My Mounjaro Journey Week 29 - Greedy Me, Side Effects And Costs

Hi all

I’ve had a bit of a bad week, and it’s all my fault. I had some friends round for a barbecue at the weekend, and because I can’t eat very much, I didn’t really plan what I was going to have. I started the day with a crumpet and a cup of tea, which kept me going until 2pm when our guests arrived. I had a small piece of chicken with some salad and a sausage with a couple of new potatoes. All good.

The problem was that I also bought a load of nibbles, which I put into bowls and placed at strategic points around the house and garden. I had a palmful of peanuts, then a couple of onion rings, followed by a few nachos. This went on for a couple of hours until I’d eaten the equivalent of a small packet of nuts, a small bag of nachos, and half a sharing bag of onion rings. I finished it all off with a Magnum from the freezer.

The next morning, I had intended to go and watch one of the grandkids play football but, at the time I should’ve been there, I was sitting on the loo trying to shift what felt like a boulder. After ten minutes, I finally parted company with it and thought that was that. Wrong. After that, I had severe stomach cramps and had to visit the toilet several more times with diarrhoea. Days later, I’m still getting stomach cramps after eating, so I think this needs to be a lesson learned: junk food and Mounjaro aren’t a good combination.

What this tells me is that greedy me is still hiding behind the medication. In the past, I’d have eaten far more and would’ve washed it down with wine, cider, or gin and a few cocktails—instead of alcohol-free cider—but it’s only the Mounjaro that stopped me from doing so.

I read an article about a woman called Rosie Parsons who lost eight stone on weight loss medication but gained four stone within six months after stopping. I looked online to see if there was any data about how often this occurred and found a study by the British Heart Foundation which showed that patients who used Wegovy regained two-thirds of the weight they’d lost after coming off the medication. Another study for Ozempic found 44% of people gained at least 25% of the weight they’d lost within a year. A study for Mounjaro showed a gain of 14% within a year.

This sounds a bit depressing, but if you look at it the other way: 33% of Wegovy users, 56% of Ozempic users, and 86% of Mounjaro users kept the weight off. It also demonstrates how good Mounjaro is compared to its competitors. So, I’m going to hold on to that bit of information and hope that I sit in the 86% of people who keep the weight off.

All this is even more important today because there’s been some news about the cost of Mounjaro. Apparently, Trump has put pressure on drug companies to increase costs abroad so that they can be lowered in the US. It’s not clear exactly what effect this will have, but Eli Lilly, the company that manufactures Mounjaro, has released a new potential price list where the lowest dose will rise to around £125 and the highest dose to as much as £330.

What Trump doesn’t seem to understand is that insurance covers most of the cost for US customers, where it costs around $1,080 a pen. We don’t have that in the UK. Even people with health insurance are unlikely to receive assistance. It was already hard enough for a lot of people to buy weight loss medication, but this will definitely result in many turning to Wegovy or Ozempic, which are made by Novo Nordisk, a Danish company. The new oral semaglutide (Rybelsus) is also produced by Novo Nordisk, so I can see the sale of their medications increasing significantly.

The price increase is set to apply from 1st September, but it shouldn’t affect me as I’m on a contract with SheMed for a year. However, it’s definitely made my mind up that once the year is up, I won’t be sticking with Mounjaro. I’m going to try and maintain without any medication but, if I struggle, I’ll switch to Ozempic or Wegovy.

Here's this week's stats:

Weight  - 12st 9.5lb 
Mounjaro dose - 7.5mg
BMI - 33.5
Total loss - 3 stone 5.5lbs

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog regularly will know I started my weight loss journey a couple of weeks before I started on Mounjaro, and I actually hit a total loss of four stone this week. I’m really pleased, but the best part is, I haven’t struggled at all. The weekend aside, there’s been no real struggle with cravings, I’m able to stop eating when I’m full, and I’m really not interested in fast food. My husband even offered to take me out for dinner, but I chose to stay home and cook instead. I’ve literally turned into an angel.

See you later x

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Mounjaro Journey Week 1 - Injecting Yourself Isn't As Bad As You Think!

I've completed my first week of Mounjaro and it hasn't been what I expected at all. My box arrived after I received a copy of my medical results.  I'm currently prediabetic and need to take action before I develop type 2 diabetes.  The box contained medication for diarrhoea, constipation, indigestion and trapped wind.  Obviously every eventuality needs to be covered! There was a box of needles, a sharps bin and the Mounjaro pen.  I had been told to download the SheMed app and the instruction said to click the 'take injection' button.  Once I clicked the link, I was taken through to a call centre.  The operative asked me to confirm my identity and then asked me to stand on my scales before showing them the reading. They then talked me through using the pen. The first thing is to decide where you want to inject and to wash your hands. It's quite difficult to explain the operation, but I'll try.  The medication is in a tube and resembles a fat pen.  ...
Read more

My Mounjaro Journey

I've taken the plunge.  After a lifetime of obesity, of diets that I only ever managed to stick to for a few months, I've decided to give the 'miracle' diet injection a go.  I tried to get the injection on the NHS a couple of years ago but was told that there was a shortage so they couldn't prescribe it. I had no idea that you could get it privately and, given it's a diabetes medication for people whose need was greater than mine, I left it there. Then last year my son-in-law started using it. He's on Wegovy and has lost three stone in three months. He pays for it privately so I looked into doing the same. Initially, I found a company called Oviva who gave me a referral for my GP.  They claimed that I had the right to obtain the treatment on the NHS under 'right to choose'.  I sent the referral to my surgery and was invited for a blood test.  I was told that, unless I had an underlying health issue, such as diabetes, I would have to fund the treatmen...
Read more