Well here I am almost two months and 1 year from the day I began this journey. I've lost 90 pounds and am mostly wearing a size 4-6 which still seems unreal. As the temperatures have been dropping, I noticed my wedding ring is loose AGAIN! So I dropped it off at the jewelers again to have it resized another half size smaller. I'm also not afraid of horizontal stripes anymore!
I've been "titrating" down on Mounjaro to gradually wean myself off while maintaining my current weight....or at least trying to. I've got one more dose of 12.5mg and planned to drop down to 10mg for December. While taking the medicine every other week I have found that I maintained just fine....up a pound and down a pound or two depending on if it was an on or off week.
Unfortunately, we had a few extra medical expenses this month that depleted my resources a bit faster than planned. Sooooo, now I don't have enough in my employer funded flex plan to draw from. My coupon has expired and the cheapest price I can get Mounjaro is $962. I'm sure there are compounded options that are less expensive according to my TikTok community. But I think I'll wait.
As expected Tirzepatide has been approved as a weight loss drug (rebranded Mounjaro is called Zepbound), so my insurance will no longer require me to be diabetic to be approved for coverage. I'm sure the insurance company will think of something else—some other hoop for me to jump through before it will be covered—but weight loss meds ARE covered under my plan. Hallelujah! In any case it will take a few months before anything goes into effect. I was advised that the FDA will send updates to the insurance company about the Zepbound approval and it will take a bit before it is established on the insurance company "formulary"...the list of drugs each company covers.
How far can I stretch out these doses until its approved at my insurance company? I met someone at the Nashville meetup who was in maintenance mode and taking her shots once a month. She said it was working just fine. What do I have to lose? I pushed it as far as 3 weeks and I felt like appetite suppression was at a healthy level and I didn't have food noise, but I did have increased sugar cravings. I satisfied it with little lifesaver peppermints. And guess what. WAAAAY too many peppermints I guess, because I gained 5 pounds in that 3 weeks.
I'm not going to panic. It's not like it was 15 pounds, but greater than the typical 1-2 pound increase I would see on an off shot week - and my new wardrobe still fits just fine. It just confirmed to me that perhaps my body still doesn't know its supposed to burn food for energy.
I'm not going to shell out $800 for meds, nope, not gonna happen! So, as much as my plan was to pickup the 10mg for December, I'm going to just wait it out til my insurance approves it. I've got one shot left for Thanksgiving week - perfect timing right? And then, I wait. Patiently.