I haven’t written in a number of days. I still intend to write more about the emotional side of things, but it’s taking time to process that for myself, much less sharing with the world. I will also preface that I’m writing this post in the midst of jetlag. Forgive me if it’s not as organized, eloquent, too wordy, etc.Since my last update, I’ve had a couple big updates. First, I dropped below my all-time lowest recorded weight. I have been tracking my weight since 2012, and on March 17 I dropped below the lowest weight I had recorded, 240.3 lbs. It was quite a goal to reach, and I’m very excited to be there. And second I moved from the 7.5mg dosage up to 10mg (and then back).Today’s focus is going to be traveling with Zepbound and moving between doses. As I’m writing this, I am just getting back home from spending about three weeks in Europe - we had an amazing time with friends in Berlin and Munich, then John and I were able to spend time just the two of us in Amsterdam.
Moving to 10mg #
When I saw my doctor for my three month check-in, we had a discussion about staying on the 7.5mg dosage or moving up to 10mg, and her suggestion was to move up, but she was open to whatever I wanted to do. I felt like I was doing well on 7.5mg, but also know that your body does adjust, so I took her recommend. On January 16 I moved from 7.5mg up to 10mg and it was the first time I had somewhat fairly intense side-effects that impacted my day-to-day life. Mostly it was a massive flare-up of my acid reflux, which made it hard to sleep and eat both. Looking back, it lasted about two weeks, and then I adjusted, however I had already decided that with the big trip coming up I didn’t want to take any chances. I moved back to the 7.5mg dose and decided to stay on it through the trip, then titrate up afterward.This decision was for a couple reasons; first I wanted to minimize as many side-effects as possible while traveling. Second, I wanted to enjoy food. I didn’t want my appetite suppressed quite so much. I feel like this was the right decision for me. I still lost weight over the course of roughly two months while on 7.5mg the second time - about 15 lbs. I can tell the appetite suppression has significantly lessened and a bit of the food noise has come back. I look forward to titrating up to 10mg in about a week. I do however think that 7.5mg may be my maintenance dose once I’m done, if I need to be on a maintenance dose.I will start back on 10mg next week.
Travel Logistics #
What about the logistics of traveling with Zepbound? My main concern was keeping it cold. To start, let me clarify the manufacturer instructions:
- Store your pen in the refrigerator between 36°F to 46°F (2°C to 8°C).
- You may store your pen at room temperature up to 86°F (30°C) for up to 21 days. If you store the pen at room temperature, do not return the pen to the refrigerator.
- Discard the pen if not used within 21 days after removing from the refrigerator.
My trip wasn’t over 21 days, but I also see that refrigerated is the desired state and room temperature storage is something I “may” do. I also did not know how warm they would get in my bags while traveling or what I would do in case of an exceptionally warm day in a place that doesn’t have AC. For my own peace of mind, I wanted to be able to keep them cool.Overall, I found it very easy. I did two things to prepare ahead of time - I got a cooling wallet for the auto-injector pens and emailed the hotels we would be staying in ahead of time to ensure there were refrigerators in room. Luckily all of our hotels did have a mini fridge in the room, so that was not an issue. The next step was figuring out a way to keep the pens cold during transit.After doing a fair bit of research, I found the FRIO Cooling Wallet. It only requires a dousing in cold water to stay cool for a day or so. It worked perfectly and is a great tool in my tool belt for future trips. I soaked it in cold water the night before we left, then each time we needed to move hotels, I would rinse it for about 30 seconds in cold water to chill it down. Very simple!
