Mine had been gradually creeping downward (15-20 pounds total) the past couple of years, also, so it can be just “something that happens”. Hopefully yours is just that.
LOL on the colonoscopy loss. I think I mentioned earlier that my weight went UP 4 pounds (measured the morning of the clear-fluids day, and again just before I headed out to the procedure) then a few more pounds since then. It went back down a week or so after.
On the Ozempic shortage: I’ve had no problems getting the .25/.5 injector, but I got a text from the CVS saying “we’re placing an order” for the higher-dose Ozempic. I’ve got another 5 weeks of the lower-dose one on-hand; if it’s a real problem, I could stretch that out by dropping back to the .25 mg dose.
I finally got a call that my Mounjaro 10mg is on backorder. My pharmacy has been able to get me all the injectables I’ve taken, for the last 5 years or whatever.
I’m good to go until next Friday so hopefully they can make something happen. It would be super cool if they were able to give me 3 boxes (12 doses) at a time like they were doing for my Trulicity!
Another surprise: I had bloodwork done, and my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) had PLUMMETED.
A normal range is 0.5 to 4.5 or thereabouts. The higher it is, the worse your thyroid is doing (as it’s a measure of how much “get up and go” the body is trying to tell the thyroid to do).
Mine has typically been between 1.5 and 2.5. It dropped quite a bit (to 0.5 or so) back in 2017, once.
This time, it was 0.17. The last measurement was in September, and it was 2.3 at that time.
Best I can find online is that the slower stomach emptying is allowing more of the Synthroid to be absorbed. Doc is lowering my dosage and we’ll recheck in a couple months.
Weird. If anything, I would have expected the TSH to be creeping up, as I’ve felt colder than usual this past winter (and the last time I noticed THAT, this was indeed what was happening). Maybe I was just cold because I’m not as well insulated!
Ironically, low TSH is one of the things bothering me. Going back about 10 years, I’ve had three TSHs that were over 1, with a high of 1.33. My “normal” seems to be about 0.6, and my latest test came in a 0.34. We did a reflex to T3,and my T3 was normal, so that technically should qualify as subclinical hyperthyroidism. Had a similar test result beck in 2019 (0.27), before bouncing back to the 0.60 values.
Maybe I should dig up a thyroid thread to discuss it.
Last week I had an appointment with my doc to go over my home BP readings, which have been in the 135/90-ish range. She didn’t seem too concerned.
However. Fans of my posts here (I’m sure they are legion ) will remember that I mentioned in a thread about carb cutting that I had given up all refined sugar for this year’s new year’s resolution: no candy, cookies, cake, or processed sweets of any kind. I’ve by and large stuck with that, falling off the wagon only once when I had a small bowl of ice cream on my son’s birthday in January.
At my appointment last week the doc did an in-office A1C test and found my number had dropped from 8.5 in early December to 6.6 last week. Her exact words were “whatever you’re doing, keep it up!” She didn’t know about the no-sugar commitment.
My weight however hadn’t dropped a single pound. My 1mg/week Ozempic dose, which I have been on since October IIRC, was affecting my appetite not one bit. So she upped my dose to 2mg/wk, which I started this past Friday. I’m not really noticing a difference yet. The nausea has always been a random, unpredictable, and infrequent thing so I’m curious if that will change. I would really, but really like to see a noticeable decrease in my appetite and an increase in my satiety after eating a hopefully small meal. With luck I’ll see a positive change soon.
I had my usual lab tests done last week. I’ve been on Ozempic .5mg for about 10 months.
My A1C has gone from 7 to 5.5 and my fasting glucose also came in at 5.5 (100 in American units). The lab portal has my results back to 2015 available and these are the best numbers I have posted since then.
I see there it mentions proton pump inhibitors as decreasing absorption of levothyroxine. Phooey. Well, I’ve been taking the two at the same time for literally years - so, while it might be “better” to take them separately, my dosage has been titrated for the way I actually take it, so it all works out, I guess.
And levothyroxine is impeded by so many other things, it’s nearly impossible to take everything optimally (e.g. I need to take iron and calcium supplements). If I took everything perfectly, I wouldn’t be able to eat anything until late afternoon every day (since both the PPI and the levothyroxine need to be taken on an empty stomach, and should be taken 4 hours apart).
Yay!
My 5.8 was the best it’s been since I was first diagnosed with T2DM. The Ozempic of course would lower that; I wonder what it would be with just the weight loss. I had thought that my glucose level was not down that much, but I just checked, and it was 113 the other day, while it’s been 130-150 on previous measurements.
As long as a medication like levothyroxine is taken consistently, it should be OK. Stability is the most important thing. TBH, it could theoretically be taken once a week because it has such a long half-life, but compliance is better if it’s dosed on a daily basis.
I worked for a thyroid doctor many years ago. He said one side effect of low thyroid hormone is forgetfulness, so a lot of his patients had trouble remembering to take their meds. He told them to measure out a week’s with every Sunday, and put it in a cup in the bathroom. And on Saturday, take all the pills they hadn’t taken yet.
Maybe pill minders are more available now. (I wasn’t in the market then.)
