The above statements of fact are no surprise and I've posted often about my struggles with these issues here in this blog. But could it be that one tiny injection on a weekly basis is proving to be my personal miracle drug?
I started taking Ozempic on August 1st at .25 mg for the first 4 weeks, upping it to 0.5 mg as of August 29th.
I have to admit that I didn't feel any effects for the first couple of weeks and then only persistent diarrhea along with a little bit of dizziness and nausea from weeks three to five or so. Now I'm pretty much free of the diarrhea, maybe moving into constipation next, not sure, still too early to tell. And yes, now I feel both fuller after eating a small meal, and not feeling hungry even after the meal has digested for many hours each day. When I do eat, in fact, the food doesn't taste that great. It's hard to describe. It's not like the food tastes bad or but I don't taste it at all, it's just that it seems I'm a lot more picky about the flavor then I would normally have been in the past. For instance, having a barbecue chicken leg quarter and eating only about half of the portion since it tasted dry and I was super critical about the texture including feeling disgusted about any gristle, fat, or bone.
As far as my blood sugars, it's hard to gauge exactly how Ozempic has affected them since for the past month. I've been playing around with both my glimepiride and metformin but there's no doubt, whether it's the well-known pill meds or Ozempic, overall my sugars are way down.
So yeah, I guess this med, in conjunction with the others, is really doing its thing. I mean, I've lost 10 pounds already, so there's that.
But here's the real surprise... I also don't want to drink anymore.
That's right. You heard me. Beer means nothing to me anymore.
Now old habits die hard of course, so I've tried. Over the past 3 weeks, I bought beer exactly three times and each time the same result. Drank a few, grimacing to get past the nasty, bitter, disgusting taste, complaining about either the perceived flatness or inadequate temperature or the type of glass I poured it in, only to dump out the majority of the remaining beers down the drain. Oh, and to top it off, no buzz. No warm fuzzies. No joy. Yet, still suffering through a hangover the next day.
It's as if this drug has the same effect as Naltrexone. From what I've read about that, it's all the same. Lessens the desire, curbs the initial craving, makes one super-critical about the physical aspects of the drink like I mentioned regarding taste, carbonation and temperature, and most importantly, denying the brain it's reward center stimulation or even euphoria of feeling a buzz. So literally, Ozempic achieves not only its intended effects in aiding my diabetes, and obesity, but now apparently has cured my problem drinking. And I'm not alone in this finding, here's just one article about this subject.
So will I never drink again? It's one thing for a drug to instill all the above effects, but it's another to get a handle on decades of bad habits. I'll buy again. And I'll try again. Ol' Georgie doesn't get eliminated that easily. But since it's literally an absolute waste of money, I'm pretty sure sensibility, and my reformatted brain, will eventually win over.
Who woulda thunk it that after all those years of useless therapy and worthless AA meetings, I'd finally find my higher power in the form of a needle?
Glory Be to Ozempic!