Has Anyone Else Been on GLP-1 for This Long?
I think I’m calling it a night early tonight because I am absolutely exhausted. I took my shot tonight, and every single time I take this particular one, it completely wipes me out. It got me thinking about how long I’ve actually been on GLP-1 medication, and honestly… it’s been a really long time.
I started taking it after we moved back from China, so probably around 2017 or 2018.
When we lived in China, all we did was travel, eat, and drink. I mean… what do you do when you’re traveling all the time? You eat amazing food and you drink. By the time we moved back home, I weighed right around 200 pounds. I was miserable. I was uncomfortable in my own skin, and toward the end of living in Asia, I was also dealing with a lot of depression.
I missed my kids. I missed my mom. I missed my life. I was just ready to come home.
I think Welton was ready too.
When we got back, I knew I had let things get completely out of control. The weight, the drinking, everything. I needed to get a grip on something, and I truly believed that if I could lose the weight and feel comfortable wearing cute clothes again—because y’all know I love my clothes—it would help me feel like myself again.
A girlfriend of mine was seeing a doctor in Kingwood who started me on Victoza. (If I’m spelling any of these medication names wrong, don’t come for me. 😂)
I stayed on that for quite a while before switching over to Ozempic.
Back then, my insurance actually covered it through my husband’s employer, so it only cost me about $25 every three months. Looking back, I was incredibly lucky because I know that’s definitely not the case anymore.
The only problem was that doctor.
The drive from Katy to Kingwood got old, but honestly, that wasn’t even the worst part. He made me incredibly uncomfortable. It got to the point where I wanted Welton to go with me to my appointments, and if you know me, you know that’s not my personality at all. It takes a lot to make me feel uncomfortable, so if I say it was bad, it was bad.
Eventually I stopped going.
My regular doctor wasn’t willing to prescribe it unless everything was completely by the book, and paying around $1,200 a month just wasn’t happening.
So I tried one of the weight-loss clinics where you pay around $399 a month for compounded medication.
For me, it just didn’t work.
Eventually Zepbound came out, and that’s what I’ve been using. I think it’s around $499 a month now, which still isn’t cheap, but I’m mostly maintaining my weight these days. I’m almost 56 years old. I don’t need to weigh 110 pounds anymore. I just don’t want to be overweight.
The medication absolutely changed my life.
Not just because I lost weight.
One of the biggest surprises was what it did to my relationship with alcohol.
Before all of this, I drank a lot.
After starting these medications, alcohol and I just did not get along anymore. If I drank, I’d get sick. Sometimes I’d throw up almost immediately.
As miserable as that sounds, it honestly ended up being one of the biggest blessings for me because after enough time, I just stopped wanting alcohol altogether.
Now I’ll have a few drinks every once in a while, and sure, every now and then I might overdo it like anybody else, but I’m nothing like I used to be.
For me, that part was life-changing.
But I also think it’s important to talk about the other side of it.
These medications aren’t magic without consequences.
When I first started taking them, they made me incredibly sick. I threw up all the time. The nausea was awful.
More recently, I’ve ended up with 26 cavities, gum recession, and all kinds of dental issues. My dentists have told me there appears to be a connection between GLP-1 medications and dry mouth, which can increase the risk of dental problems. I don’t know if that’s what caused all of mine, but it’s certainly something worth paying attention to.
And tonight reminded me of another side effect.
Welton and I both take GLP-1 medications, but we use different versions.
He uses the injector pen.
Mine comes in a vial.
For whatever reason, I feel completely different when I use the medication from the vial. Almost immediately after taking it, I get nauseous, weak, exhausted, and I just feel… awful.
That’s exactly how I feel tonight.
So here I am lying in bed wondering…
Would I do it all over again?
Honestly… yes.
This medication helped me lose the weight. It helped me get comfortable in my own skin again. It probably helped me stop drinking the way I used to, and for that I’ll always be grateful.
But I also can’t ignore the side effects anymore.
I don’t know what the long-term answer is.
I know I don’t want to go back to weighing 200 pounds.
I also don’t know if I want to stay on this medication forever.
Maybe that’s just part of getting older—trying to figure out which trade-offs are actually worth making.
I’m curious…
Has anyone else been on a GLP-1 medication for years?
If so, how are you feeling now? Have you noticed any long-term side effects, or has your experience been different than mine? I’d really love to hear from people who’ve been on this journey for a while.