For roughly 1 month I've been quietly reading posts in this space, though getting here took a while: I used to be firmly opposed to peptides, and only now do I feel the upside could be greater than my intense needle fear. 
I'm a woman of 50, and at present I'm 75 lbs above a healthy weight. On top of that I have elevated HS-CRP, A1C, snoring, and hypothyroidism. Weight has been a battle since my early 20s, around the time I got married (likely tied to no longer dancing every weekend). Exercise is something I hate. It never leaves me feeling improved. Nearly 2 years back my father passed away at 74, after 3 years of living with lewy body dementia. That experience shook me awake, because locating care homes and caregivers willing to accept him was so hard given his 200 lbs. I began seeing a doctor to get things under control, and at first there was a lot of improvement, with 35 lbs lost last year, plus I was exercising consistently, yet my waist measurement didn't change, and after I quit berberine I even put 10 lbs back on (taking too much caused a reaction, and now even a tiny amount is more than I can handle).
Last fall my doctor brought up GLPs, but I refused to even think about it. My reasoning was that if my thyroid could be managed, the pounds would come off. That didn't occur. About 10 years ago I lost roughly 40 lbs using homeopathic HCG, and there were smaller wins afterward, but the weight kept returning. Not long ago I chose to try it once more, since for me it worked well as an appetite suppressant with no side effects, except this time I skipped the very low calorie diet and went low carb instead (I was after a way of eating I could sustain, hoping to dodge the yo-yo). Food noise is kept in check and my weight is holding steady, but I'm not shedding anything. To be honest, food noise doesn't seem like a big issue for me, which is a large part of why I held off on GLPs before. Still, after discovering retatrutide, I wonder if it could be the piece I've been missing? Side effects still scare me somewhat, but my hope is that keeping to a small dose 2-3x a week will keep them to a minimum. I'm simply exhausted from carrying extra weight and struggling with it. It takes up so much room in my head.
My husband is also roughly 75 lbs over, and our 21 year old son is about 60 lbs over. Fatty liver disease affects both of them, and my husband has high cholesterol. 15 years ago his father underwent an octuple bypass, but 5 years ago a heart attack took his life. A year ago his mother died of aggressive ovarian cancer. Once more, finding care for her at the end was difficult because she weighed 200 lbs. Our son has already brought up wanting to try GLPs. Perhaps the whole family could attempt it at the same time?
So, that's my story!
I'm a woman of 50, and at present I'm 75 lbs above a healthy weight. On top of that I have elevated HS-CRP, A1C, snoring, and hypothyroidism. Weight has been a battle since my early 20s, around the time I got married (likely tied to no longer dancing every weekend). Exercise is something I hate. It never leaves me feeling improved. Nearly 2 years back my father passed away at 74, after 3 years of living with lewy body dementia. That experience shook me awake, because locating care homes and caregivers willing to accept him was so hard given his 200 lbs. I began seeing a doctor to get things under control, and at first there was a lot of improvement, with 35 lbs lost last year, plus I was exercising consistently, yet my waist measurement didn't change, and after I quit berberine I even put 10 lbs back on (taking too much caused a reaction, and now even a tiny amount is more than I can handle).
Last fall my doctor brought up GLPs, but I refused to even think about it. My reasoning was that if my thyroid could be managed, the pounds would come off. That didn't occur. About 10 years ago I lost roughly 40 lbs using homeopathic HCG, and there were smaller wins afterward, but the weight kept returning. Not long ago I chose to try it once more, since for me it worked well as an appetite suppressant with no side effects, except this time I skipped the very low calorie diet and went low carb instead (I was after a way of eating I could sustain, hoping to dodge the yo-yo). Food noise is kept in check and my weight is holding steady, but I'm not shedding anything. To be honest, food noise doesn't seem like a big issue for me, which is a large part of why I held off on GLPs before. Still, after discovering retatrutide, I wonder if it could be the piece I've been missing? Side effects still scare me somewhat, but my hope is that keeping to a small dose 2-3x a week will keep them to a minimum. I'm simply exhausted from carrying extra weight and struggling with it. It takes up so much room in my head.
My husband is also roughly 75 lbs over, and our 21 year old son is about 60 lbs over. Fatty liver disease affects both of them, and my husband has high cholesterol. 15 years ago his father underwent an octuple bypass, but 5 years ago a heart attack took his life. A year ago his mother died of aggressive ovarian cancer. Once more, finding care for her at the end was difficult because she weighed 200 lbs. Our son has already brought up wanting to try GLPs. Perhaps the whole family could attempt it at the same time?
So, that's my story!
For the past 20 years, I've put lidocaine cream on before every single blood draw! Even so, getting myself to actually show up for the appointment still takes a lot of mental preparation. My plan is to apply the cream and let my husband handle the injection, though I'd been hoping I could get used to it over time — after all, I want to dose twice a week, and that's quite a bit of hassle for something so fast and so small! 
