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Rybelsus or Mounjaro - advice please

M

Maggie75

Well-Known Member
Messages
147
Hi everyone,

Sorry if this seems like a repeated post, had posted a couple of weeks ago about frustrating DN appt where she put me back on Metformin despite me telling her I could not handle the side effects in previous experience with it. I'm T2, I asked in that appt to be put back on Rybelsus, was prescribed that last year by another DN but was advised to stop taking it by GP as my mental health was very bad.
Thankfully that has improved, I was back to see yet another nurse last Friday for a stubborn UTI which will not go away and I spoke to her again about the Rybelsus (knew she was a DN as I'd spoken to her before). I told her I was not at all happy at being denied this when it was prescribed before and I had already had to stop taking the Metformin as the side effects were horrendous, even my partner commented he thought they were going to kill me! Anyway, she has agreed to give me the Rybelsus again, prescription going into pharmacy, talk about a lottery on who you get to talk to, she wasn't happy giving me them but I think she knew I was on the verge of complaining about the sheer incompetence of these supposed health professionals being forced on us.
Still waiting for the prescription but over the weekend I have spoken to a friend who has been taking Mounjaro for the last 3 months, she has lost over 3 stone and her T2 diabetes is now in remission with it, she's almost completely off blood pressure meds as well. She couldn't recommend it more highly, she has had side effects but nothing serious. I've already looked into this a lot but something just seems to stop me 'hitting the button' to order it from an online pharmacy. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this? I have 4 stone to lose to get into a healthy weight range, I've been doing low carb for 2 weeks and total weight loss is 1 and a half pounds, I know it's a loss but it's still frustrating.
I know the Rybelsus will possibly not help much with weight loss and comes with it's own side effects, I've done so much research into both of them but just can't seem to make a decision about the best one for me. I know there's no point in asking my GP or nurse again as they won't give advice one way or the other if they're not prescribing it. I've thought about this so much over the last few days feel like my brain is overheating! Lol. Thanks for any insight into this and sorry for the long post.

Maggie
 
Hi Maggie, I can’t comment on Mounjaro but I can tell you my experience of Rybelsus. I started on it a year ago after being on Victoza which became unavailable. In that year I have lost around 10kg (one and a half stone) following on from a similar amount lost during the year i was on Victoza. I started on 3mg of Rybelsus for a month then increased to 7mg which is where I have remained. There is the option of 14mg but I never felt the need as my blood sugar on a low carb diet and 7mg was normal. I have not had any side effects other than a smaller appetite. I do think an element of will power is still needed not to overeat, if I have a portion which is too large I do feel uncomfortably full.
 
Thank you so much for your reply and advice, I think I'm going to start on the Rybelsus, think the problem for me with the Mounjaro is possibly injecting it, having bad side effects and knowing this is in your system for a week, something is stopping me ordering it so I'm going with my gut instinct on this one.

Prescription for Rybelsus is now ready for me to pick up from pharmacy so I'll be starting it in the next couple of days, getting my eye check done as well (privately) just to make sure that's all ok prior to taking this and will check with pharmacist to ensure no contraindications of anything else I'm taking, though I don't think there will be.

Hopefully this medication will help with my weight a little along with the low carb diet and intermittent fasting I'm already doing. And of course most importantly reduce my blood sugar. Thanks again for your advice with this.

Maggie
 
Glad to hear you’ve made up your mind. Let us know how you get on.
 
I decided that Mountjaro doesn't sound like my idea of nice. So to rid my self of a few stones and get my type2 in remittance I am on a low-carb, reduced calorie diet - meal replacer in a sachet. I could go for Michael Mosely's and that food in that book is no hardship, really nice recipes. But the issue is, I am stuck for time and working 6 days a week, plus very lazy, so I am on the bars, soups and shakes - with a normal dinner at 7pm, and then no snacks or alcoholic drinks afterwards. So what has happened, well I have lost lots of weight, I have not suffered from wallet injury and having to inject myself, and now Metformin gives me the cold-sweats if I take it 3 times a day. I take 1 metformin a day with dinner, the rest of the day I drink plenty of tea, coffee and water. I don't bother with withdrawing pleasures like a drop of milk in my drinks. POST THIS MESSAGE: I was told by my NHS nurse, I don't need a SMBG, eat healthier, take walks, and only take my Metformin with food or you will get the ick. So I decided to just take Metformin with my main meal. I got a SMBG and a nasty surprise when messing around with my diet/meds, plus my message is go and talk to your doctor about diabetes and dieting. If they try to give you an appointment in 3 months time, tell them its urgent (because it actually is).
 
