GUY’S GOTTA TALK ABOUT…TYPE 2 DIABETES #32: Taking Ozempic…after LOTS OF RESISTANCE…

For the first time since I started this blog eleven years ago, it’s going to be about me. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes two weeks ago. While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!

You’re SO lucky you’re not my wife…

I’ve ranted against Ozempic pretty much ever since it first appeared. First, I thought it was a lazy way to deal with the necessary measures a person had to take to change their lives and get healthier and deal with the new information about the deadly results of just letting it run its course.

Don’t get me wrong, I WANTED to take the easy way out! But, I also wanted to maintain my sense of self. A modicum of CONTROL over what I could and couldn’t DO with my own body.

Secondly, I railed against how the pharmaceutical world had encouraged, advertised for, and pushed Ozempic (and similar drugs) as a quick, easy, painless, and SIMPLE way for a fat person to eat whatever they want to eat and then just take a shot and watch the ugly fat melt away…no more diets! No more self control (LOATHSOME WORDS to the rich, beautiful, and self-indulgent!)

So, there you have it.

And here you find me. My doctor recommended I take Ozempic – though I fought him to find a pill version. I first discovered that the actual tablet is one of the most bitter things I have ever attempted to ingest. I had to play around with placing it on the correct part of my tongue in order not to taste the horrific thing!

Right after that, and after three or four bottles, I discovered that the COST was absurd: I was being charged over $900 for a three month supply for Rybelsus after my first bottle that my insurance covered…I fought it for almost another year, then my doctor said I NEEDED it to lose enough weight not to drop dead of one of the things that can kill a Type 1 diabetic:

MAJOR COMPLICATIONS OF TYPE 2 DIABETES (as opposed to just being fat, flabby, unfit, and unwilling to do ANYTHING that someone else tells you to do. Why break a sweat when you’re rich enough to buy skinniness with a shot?) WHICH CAN LEAD TO DEATH!

Higher risk of Cardiovascular Disease: heart attack, stroke, and heart failure and its complications. High blood pressure and cholesterol: increase the risk of cardiovascular disease; higher risk of stroke leading to long-term disability and death, and narrowing of the arteries in your legs and feet. Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD - narrowing of the arteries in your legs and feet giving you decreased blood flow damaging skin, muscles, nerves and other tissues.

Chronic Kidney Disease; end-stage renal disease (ESRD); damaging blood vessels in the kidneys, impairing their ability to filter waste (leading to…) kidney failure; damage the kidneys over time which may require dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Diabetic Ketoacidosis: the body produces high levels of ketones creating a life-threatening complication where ketones build up in the blood, making it acidic.

HHS: (Hyperosmolar Hyperglycemic State) very high blood sugar leads to severe dehydration and confusion.

Infections: impaired ability to fight off normal infections and more susceptible to complications from common infections. People with diabetes are more susceptible to infections due to impaired immune function and poor blood circulation; diabetic foot infections (potentially requiring amputation) and severe systemic infections like influenza, pneumonia, a severe form of otitis externa (swimmer's ear) that can spread to the surrounding bones and tissues, particularly affecting the temporal bone and often seen in elderly individuals with diabetes; and a potentially fatal fungal infection affecting the sinuses, brain, and sometimes the eye area (aka, rhinocerebral mucormycosis). The last two are almost exclusively seen in people with diabetes and can be life-threatening.

Gum disease

Eye complications

Nerve Damage: numbness, pain, foot ulcers, infections, possible amputations

Foot problems: ulcers and infections, which can sometimes result in AMPUTATION

Vision/Eye problems such as diabetic retinopathy and blindness

Need I say more? I did NOT become diabetic because I “ate too many sweets as a child” or "REALLY let myself go as a teenager". It’s a disease inherited from your parents. And just because you haven’t been diagnosed YET…well, if you keep a porcine diet, OZEMPIC DOES NOT KEEP YOU FROM GETTING TYPE 2 DIABETES!!!!! LOSING WEIGHT, EXCERCISING, AND A GOOD DIET CAN HELP YOU AVOID DEVELOPING TYPE 2 DIABETES…and even then, there’s no guarantee…

Source: (a few of them) https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/type-2-diabetes, https://www.health.com/condition/type-2-diabetes/diabetes-complications-death, https://diabetes.org/ 

Image: https://www.hcd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/living-well-with-diabetes.jpg