedation. I took my next dose Monday evening (the 12th), so I was really only late by 1 day. But all day today (Wednesday), I have felt bloated and have been burping (and refluxing) yesterday’s lunch. I’ve had the burping before, though never more than 24 hours after (sometimes 18 hours, however), and never with, er, more concrete evidence.
The other oddness related to my procedure, that may or may not be due to Ozempic, was that I came around with my mouth feeling like the Sahara Desert. Turns out, they gave me a dose of something to “reduce secretion” (i.e. dry up saliva). I was kinda pissed, because beside being unpleasant, I literally choked on the crackers they fed me. I assumed that it was just that anesthesiologist giving the stuff to everyone, and I know I had never NEEDED it before. And my gastro wasn’t even aware they’d given it to me.
But I actually spoke with the anesthesioligist, who confirmed that I had indeed started overproducing saliva. Which of course poses an aspiration risk - so it was the right thing to do. He was surprised at how long the dry mouth lasted - usually wears off within 2 hours, and I was having trouble longer than that, so next time around, I’ll forewarn them that if this is necessary, they should try a half dose first.
Anyway, I mention this because I’m wondering if it could be related to the Ozempic.
Another office visit today. I’m down 8 pounds from 6 weeks ago, which is a surprise; I don’t log my weight all that carefully at home, and things had stalled / backslid around my colonoscopy, but I guess my memory is not the best about that sort of thing. I need to be better about logging it in my phone app.
Anyway, I’m down 38 pounds since September; I had thought it was more like 32, but close enough. Doc is bumping me up to 1 mg now, which I do not look forward to.
BP was good today; I had blood drawn for labs but no results yet. Doc says that if it stays that low or get slower, we may lower my BP meds some. I have noticed that I’m less likely to get dizzy when walking around e.g. at the mall (before Christmas, I had to sit down several times when attempting to shop).
I’ve found that my gag reflex is much more sensitive. I’ve always tended to be twitchy, e.g. getting a throat culture is close to torture, but it’s definitely worse.
Good news!
My nausea/gag is much worse.
I have a wifi-enabled scale from Weight Gurus. It automatically logs my weight to the cloud, and my phone can access it. I have graphs going back to 2019 or so.
It’s come in handy, because I’ve been losing weight without trying. (Don’t hate me!) I did a minor tweak to my diet back then, and it certainly helped. But I had a high of around 173 in 2021, and not counting my colonoscopy loss, a low of around 152 two weeks ago. It’s one of a handful of data points I’m discussing with my doctor on some “fuzzy” symptoms, trying to understand if it’s a bunch of random “yeah, life happens” things, or they all tie together. But that’s a topic for a different thread.