ecugirl7
Registered
Hi everyone, ecugirl7 here from the great state of Texas!
Bear with me as I relate my experience with GLP-1 medication. I am a 74-year-old woman.Three years ago, I was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm and a weak aortic valve. My cardiologist put me on heart watch for the aneurysm…this was done by having a cardiac CT once a year. Finally in April 2024, the size of the aneurysm had grown to the point where it needed to be repaired electively (didn’t want it to burst) along with a replacement of the aortic valve. However, at 5‘3“ and 158 pounds, my cardiologist wanted me to lose weight before having surgery. He recommended the Mediterranean diet. I had tried this diet once before along with several others in the past 15 years but was never able to lose weight. It didn’t matter if I ate great or stuffed myself. I didn’t budge or lose any weight. As for exercise, I have been doing indoor water aerobics for 30 years 2 to 4 times a week. I also ride a recumbent bicycle as much as possible.
So I asked my primary care doctor about Ozempic out of curiosity. I couldn’t afford it, since I am on Medicare, and it was not covered, but she recommended semaglutide from a sterile lab at a compounding pharmacy. I was able to get this medicine for $210 a month so I was in! I told myself this would be great because I was getting scared of the aneurysm bursting.
Within four or five days of being on this medicine,I had no appetite and couldn’t care less if I ever ate again. While this may sound like a great thing, it really isn’t, especially for seniors who need to eat extra protein in order not to lose muscle mass, which is common at our age. But I didn’t care. I was so thrilled that I was losing weight finally after so many years. Within three months I had lost 20 pounds. I clocked in on the scale at 137 pounds and I was ecstatic! My cardiologist wasn’t that thrilled about me taking the Ozempic knock off, but hey it worked.
In January 2025, I had open heart surgery to repair the aortic aneurysm and to get a new aortic valve. I am off so many heart medicines that I was on and that is great. As you may know surgery causes you to lose weight so I got down at my lowest to 131.
If you’ve read this far, you may ask why am I telling you all this. Mainly it’s because in losing those 20 pounds I lost a lot of muscle mass. Two months later, I have been unable to gain muscle back even with eating more protein and doing, not as many as I should, strength exercises. My skin looks like that of a 95-year-old woman. Maybe if you are younger, this won’t happen to you. I take responsibility for the loss of muscle mass because I did not do the exercises. I should’ve done while taking the medicine.
If you decide that Semaglutide is for you, please make sure that you do everything you can to eat properly even if you don’t want to because you just don’t have that appetite anymore. Please also do strengthening exercises and everything that the doctors tell you to. You may not have the drastic poor results that I did, but who knows, you might.
Losing weight is great… I am now a size 8 instead of a size 12. But not at the cost of my muscle mass loss. I’m having a hard time gaining weight and I’m eating like crazy. Maybe I will gain it back, but I know my skin will never look the same.
So I say dieter, beware. I think this medicine is not as great as it’s cracked up to be.
Bear with me as I relate my experience with GLP-1 medication. I am a 74-year-old woman.Three years ago, I was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm and a weak aortic valve. My cardiologist put me on heart watch for the aneurysm…this was done by having a cardiac CT once a year. Finally in April 2024, the size of the aneurysm had grown to the point where it needed to be repaired electively (didn’t want it to burst) along with a replacement of the aortic valve. However, at 5‘3“ and 158 pounds, my cardiologist wanted me to lose weight before having surgery. He recommended the Mediterranean diet. I had tried this diet once before along with several others in the past 15 years but was never able to lose weight. It didn’t matter if I ate great or stuffed myself. I didn’t budge or lose any weight. As for exercise, I have been doing indoor water aerobics for 30 years 2 to 4 times a week. I also ride a recumbent bicycle as much as possible.
So I asked my primary care doctor about Ozempic out of curiosity. I couldn’t afford it, since I am on Medicare, and it was not covered, but she recommended semaglutide from a sterile lab at a compounding pharmacy. I was able to get this medicine for $210 a month so I was in! I told myself this would be great because I was getting scared of the aneurysm bursting.
Within four or five days of being on this medicine,I had no appetite and couldn’t care less if I ever ate again. While this may sound like a great thing, it really isn’t, especially for seniors who need to eat extra protein in order not to lose muscle mass, which is common at our age. But I didn’t care. I was so thrilled that I was losing weight finally after so many years. Within three months I had lost 20 pounds. I clocked in on the scale at 137 pounds and I was ecstatic! My cardiologist wasn’t that thrilled about me taking the Ozempic knock off, but hey it worked.
In January 2025, I had open heart surgery to repair the aortic aneurysm and to get a new aortic valve. I am off so many heart medicines that I was on and that is great. As you may know surgery causes you to lose weight so I got down at my lowest to 131.
If you’ve read this far, you may ask why am I telling you all this. Mainly it’s because in losing those 20 pounds I lost a lot of muscle mass. Two months later, I have been unable to gain muscle back even with eating more protein and doing, not as many as I should, strength exercises. My skin looks like that of a 95-year-old woman. Maybe if you are younger, this won’t happen to you. I take responsibility for the loss of muscle mass because I did not do the exercises. I should’ve done while taking the medicine.
If you decide that Semaglutide is for you, please make sure that you do everything you can to eat properly even if you don’t want to because you just don’t have that appetite anymore. Please also do strengthening exercises and everything that the doctors tell you to. You may not have the drastic poor results that I did, but who knows, you might.
Losing weight is great… I am now a size 8 instead of a size 12. But not at the cost of my muscle mass loss. I’m having a hard time gaining weight and I’m eating like crazy. Maybe I will gain it back, but I know my skin will never look the same.
So I say dieter, beware. I think this medicine is not as great as it’s cracked up to be.
