I had my follow-up appointment with The Endo this morning, after first seeing her at the end of May. First thing her assistant did was to pop me on the scale and they both went… oh, well done! And that was when they thought I had started the injections end of May, but of course first I had to get the blood work done and then see my GP for the prescription, so I ended up starting at the end of June. So they were even more impressed when we sorted that out.

Meanwhile, I’d been feeling like I’ve been letting myself down because I’ve kind of plateaued the past 2-3 weeks, so I told them I felt the weight loss was going a bit slow over three months, but the Endo said some people don’t lose any weight in that time and she thought I was doing great. BUT she said she wanted to up the dosage from the beginner one (2.5 mg) to what is considered the first actual official therapeutic dose (5.0 mg). And well, this is the main reason I’ve been avoiding that…

2.5 mg208€
5 mg272€
7.5 mg359€
10 mg359€
12.5 mg446€
15 mg446€

At 208€ for a 4-shot pen this has already been a prohibitively expensive venture for me. Upping that by another 70 euros every 4 weeks… ufff. But even before I could say anything the Endo said that she would give me an extended new prescription for 10 mg (!) and then the nurse was going to give me a demonstration on HOW TO MANIPULATE THE DOSAGE.

I was like… wut? I mean, I know the FAB GP I saw once over the summer told me about La Trampa, and another friend here also told me he was doing this, but I was unsure because everything I’d read about manipulating the dosage online talked about it being dangerous. The Endo rolled her eyes and said that of course the pharmaceutical companies put that out there, but that in fact it is very simple and easy to do.

So my next stop was to see the nurse who had everything prepared for an easy-to-follow demonstration. And the Endo was right, it’s a piece of cake. The nurse took it step by step and I was impressed, not only at this extra bit of important health care info, but also at how they were willing to stick it to Big Pharma. For now I am going to start with the upgrade to 10 mg, which will give me 8 doses of 5 mg. for 360€. So I’ll be getting more for less, though the per-dose price doesn’t change that much (45€ instead of 52€). But of course, better than suddenly paying 68€ per dose. If I decide to go up to 15 mg then I’ll be paying 37€ for each 5 mg dose.

I still have two jabs left in my 2.5 mg pen, so will be starting on 5.0 mg on October 19th. So far I have had next to no side effects or issues so fingers crossed it stays that way, and also that this upgrade will help with… I honestly don’t know. Doing more of what it’s supposed to be doing? It’s still very unclear to me what this medication does other than repress appetite (which has never been my issue). Anyhow, stay tuned…