Beginning of last year my endocrinologist recommended me to think about taking Mounjaro (a cousin of Ozempic, and the diabetic version of Zepbound with zero difference) for T2 diabetes care. I shrugged it off telling her that I’d try on my own to get my A1c numbers and weight down with existing care I already was on. I was confident in my ability to do so, and I was also slightly suspicious of this new drug. Not to mention I also had a slight stigma of “injection” from my younger days watching my grandma take insulin every day. A a year later in Jan, I was back in her office, having lost no weight (and in fact put on), and more elevated numbers. This time I asked whether I should be on this drug and told her of all my concerns and stigma around it. She heartily recommended that I should and my concerns were unfounded. Thanks to job change and insurance changes, by the time I actually got the first “starter” dose of Mounjaro, a 2.5ml once a week injectable kwik-pen it was towards end of March. I decided to delay starting the medication because of our Peru trip (the best decision I took honestly!) and early April took my first shot of supposedly wonder medicine that everyone’s raving about.
The first night was absolutely horrid. The nausea, acid reflux, tummy rumble – you name it – I experienced it and it felt absolutely horrible. I couldn’t sleep Sunday night (I decided to use Sunday-to-Sunday as my schedule). I woke up next morning feeling nauseous, unable to find any will to have any food. I forced myself to have my regular morning chai, which probably made everything even worse. I don’t think I ate anything substantial for next 2 days. It was only by Thursday that my tummy started feeling some sense of normalcy – I felt worse enough that I debated telling my doc that I was not gonna continue with this. I hadn’t stopped taking my other meds for diabetes care, so it felt like I was triple dosing on meds. I needed some help quickly, and my emails to doctor or her practice went unanswered (Nothing to worry, it was not intentional on her part, our communication got completely mixed up, and I was later admonished for not calling her direct, which in hindsight I should have done as I do have her direct contact!). Anyway, with lack of sleep, food and overall tummy upset, I decided to take help from our new friends on the block: Google Gemini AI!
Enter Gemini. I uploaded most of my labs from past, and my existing health records along with my daily medications/dosage to Gemini so she had a background (I am aware Gemini is probably sexless but since my doc is a she, I am going to call Gemini a she, don’t be offended!). I then gave her details on my dosage, my symptoms and what I was feeling. I was pleasantly surprised how good Gemini was. She gave me good description on how Mounjaro works, how to avoid tummy log jam, could explain why I was feeling the way I was based on my symptoms and suggested good relief mechanisms. One night I woke up with shivers and hunger pangs and had classic symptoms of low sugar so I had to run to stuff myself with food at 2am. Gemini recommended I start testing my glucose continuously immediately and led me to Lingo, a continuous glucose monitor attached to your arm which can give you details on your sugar levels throughout the day. The data nerd that I am, I immediately got it coz I track so many things, why not this?
Over next couple of days I uploaded my daily readings to Gemini asking for recommendations. To her credit every message proceeded by I am not a doctor warnings, but she immediately identified that I was probably over medicated on my triple medications and asked me to cut out one specific medication after talking to doctor. I tried to reach doctor again with no success. I asked Gemini what if I took a risk and cut out the medication I should skip and it warned me that while it was not a good idea, the fact that I was on the lowest medication dosage meant that it may not be horrible. I was in week two by this time and I was scheduled to meet my doctor the following week. I decided to take a risk and not take the medication it recommended (again, not recommended, do not listen to AI blindly!) only once a day (instead of twice I took). I stopped taking the medication at night to avoid the shivers and hunger pangs, and within the next couple of days coupled with glucose readings my night time sleep improved dramatically. Gemini asked me to keep a tab of all of these symptoms and note it down for my appointment next week (for which it also created a reminder in Google Calendar with talking points! FML!). While the second week was marginally better than first, I decided to just stick through it until I met with doctor.
Of course the lack of eating also meant I had dropped a few pounds so that kinda… felt nice? Third week was marginally better than first two but since I was already going to meet the doc I knew what I had to talk about. I also had fresh labs from previous week while I was on the medication for 10 days so if there were any differences it could show up. Well, it did. I told my doc that based on my Gemini conversation I had stopped taking one medication at night to which she had a face of horror. Then she realized it was the lowest dose and asked what else did Gemini tell me – to which I of course had her notes handy. She was amused, and also kinda pissed off that Gemini identified most things correctly, including which medication to stop. She admitted Gemini was actually right and asked me to come off that medication completely. Not just that she also admitted that she was surprised by how much I had reacted to Mounjaro, and that 2.5ml dose is really a starter dose for people to get adjusted. She decided to keep my medication there and asked me to call her before trusting AI (I know, I know!), and also forewarned me I might have to drop off other meds too!
Funny enough, week 4 was a complete turn around for no reason. This week’s injection hardly mattered and it felt like my body has finally adjusted to the medication well. So what has happened in the last 4 weeks? I have lost 7 pounds! Of course it’s a combination of eating less and walking more also at play here, but it’s undeniable what a force this medicine is. The biggest thing I have noticed over 4 weeks is how much the food noise has disappeared. Like I am known to keep snacking through out the day (health stuff mostly, but calories nonetheless!). That noise has disappeared! I feel full for longer without having the craving to eat. I am not feeling the sugar crash I had on previous medication which made me sleepy in afternoons after lunch or in evening. I am not constantly reaching out for a quick bite in the day. Most of all though, my sleep has tremendously improved in the last 2 weeks. There is a marked difference in my deep sleep stats compared to month ago. I am told that the food noise eventually returns, and the weight loss slows down, but I am not thinking about that.
In fact weight loss is not the reason the doc put me on Mounjaro anyway. It was to control my T2 Diabetes and weight loss was a side effect. After monitoring my glucose levels for 3 weeks I can see a marked difference in how my sugar levels act. Gemini has been wonderful in answering all the questions regarding what I see in graphs – I don’t trust it 100% but directionally she gives good pointers. She makes mistakes and I probably have already pushed her to her limit of long term memory at this point. I start month 2 this month and I no longer have the stigma about “injection”. In fact I am looking forward to it. And yeah, I now have 6 month supply of continuous glucose monitors (yes insurance covers them) so for a health data nerd like me, more numbers mean more fun. Oh, did I mention I also got a new Dexa scale to measure 50 weight metrics including whatever is visceral fat? Coz why the hell not when you are losing pounds, am I right?