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Hiya, I have been on Mounjaro for 26 weeks now; I have increased up to the 10mg pen. It is a game changer! I have lost over 2 stone - 34lbs (15kg) and reduced my HbA1c from 80 to 41! My morning bloods are usually 4-6 (rather than 9-12). I have been able to come off insulin all together. I am only a pound away from being 'overweight' instead of 'obese'. Still a little way to go but it has been a nice steady, healthy loss.

I have had a few side effects (sulphur burps, tummy ache, a little nausea and sometimes have to get to the loo quite quickly! but no accidents). However, I had these before and the benefits way out-weigh the negatives.

Like your friend, I can highly recommend it!
 
Maggie75 said:
I've already looked into this a lot but something just seems to stop me 'hitting the button' to order it from an online pharmacy.
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Also, as a T2D, you should be able to get this on the NHS (I do).
 
Results from Catlady19 very encouraging, but six months is a long time, and how deranged was your BG at the outset ?

I am pretty fat, some might say morbidly obese. But I am one of those people who can happy eat nothing all day, or drink a diet cup-a-soup, or a diet milkshake. The other day I forgot to eat breakfast, was getting the thirst (constant coffee chugging), nodding off, cold toes and blurred vision as if my BG was too high. I did a check with my SMBG and the numbers came back 9.8mmol.

So my liver is making glucose if I don't eat; the bloody thing is tapping into an unlimited bank of stored chicken tikka masala, and ice-cream available anytime from an under-skin backpack, and it just loves to torture my poor withered pancreas. Now what ? BMI well over 30.

I have to eat to do my metformin, or its "bleugh-a-clock".

So I have discovered a cheese & metformin snack, is just enough to keep me on my perch at work. I will SMBG monitor for a week or two and make sure I wake up with 7.5mmol or below (provided I metformin and cheddar at 12am) and are well less than 7 when it comes to my main meal. This is true to the instruction, take 3 metformins with meals a day. I actually do 4 "meals" with meds and that nails my early morning highs.

If Mounjaro stops me eating, what stops my BG going totally do-lally ? I really think Mounjaro is the right thing for me, once I can convince my GP to prescribe it. Do I cheeese and Metformin trick to keep my BG. If I ask for Mounjaro will I regret it? When my BG is high, I feel vaguely hungover, anxious and irritable almost to the state of a recent ex-smoker.

Did your BG go do-lally early on ? For how long? My A1c was 120 last time
 
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NoMoreBeerAnymore said:
the bloody thing is tapping into an unlimited bank of stored chicken tikka masala, and ice-cream available anytime from an under-skin backpack, and it just loves to torture my poor withered pancreas.
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LOL

The Mounjaro itself is a GLP-1 it is designed to slow gastric emptying, lowering blood sugar spikes and makes you feel fuller. It also supresses the hormone Glucagon in the Alpha cells which tells the liver to break down and pump out. There was a really good video somewhere on here explaining it, will see if I can find it.

My A1c started to stablise pretty quickly if I remember rightly, even on the 2.5 dose.
NoMoreBeerAnymore said:
The other day I forgot to eat breakfast, was getting the thirst (constant coffee chugging), nodding off, cold toes and blurred vision as if my BG was too high. I did a check with my SMBG and the numbers came back 9.8mmo
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This is possibly because of a liver dump. If you ate too late at night or the wrong things, it stores up in your liver and then dumps out as your body things you need glucose. The Mounjaro helps you stabalise all of that.

However, Mounjaro is not a quick fix, many diabetics are on it for around at least two years from what I can gather. Some people seem to lose silly amounts of weight in a very quick time frame but mine has been averaging at around 1.2lb per week, sometimes a little frustrating but essentially healthier in the long run I think. I am hoping it will train my brain and body to change my eating habits too. I put all my weight on after giving up smoking 14 years ago and I haven't been able to lose any weight since until Mounjaro.

Don't be scared to give it a try, you won't know until you try it, it really is a game-changer!
 
NoMoreBeerAnymore said:
Thank you ! I just need to convince my GP
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Are you on more than one medication for T2D? The criteria is being overweight, high or erratic blood control and on more than one type of diabetes medication. It is expensive but is going to save them a lot of money in the long run as we won't need other medication and won't be suffering from conditions associated with obesity and T2D. That's your argument!
 
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