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!