Out of Stock - or maybe not!

SW ⟫ CW ⟫ GW

207.7 ⟫ 187 ⟫ 168.2

Ozempic ⟫ 0.5 mg (hopefully)

Well, it looks like it’s happening – Asda are out of stock of Ozempic, They suggested that we request the surgery reissue the prescription but for the 1 mg and that I adjust the dosage to 0.5 myself. Cue email to the surgery requesting just that and we received a phone call. Apparently, National Guidelines state that if the prescribed dosage is not available, we should wait until it’s been two weeks since the last injection before contacting the surgery again and they will then see what they can do.

I explained that if I did that – waited two weeks from the time of last injection – if they put me up to the 1mg dosage, the side effects would be awful and that after a break, you are meant to start titration from the beginning. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do – they suggested trying to get an appointment to speak to a Diabetes doctor on Monday (cue hysterical laughter as we know how incredibly impossible a feat it is getting a Doctor’s appointment, let alone on a Monday). They also said that what Asda pharmacy suggested – adjusting the dosage myself – had been proven to be ineffective and that was another reason why they couldn’t do what I had requested.

I then called the main appointments line to see if there were any appointments available today (another miracle would be required but it was worth a try) and the woman I spoke to tried to be helpful but basically her hands were tied. She was apologetic and disappointed on my behalf and said it was madness that this was allowed to happen.

Digging around, we found the phone numbers for the Endocrinology department and tried to get hold of Violet. Bear in mind, up until now I’ve never actually had to call Violet – she’s always called me. Well just my luck, she’s not there today so I was put through to her colleague, Karen (I shit you not, what a poor name to have in this day and age) who took my details and said she would ask Violet to call me on Monday.

In the meantime, Stripes got in touch with the ‘pharmacy formerly known as useless’ as in the past, they have let us down with prescriptions and messed us about, which is why we went to Asda in the first place. Shock, horror – they actually have the right dosage in stock! Good news, right? Well, kinda – but then we had to call the surgery back to ask them to ‘release’ the prescription from Asda and put it through to the ‘Pharmacy FKAU’ – initially, the person we spoke to said that they pharmacy didn’t have the correct dosage, but we confirmed that we had just spoken to them and they had said that they did. Anxious waiting, but now the prescription has been sent to the Pharmacy FKAU and we should be able to pick it up in a few hours.

RELIEF. Or slight relief, because let’s be honest – how many times in the past have we thought something is sorted only to find out that somewhere along the line, things have gone FUBAR and we’re back to starting from scratch.

I haven’t been sleeping well – awake til 6 am in the morning with my brain working overtime. Last night was nightmares – I woke up to find that all of the weight I have lost had come back plus some literally overnight. None of my clothes fit, or my shoes and I couldn’t fit through any of the doors in the flat. Yeah, my brain is a fucked up place but we kinda already knew that.

I wouldn’t have got through all of these shenanigans without Stripes – I knew she was just as worried/panicked as I was, but she kept her cool and rang around and if this happens, it is almost 100% because of her.

I will still try to speak to Violet on Monday to see what we should do if this happens again, and I will also try to get in to see the Diabetics team at the surgery – the nearest appointment is on April 25th so that’s so incredibly useful (not). I can’t think of or imagine any other prescribed medication where this situation would be allowed to happen and for the professionals to be able to offer practically zero assistance. I know that we are extremely lucky with the NHS – everywhere else, people are having to pay for this medication out of pocket and it is extremely expensive and just as hard to get hold of. That’s why there’s a booming market in compounded semaglutide where pharmacies (or possibly other shady ass people) are mixing up their own version. But how do you know what you’re taking? The risks and side effects? So, yes, I’m lucky that the NHS prescribes this but this is a life-changing medication for people suffering from diabetes and being morbidly obese – how can this be allowed to happen? How is this right?

I wrote myself a bit of a game-plan in the case of us not being able to get hold of it. I have the Exante shakes in the cupboard and I could try to do that for a few weeks. I don’t like the idea of it for so many reasons, but it would hopefully mean that I don’t regain the weight straight away. When speaking to Stripes, I reminded myself that I am not losing the weight because I am taking Ozempic – Ozempic is the tool that enables me to ignore/not suffer from the hunger and food-noise, so if I just kept eating the way I have been recently, I should be able to maintain if not continue to lose. But the panic and noise in my head was just horrendous, and the thought of starting from scratch again and dealing with those side effects actually made me feel so incredibly low.

I am working on the blanket for the new Great-Nibling and I have an ARC to read, but I think I would also like to try to do some Mantra work this weekend. Head stuff seems to be looming large recently and I want to get on top of it. Especially with things like this happening and not having heard anything at all about my surgery date.