Wegovy Update: 8.5 weeks

 

I'm in the third month of Wegovy. I upped my dose to 0.5 from the original 0.25 at five weeks. Every four weeks you go up in the dosage until you reach the maximum. It goes 0.25, 0.5, 1mg, 1.7, then 2.4 is the maximum. HOWEVER, there is a shortage, which I didn't know about when I started. The 0.25 and the 0.5 wasn't difficult for me to get so I had no idea what's been going on. I kept checking my CVS app and it still said out of stock. I asked for the prescription to be called in a week before I actually needed it. 

The 1mg has been on back order since June 15th at my CVS and any in the immediate vicinity. I went a week and a half without taking it. I thought it would at least be in by the time I was about due for the second injection. Nope. 

I got a tip that a pharmacy about twenty minutes or so from my house would most likely have it. I drove there to at least set up my information- give my insurance, all that. I wanted to find out in person if they had it before I had my doctor's office call it in. I didn't want to be stuck with another pharmacy, this time, far away, where I couldn't get it either. Long story short, they didn't have the 1mg, but they had the 0.5. I was able to get that for another four weeks. They expect to get another shipment soon, hopefully.

By the time I was able to get medication, I'd been off it for almost two weeks. I would've been nervous after almost two weeks to move up to the 1mg because you never know how you're going to react to the next dose- of anything. I wasn't too upset, at that point, to at least stay at the same dosage I'd already been on. I also would rather have something than nothing. 

I also emailed Novo Nordisk to let them know how negligent it is to have people who have started a treatment not be able to get their medications. It doesn't matter what the medication is, they are the ones paying for commercials every five minutes on network television. The bigger issue is that medication shouldn't be marketed to people like you can just choose to be on it. You can bring up a medication you see advertised to your doctor, and your doctor may feel like you're a great candidate, but that doesn't mean your insurance will pay or that it will even be in stock! Novo Nordisk just sent me a generic email back, basically saying - we're trying but talk to your provider about what course of action to take. They don't care.

Here's the skinny on how it works-

You get a box of four needle pens that are prefilled. They stay in the refrigerator until you use them. Every week on the same day you do your injection. It's really easy and doesn't hurt. 

I was tired the first four weeks. I didn't know that was a side effect, but a friend of mine mentioned feeling exhausted. Then, an acquaintance told B that his wife is on it and she is really tired all the time. For me, it's not unbearable, it's just annoying. It's like, no matter how much sleep I get, I'm still really tired in the morning. 

Let me try to explain how food feels these days. It's really weird. It's like, nothing is...really, GOOD. It actually feels a lot like when I was pregnant.

Prior to taking Wegovy, I really looked forward to eating certain things. Or eating at all. Bread and butter especially. That's one of my favorite things. We normally go out for a "nice" dinner every weekend. Nice, meaning, not a Factor meal in the house. Someone serves us somewhere, usually our local pub. Now, on Wegovy, I really don't care about dinner. I feel hungry but then nothing seems appealing. A few Saturday evenings ago, I would've normally been super hungry by the time we went out. I'd have wanted a "real" dinner- like a salmon meal. With rolls. B asked me where I wanted to eat and nothing seemed appetizing. 

I'd actually had Tito's Burrito's tacos like six months ago or something, for the first time. I remembered they were good. I suggested going there. It would be much cheaper than one of the typical meals we would've eaten had I not been on this shot. B was surprised but he doesn't care about a fancy meal so he was all about it. I ordered three tacos. I ate one and a half and gave the rest to B. I wasn't that into it, and I really couldn't finish the second one, nevermind the third. 

It's hard to even explain the feeling. I LOVE candy. In my mind, I still want certain things. I have my favorite blue raspberry licorice in the house. Normally, I have to really stop myself at like four pieces- I can totally eat six and they're not small. I would have to put the bag far away from me so I wouldn't be able to eat anymore. I've had a bag of them for over a month and the thought of eating another one is kind of gross. 

I've never had this feeling before, where my body signals me that I'm full and I just stop eating. Not only do I stop, thinking about food is kind of nauseating. I don't know if this feeling lasts, but it's good for me. I've always had trouble with willpower and now, it's a non-issue.

My life revolved around food and what I'd be eating. Not as a foodie or anything, but just being hungry, thinking about what I might eat next, eating things because they taste good versus being genuinely hungry. When we have dinner with friends, I don't really care what kind of food or what time we'll be eating. Before Wegovy, I was all about the what, when, where of it all. Now, I can take or leave any of it and just really don't care. 

I miss liking food but I don't miss thinking about it or trying to regulate it. I'm definitely eating way less of whatever serving I get. With cereal, I measure out my cereal in a one cup measuring cup. I use to make it a heaping one cup. These days, I'm at a cup or under and I usually don't want to finish.

I haven't had any other major side effects. I have migraines to begin with. I think I had a bad headache the first week. I definitely had a major migraine the day after I upped the dosage. I don't know if it was my normal headache or if it had to do with the shot. I feel less nauseous these days than I did in the beginning but that could be because my body is used to being on the 0.5mg dose for two months instead of going up to the 1mg. I don't know and won't know for at least another three weeks, assuming I'll be able to get the 1mg when it's time for that.

 It's been about eight and a half weeks, I think, that I've been on it and I'm down approximately sixteen pounds- which I didn't realize until I just typed that. I'd been struggling for so long and still gaining, so this is a giant relief. Am I "skinny"? No. I've had a kid. My body is that of an almost fifty year old woman who had a kid. But I'm back to where I was during Covid quarantine. My old clothes fit. I'll take it.

I would definitely recommend trying it if your doctor prescribes it, and you don't have any preexisting conditions or family history that give you a higher probability of dangerous side effects. The only issue is being able to get it. So if you do get a doctor who will prescribe it, I'd ask for a physical prescription. That way, you can take it to whatever pharmacy has it in stock.