Weekly Mounjaro Update: Week 24

I’m sitting here awaiting my new refrigerator. Just got a call from Jesse the delivery guy. The unit it replaces died last Thursday of old age, and the soonest* I could get a replacement delivered was today, Monday. I’ve got to tell you, man, you don’t know how much you rely on a modern convenience until it goes away. But that will soon be rectumfied.

Mounjaro to the rescue!

WTF, you ask? I’ll tell you how Mounjaro rescued me from no-fridge hell. A couple of months ago, I purchased a dorm-sized fridge for storing Mounjaro because I was ordering twelve-weeks’ supply at a time from my PBM. I did not want to clutter up the primary food storage locker with drug boxes. So, I installed the little thing in my upstairs ham shack and electronics lab. Locating the device next door to my office provides convenient cold drink access, although it curtails the exercise I get running up and down stairs. In the context of my main refrigerator’s outage, I am fortunate that my prescient auxiliary larder purchase provided adequate cold storage to give me some weekend food variety.

I’ll keep the update brief this week, so we won’t have any opinionated editorials. But before reporting the week’s results, I cover a couple of miscellaneous personal topics.

Annual Physical Exam Blood Work

My annual physical exam is scheduled with Dr. DeLorean (not his real name) for November 26. I’ll have blood drawn for several tests in advance of that appointment. Among those scheduled are HbA1c, complete blood count, and comprehensive metabolic panel, to which I have added a self-ordered fasting insulin. I will report my progress on relevant markers next week in this space.

Physical Therapy Progress?

I have been undergoing physical therapy for lumbar spine issues. This week, we will be wrapping up that treatment with a full session on Tuesday and a progress review on Friday. I believe the therapy, coupled with daily home exercises, has done some good, although my back pain has not decreased. Looking at my MRI at our initial assessment, the therapist told me what she could and couldn’t do. There were more “couldn’ts” than “coulds”. Furthermore, a new issue cropped up just as I started PT, a nerve inflammation in my right thigh, called meralgia paraesthetica. To be fair, the PT was not directed at this issue, which could be related to the spine problems. Although I can live with its pain and tingling, I would like to find a solution.

My next step is to see a physiatrist (physical medicine and rehab doctor) on December 9. My hope is to fix as much as possible without surgery, although many of the problems with my spine suggest its need. Like anyone, I am reluctant to go under the knife, more so because I had cervical spine fusion in 2007, which did not work out too well. I will fill you in on my progress if and when anything happens one way or another.

Returning to Exercise

My physical therapist asked that I suspend weight training while she did her Cruella de Ville routine. I miss working out and want to get back into it, so I hope that I’ll get clearance at Friday’s assessment. In anticipation, I have asked the exercise physiologist at the same rehab where I get my PT if I can re-join her wellness program. She will give me an exercise capability assessment and, for a low, low monthly fee, I’ll have access to the PT training facilities. I had been a member prior to the COVID fiasco, hitting the gym three times a week mainly for resistance training. I dropped it when all the pandemic bullshit was going down.

So, my hope is that while my back is assessed six ways to Sunday, I can get my sorry ass back in shape. I hope my rapid weight loss has not caused too much depletion of muscle mass, a peril associated with Mounjaro, particularly for old farts like me. I want to preserve as much sinew as I can, trying to keep protein intake at a decent level to help with the process.

Mounjaro Update

This was a chaotic week, so my progress was not terrific. According to Stelo, a CGM that doesn’t want to call itself a CGM because, I suppose, it measures blood glucose at discrete intervals, my average glucose for the week was 103 mg/dL (5.71 mmol/L). This equates to an HbA1c of 5.2% (33 mmol/mol), which is my target. However, I am not happy with my morning glucose, which hovered around 100 mg/dL (5.56 mmol/L). I’d like that value to stay well under 100 (5.56).

I lost about 2.4 pounds (1.1 kg) during the week. That’s not healthy. As I’ve mentioned (ad nauseam), weight loss is desirable, but I’ve already lost too much, too fast (about 50 lbs (22.7 kg) in twenty-four weeks. I’m now at 195 lbs (88.6 kg, or 13 st 13). My primary goal is glucose control, and after that comes preservation of muscle mass. A distant third on the list at this juncture is weight loss.

That will do ‘er for this week. Now, it’s time to fill up that new refrigerator. I’ll be back with you next week for the next instalment in the continuing saga of As the Turkey Turns.

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*With apologies to Professor Amar Mukherjee, former Chair of Computer Science at UCF, who once prohibited the use of the word “soonest” in any internal departmental correspondence to my eternal bemusement, may he rest in peace.