But yeah, there’s some flexibility about when you take it.
And also, if you’ve titrated your drugs for the way you actually take them, then it ain’t broke.
My 2-doctors-ago primary care doc tended to be very, very conservative in bumping up dosage. So she’d have me take x mcg on M/W/F and y mcg on Su/Tu/Th/Sat, to add up to a total of 3x+4y over the week - for much that same reason. And no doctor I’ve ever had will check bloodwork until at least 2-3 months after a dosage change.
I use a pill organizer, so as long as I load things up at the beginning of the week, remembering to take the stuff is not an issue (I guess this is one benefit of having a couple of conditions where I’ll know in a hurry if I’ve forgotten, so I get feedback before I’ve missed more than a single dose).
I think my 1 mg injector has just arrived; I got a text message from the drugstore about it, anyway.
I’ve got 6 weeks of the .5 mg dose on hand right now. I’m considering staying on that until I’ve got a second 1 mg injector available in 4 weeks, in case I have trouble again.
Gotta remind the doc that these need to be a) written for 3 months, and b) sent to a different pharmacy, or insurance will decline to pay anything soon.
My BP has become harder to deal with. When I measure it at home (that is, when I try to, and the machine WORKS), it’s not crazy low or anything, but when I’m out and about, I really get light-headed. Grocery shopping is difficult. I dread having to go somewhere that requires standing in line for a long time (e.g. if we fly somewhere and there’s a line at security).
Well, we’re travelling in 2ish weeks (eclipse, woohoo!) and it’ll be nice to not have to deal with the higher dose / side effects that week.
We visited family this past weekend and they all say I look thinner. I still don’t see it, though I’m developing bat-wings. My SIL asked me if I felt better, and I said I really didn’t. Which is quite true. I’m still queasy off and on, almost every day. My blood pressure is lower which is good, but now I have trouble standing for any length of time - hopefully we can lower my meds again in a few weeks. And of course the fatigue issues (apnea, excessive daytime sleepiness, restless legs syndrome) are still present and likely always will be. I never felt better the last time I lost a bunch of weight (20 years ago).
Supposedly my CPAP machine pressure has been trending slightly downward for a few months (it’s an autoset machine), which is good.
My pharmacy is pretty good about letting me know that things are on backorder for whatever reason - for a while last fall I postponed a step up because the next step was on manufacturer backorder. It’s now become available - but the 1mg (I’ve stepped up to 2mg) is having stock difficulties.
If you continue having difficulty with the 1 mg, you might ask your doc about a prescription for the 2 mg pens and extra needles, then do some investigating how many “clicks” makes the 1mg dosage on the 2mg pens.
Also, if you use the coupon from novonordisk, their coupon server has been down. I paid my full copay last week (which, luckily, is $100, not a huge amount more). I did mail in all the documentation for reimbursement of what the coupon would cover - hopefully in 6-8 weeks I’ll get that $75. Hopefully it’ll be back up before I get my next pen.
Or the lower dose, and just inject twice a week - seems a little more reliable than guessing on clicks.
Turns out the needles are standard insulin pen needles; googling confirmed that. No prescription required. Looks like the injectors come with 4 mm 4 gauge (though don’t quote me on that; quoting from memory here). Amazon, weirdly, won’t ship them to my address, while CVS will. I seriously thought about sending them to a friend in another state and having her forward them to me! I’ve already bought a box of extra needles (shipped from CVS), since when I was at .25 mg I could get 8 injections from a pen but it only came with 6. And I’ve saved up the spare needles since I’ve been at 0.5 mg, since that dosage only uses 4 of the 6.
I got a reminder from the insurance that I cannot get any more fills locally unless doc transmits a 90-day prescription Walgreens (or Dropped’em). I’ll remind her to do so when I see her in a few weeks.
I did get the coupon price yesterday, which surprised me given the issues with the hack. Maybe because it was already on my account?
Semi on-topic: I have read, somewhere, that insurance may cover a panniculectomy (removal of overhanging belly flop) if “medically necessary”. Otherwise, it’s of course cosmetic and not covered. I saw the dermatologist today for the quick cancer glance (still good) and she noted that I do get a rash “there”; actually, I specifically pointed it out, because I want an audit trail in case I do try to get the surgery in a year or so.
Oooh - this reminds me: I’m pretty sure Dropped’em won’t deal with coupons - from past experiences with another med. I’ll definitely have to do Walgreens.
Yeah - that’s the argument, though my state (Virginia) supposedly DOES allow them to be sold - and CVS dot com had no issue with selling them to me. A friend suggested that this was because the Ozempic has been coming from there, but I would think the prescription for the needles would need to be written separately.
I think it was just Amazon (and/or Amazon sellers) being overvigilant about where they could ship to.
Anyway, between the boxful I got from CVS, and the 2 spares from each 4-week box of Ozempic, I should be good pretty much forever.
) will remember that I mentioned in a thread about carb cutting that I had given up all refined sugar for this year’s new year’s resolution: no candy, cookies, cake, or processed sweets of any kind. I’ve by and large stuck with that, falling off the wagon only once when I had a small bowl of ice cream on my son’s birthday in January.