Energy, itching, & ozempic

I can tell, in retrospect, when my disability started to ramp up by how my blog posts ramped down. I still regularly think up posts, but I do very little these days, and my energy level is enough for doomscrolling what’s left of Txitter, not quite enough to restart on BlueSky, and marginally enough I started enhancing Wordle posts with health updates on Mastodon, but not enough for me to interact much there or feel up to committing to a blog post here.  

Today I had the spoons (energy) to tweet the following thread. It seemed like a good blog update on how I am so here ‘tis. 

TL;DR tired & cranky, taking meds that help, and will hopefully improve my baseline over time, but right now are frustratingly making some things worse as they make some things better. In the process of picking a contractor to finish the house rehab I can’t muster for.

Chronic fatigue is such 🐂 💩

I finished getting up & ready for my day - I’m in clothes I can wear outside, I put anti-itch cream on all my hives I get from taking the medicine that keeps me awake enough to do those things - sent 1 text & I want to get lunch 🍱 

I need a nap now
sigh

I also have metabolic dysfunction making fatigue worse. 

I produce overdoses of insulin. Insulin naps put me out. There is no willpowering myself awake. 

I’ve set up my life to minimize the times postprandial insulin knocks me out so I can, sometimes, do things.

Insulin & gut issues also cause assorted other symptoms. 

I looked up the symptom cluster & found a match in an article. I got hopeful of finding a research link to get to root cause & treatment. 

It said people with AIDS who got that symptom cluster stopped taking anti-AIDS meds 😐

So my annoying, & frankly, least interfering symptoms, so pissed off people used to looking good (& the very real perks that come with looking “right”) that people literally risked death to avoid developing my body shape. 

So that felt nice. /s

Luckily for them, doctors were at the point of taking AIDS seriously by then & developed other medication options so eventually they didn’t have to die to avoid looking like me. 

Unluckily for me, I have yet to find a doctor willing to discuss this symptom cluster seriously with me. (To be fair, we usually have to wade thru the more serious symptoms first, but I have tried.)

I lucked into vitamin K2, which helps vitamin D work, & resolved a few things like systemic fasciitis. 

One of the many oddball symptoms it fixed, and part of the dread cluster, was the out of nowhere, livid purple stretch marks. They’re entirely gone!

But the visceral fat gain & buffalo hump remain.

Visceral fat deposits preferentially when a body has too much insulin. Also, presumably, the buffalo hump. Doctors will tell you to lose weight. If that worked without intervention, I wouldn’t be asking a doctor for help. “Eat right and exercise” worked fine for me in 2004. Then I got plantar fasciitis & couldn’t keep running. Over 10 years the PF turned into systemic fasciitis I got down to walking only 15 min/day without damaging myself further. 

All of this to say I started taking Ozempic. It spikes my insulin after meals so I’ve gone from 2-3 postprandial insulin comas a month to that many or more per week.

But!

After 2 weeks on Ozempic, moving barely enough to keep myself fed & hydrated, I lost 5 pounds & the buffalo hump has gone from nearly rigid to squishy & seemed to be decreasing. 

My eye color, which had started fading, even bluing at the top, is back to a deep intense brown.

I managed to find an autistic masseuse whose hyperfocus is body systems. She managed to explain more of my symptoms than any doctor yet. Noticed the eye color shift too. 

Ozempic has reduced my bloating & excess lymph & lymph pooling (possibly 5 pounds worth).

I had been leery of trying ozempic because it’s a weekly dose, so both effects AND side effects last a week or more. 

I had trialed Victoza, but got only side effects with no noticeable benefit. Aka I slept 14-18 hours a day most days, (rousing enough only to doomscroll).

The ozempic trial went better than Victoza, with benefits I could see & feel. A1C dropped ~1.3, but I still have the sleep issue.

It ramps up both chronic fatigue & insulin coma naps.

I can offset this somewhat with ADHD stimulant meds… which make me allergic to my sweat.

When I *need to get stuff done!*, I have to pause Ozempic & get extremely itchy hives. 

Last week was such a week, interviewing contractors for the house rehab. I am now half hives & look like the before image on an eczema ad.

I have spent an hour (writing this &) working up the oomph to acquire lunch (a 6-15 min task). Still iffy.

I would really, really love to be able to think “I want lunch from a place around the corner” & just ~do that~

I would love to be able to pick up minor messes without thinking about it, while on my way to do a thinking task, instead of it turning into a thinking task.

Ozempic makes those ADHD/chronic fatigue problems worse. 

I am actually hopeful that, given the noticeable benefits thus far (I’m back on this sauce & the buffalo hump is already receding), over time my insulin spikes will ⬇️ & energy will ⬆️ 

But today is not yet that time.