Life After 2 Years on GLP-1s

You can read through the blog to find the plethora of changes as they happened, so I thought I would just give an overview here. It’s a random list, so it won’t go in any specific order, merely where my mind remembers.

A Primer

I’m 63 years old. I have had Type 2 Diabetes since 1995. I have been super-obese for about five decades. I was on Fen-Phen in 1996 and had an RNY Gastric Bypass in 2001.

April 22, 2022, I weighed 405 lbs.

Two years ago, July 28, 2022, I weighed 365 lbs.

Today, August 1, 2024, I weigh 165 lbs.

Two years ago, on July 28, 2022 (a few days ago), I started on Trulicity (dulaglutide) for a year. I had no idea what a GLP-1 was until a year ago when I started on Mounjaro. Yes, I was living under a rock to not know about GLP-1s. I don’t have cable, don’t watch the news, wasn’t reading the news, and was not -and am not- on social media.

Now, the only news I read is about diabetes, clinical obesity, having overweight, GLP-1s, and medical medications in the pipeline. Because I was a midwife, I have a special place for GLP-1s and pregnancy and breastfeeding. Mostly, I read studies, medical journals, and listen in on Pharma’s corporate meetings. And watch tens of lots and lots of YouTube videos by doctors, people on GLP-1s, and those who think we on GLP-1s are nuts and/or lazy.

Health & Labs

July 28, 2022

April 22, 2022, my HbA1c was 9.0. Two years ago, a few days ago, July 28, 2022, my HbA1c was 7.6 after 3.5 months off Uber Eats. My labs were in the toilet. I had high blood pressure. My lipid panel (cholesterol and triglycerides) was wildly out of control. My kidneys were in terrible shape (CKD – Chronic Kidney Disease 3B eGFR 50). I had a fat encased liver (MASLD – metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease). I had Diastolic Heart Failure. I was on inhalers for wheezing when I walked (from the car to the house). I had sleep apnea.

Before 2022

All of the above, plus I had my gallbladder removed in 2015 from being fat. I had four hernias repaired over the last ten years because my belly was so large and caused hernations next to my gastric bypass incision. I had several bouts of bowel obstructions. I’ve had ten surgeries to my abdomen over 40 years and have gobs of adhesions inside. Blessedly, hospital stays with diet changes saved me from yet another abdominal surgery. I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

July 28, 2024

Amost everything abnormal I mentioned in the preceding sections has resolved. I am off all of the medications that were tried on me that rarely worked. My problem was my diet and immobility that contributed to my severe clinical obesity and many illnesses. I could not see that above my mountains of fat.

While CKD does not heal, my eGFR has risen from 40 to 50, putting me in the CKD3A category. My kidneys are better, even if not healed. I will always be at risk for bowel obstruction, my diet and mobility can help avoid that. So can my flattened belly. My IBS is gone, also because of my non-crap diet.

Several of the other issues seem to be being resolved not only by my health gain and weight loss, but also because of the GLP-1s themselves, including my not drinking alcohol or Diet Coke anymore.

Mobility

I can move. I can walk. I can shower every day instead of every two weeks, which exhausted me for days. In 2022, I was using electric wheelchairs anytime I went out. I used a walker at home, even to get to the bathroom 5 ft. away. I had to use the basket in the walker to carry everything from the kitchen to where I ate because I could not make more than one trip without having to lie down to rest for a couple of hours.

Over the years, when I tried to walk for exercise, I broke my feet. Once was a break, the other three times were stress fractures from the previous break. Stress fractures can happen in anybody, but are especially prevalent in folks with overweight and clinical obesity.

Ironically, as I began walking for movement and got to about three miles a day, I had another stress fracture my fourth. That was a few months ago. The podiatrist said I am extra susceptable to them and I would need to go slower, make sure my feet landed properly, and of course, wore properly cushioned shoes. I’ve since slowed to every other day for a couple of miles a day. I also go slower, which annoys me, but I try to do Mindfulness Meditation while I walk. While listening to Queen, of course. Does that qualify for Mindfulness Meditation? It does for me!

I love moving my body. It is crazy surreal sometimes how easy it is to float through the days.

I can cross my legs.

I can walk far without getting out of breath. I purposefully make extra trips across the house. For example, when I am doing laundry, I will take the basket, which I can carry now instead of giving it a ride in the walker’s basket, and start the laundry. Then I will go around the house collecting what else needs to go into the washer. I make separate trips for the two dryer sheets I need. After I finish drying the clothes, I fold, hang, and put everything away while they are still warm. I don’t have to lie down and rest for a couple of days before I can put the clothes and towels away.

If I drop something, I pick it right up. Struthless, an amazingly inspirational, and real, guy on YouTube, taught me the Two Minute Rule. If I see something and I can do it in less than two minutes, I do it.

This would have been unheard of before GLP-1s.

Sleeping

Besides having sleep apnea, I also had to sleep so much two years ago and before. I often thought it was depression, though I know depression well and it didn’t feel that way. Now I sleep in a solid 5-6 hour stretch (my norm) and wake up perfectly awake and rarin’ to go. Now that sleep apnea is gone and I am not exhausted just walking to the bathroom, I am awake the whole day except for a nap in the middle of the day. I have always been a napper. I love naps.

Being Awake & Alive!

I can barely keep my excitement about living quiet. I don’t want to! It’s an amazing new life. I am infinitely more productive. While I still battle my Bipolar Disorder 1 demons, I feel better able to attend to my mental illness now than before GLP-1s. The further I go down the path on GLP-1s, the more I write and that, in and of itself, is one of the best perks of this excursion for me.

I can’t believe I am here. I never thought I would make it… several times in my life… but especially during the COVID years. Now, I get to see my kids and grandkids because I can fly in an airplane, fitting in one seat and not feeling immense shame when getting on and off the plane. Not feeling incredible shame and embarrassment in stores, in doctor’s offices (when I went, which wasn’t often), being taken to the hospital in ambulances, where four or five men had to lift the gurney to get me into and out of the vehicle, or in the hospital when there weren’t gowns big enough for me and even the bathrooms were too small.

But here I am. Flapping arm skin, sagging belly and thigh skin and all. I don’t even care anymore. I earned every inch of that extra flesh. 

I stand proud of where I am today.