Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Home! We had a flawless travel day with everything on time. Even the baggage came out quickly and the commuter traffic out of Providence wasn't too bad. We were here by 6:30 with pizza picked up along the way. I ate 2 pieces of super thin crust pizza which I haven't had for a few months but anything would have fit the bill at that point. The only other thing I had yesterday was an egg and cottage cheese.

It is so green here! All the leaves are out or almost out. Usually on Cape Cod we are in the first week of June before we get to this stage so it must have been a lot warmer this year. I so hope my hydrangeas which didn't bloom last year are full this year. Today is supposed to be fairly warm and sunny as is the rest of the week.

The house is its usual cluttery mess - DS doesn't see it, but I just hate clutter. I guess I will make my way through it eventually. I also need to figure out how to rearrange the furniture a bit in the rooms where I removed it and sent it to Florida.

Every time I read about compounded GLP-1 medications vs the shortage of the brand name versions I can't help but wonder why. Why can the compounding pharmacies get it out there but not the regular pharmaceutical firms which you would think would be highly motivated by the profit potential? Is it the packaging that they can't manufacture fast enough (the pre-loaded syringes, etc)? If so, why wouldn't they just do it like the compounding pharmacies while they ramp up the other manufacturing? Just baffles me and I can't seem to find the answer by googling.

Enough of that musing for today. I have 3 appointments: lab work, HenryMeds, and my PCP. I wonder what my PCP's opinion of compounded tirzepatide will be? He had tried to prescribe me Wegovy a year or so ago when I found out Medicare prescription plans were not allowed to cover it. The main discussion will likely be how to handle the removal of that medication I am now allergic to. My BP has crept up some, but there is no way I am going back to the other stuff and every related medication (calcium channel blockers) has the likelihood of the same side effect. My HenryMeds appointment is to move my prescription to a Massachusetts pharmacy for the summer and get my next shipment slightly early before I leave for Aruba.

Have a winsome Wednesday!

A scale miracle! 199.2 this morning. And yesterday being the day before shot day I was super hungry and grabbed a Twix while grocery shopping (hungry grocery shopping is always a terrible idea). Maybe it's that weird phenomenon of overeating sometimes causing a whoosh?

My car is still at the dealership. It had 4 bald tires (I hadn't noticed at all). So they had to order them. Thankfully I have the loaner! It's a new GLB. Slightly gutless and the unventilated leatherette seats make one's back really sweaty, but otherwise it's got good bells and whistles. So not bad for not being mine. The wireless CarPlay is certainly an upgrade!

Today I have a dentist appointment this morning and our HOA meeting this afternoon, so I'll find out if I am on the board for the next 3 (gulp) years. I would be so happy if I didn't win. I almost didn't vote for myself, but then thought that would be wrong.

It's shot day too! 33 pounds down. This is my 16th shot. And this week was a good one, down 3.4 pounds.

The roofers have been working since 6:30. He said they'd be quiet starting early, but I woke up to conversations about rivers changing course and the sound of elephants walking around up there. There just isn't much between them and my ceiling with a flat roof! Plywood covered ceiling joists with spray foam insulation, then drywall on my side. I can hear everything. They should finish tomorrow and I should be good for 10 years.

Kirby has thrown up twice this morning. Water mostly. On the rug. Ugh.

Liz, I haven't mentioned the compound to my doctor yet. I kind of don't want her opinion at this point!

Off to find a protein shake and get going today...

Hope everyone is having a good day!

PS - Liz, Eli Lilly got approval recently for vials (the pens are difficult to manufacture), but apparently to ramp up that production is also a huge challenge. And I don't think they trust John Q Public to draw and inject themselves correctly. Given the off-label tinkering I see people doing on the compounding discussion sites, they aren't wrong to worry. I've seen people ramp up from 2.5mg to 10mg in a month, injecting 2-3 times a week, messing up how much they should be injecting by up to double by not following the instructions on the label and instead going by some chart a random internet person posted that doesn't apply to their formulation or needle size... a lot of people aren't terribly bright.

I saw that people were doing some injection experimenting, too. It really bothered me. I know there is sound medical reasoning behind the way the doses are administered and increased. I think it's kind of dangerous to mess with a hormone replacement.

So much rationalizing getting more of it in them! One had a very long explanation theorizing Lilly made it a weekly dose because people couldn't be trusted to inject every five days, but she knew better because she was hungry again at 5 days. The mentality has a lot of similarities with other rationalizations of why someone needs more of something... food, drugs, clothes, etc. shades of addiction. Addiction in this case to losing weight. I blame Google and the internet turning everyone into armchair doctors and pharmacists!

But most importantly..... Congrats on breaking the 200 threshold! MONUMENTAL for those of us who need to cross it! I always feel like I'm in the "normal human being" range of weight once I get under 200! I think people who never cross that 200 mark quite get the importance of crossing back over to "left side" of that number.

Right?! Same with size ranges. And for a person who at a normal healthy weight lives so close to both lines (200 pounds and plus size/regular size), it's a feeling I get to experience often!

Congratulations on a fantastic week. 3.4 pounds and under 200! Maybe it is true that after deprivation, the body holds onto weight but when it gets some unexpected calories it feels it can let go?

I saw stuff about experimentation on that Orderly FB site which I also thought was disturbing. One guy mentioned that he used the same syringe to inject twice in a week - not good.

Wow, that's so dangerous!