Side effect that came on suddenly

christa_channing

christa_channing

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I've been using Tirz for 1 year now. Weight loss hasn't gone great for me, though I did hold onto the 20 lbs I'd dropped prior to starting. My dose stayed at 5mg for a number of months, then went up to 7.5 for several months, and after that 10 mg — and through all of that I had no real side effects. Then, all at once, diarrhea hit me with no warning. Actually, it began with Sulphur burps, and right after that came sudden diarrhea with almost no heads-up. The 1st time, it hit 2 days after I pinned my dose. A week later, same thing. By week 3, I was convinced it was my Tirz. I've tried splitting my dose — half, taken twice a week — but that hasn't made a difference. I've gone through batches from 3 different companies, so it isn't tied to 1 source. I talked to my Dr., who wasn't happy about the half-dose-twice-a-week approach and told me to just go back down to 7.5. But that last dose (5mg, since I was still doing the half dose twice a week) left me sick for 3 days. It's beginning to wear on my quality of life. I've been avoiding triggery foods, drinking water/liquid iv, and taking medication (pepto or immodium). Honestly, I'm scared to eat anything at all because I have to be able to show up to work. On top of that, I have a 10 day trip next month and I can't be dealing with this then.

I've been looking into it, and the advice I keep finding is to taper down slowly, but that doesn't feel like a great option either. Has anyone else gone through this and figured out a fix? Every single time the burping starts, I know exactly what's coming within a few hours. (I did search for an existing thread on this, but the ones I found were pretty old.)
 
I don't have a medical degree. That said, getting evaluated by a gastroenterologist may be worth considering. To me, there's a chance an unrelated condition is at play.

What stands out most: the problems haven't gone away despite lowering your dosage.
 
Hi, my situation is quite close to yours, though mine shows up with Reta.

It first occurred during my switch from Tirze over to Reta, when I was on 5mg of reta plus 2mg of Tirze. I chose to drop Tirze entirely and stay on Reta only. The same side effect still showed up on Reta by itself, so I changed to 5mg reta taken every 8 days. That seems to have cut the side effects down considerably, although now and then they still return.

What I noticed is that the majority of the side effects appear 2 days after the injection.

To get a handle on it, I began working out which foods are the main triggers. From what I can tell, no single food is responsible. Instead it comes down to whether I am in the habit of eating a given food. Say I normally have yogurt for breakfast, and for some reason I end up eating something different (eg. a croissant with cream) — roughly one hour later my stomach starts making itself felt, and a few hours after that I will most likely get a bout of diarrhea.

So my approach to managing the side effect is to watch what I eat very closely, and if it is something I do not usually have, I eat only a very little amuont of it.

On top of that, while the side effect is going on I drink a few glasses of water with lemon juice (no sugar) plus some electrolites. When the side effects are especially significant, I do not eat and I skip the meal.
 
I believe @byefatlicia has hit the nail on the head here. Getting labs done and talking to a doctor could be worthwhile, particularly when these symptoms come along with any stomach discomfort.
 
2dogs2cats said:

I believe @byefatlicia has hit the nail on the head here. Getting labs done and talking to a doctor could be worthwhile, particularly when these symptoms come along with any stomach discomfort.
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There's no pain at all, which is why I called it "no warning." My bloodwork was completed just last week, and all results came back normal.
 
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