Glucose is one of the most efficient sources of energy for our bodies. People with type 2 diabetes need help regulating their blood sugar, because our bodies struggle to use or store glucose, which is the sugar we get from the digestion of food. Suddenly, I was forced to think about how diabetes can shave years off life expectancy, and I braced myself to hear about the multitudes of drugs I'd need to keep myself as healthy as I could be - and the exorbitant costs of having to use these medications every day.Įditor's Note : Weight loss, health and body image are complex subjects - we invite you to gain a broader perspective by reading our exploration into the hazards of diet culture. Right: Krstic captures a selfie while on a hike on December 14th, 2022, just over 21 weeks after his first Ozempic injection.
Left: The author (pictured here) snaps a picture two days prior to being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. But it turns out, as recent research has confirmed, that COVID-19 may also increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. Before COVID, I wasn’t even prediabetic, the phase in which doctors grow concerned and during which lifestyle changes can often prevent the disease itself. I'd need a new specialized primary care doctor immediately, to get my disease under control and help me avoid ending up in the emergency room.ĭiabetes runs deep in my family, and since I have spent almost seven years covering nearly every medical condition under the sun as a journalist, I knew what I was in for when the doctor confirmed my diagnosis eight days later. At the doctor's office later that afternoon, I was told I was diabetic without any indication of when I crossed that threshold, and that I had a raging kidney infection. That's when I knew something was really wrong. I live in a cramped Manhattan studio, so the bathroom is just eight feet from my bed - yet I didn't make it, and urine pooled on the floor. I had just finished a round of Paxlovid a few days earlier, and was working to recover from my first COVID infection. This terrifying story began on a sweaty July morning, when I woke myself up to go to the bathroom. But my diagnosis of a chronic disease at only 27 made me realize that becoming slimmer wasn't the point I was fighting to prevent diabetes from seizing control of my own body. These days, however, discussion of this kind of medication has become so far-flung when it comes to weight management that even WeightWatchers plans to get in on the action. It was August 2022, exactly when this drug was starting its social-media-fueled ascent as the latest “weight loss miracle,” one that so many people don't truly need, yet are dying to get their hands on. My doctor explained to me that the medication would help my body overcome widespread diabetic damage.
That was the reason I started on Ozempic: If I got my A1C down, I wouldn’t have to take insulin. I was going to find out if my body was producing insulin as it should, or if I would need regular, painful insulin injections, joining the more than 8 million Americans who rely on these shots to survive. Instead, I was more worried about the results of the HbA1C test (a blood test to measure your average blood glucose levels over the last 3 months) that were going to be in soon. As I watched four or five pounds drop off weekly, I fantasized about what I'd feel if and when I reached that 50-pound benchmark.īut when it finally happened five months in, I found that I didn't care much about the weight loss - I didn't feel as glorious or triumphant as I'd long imagined. Since then, I’d changed almost everything about my lifestyle, overhauling my diet and dragging myself into a fitness routine while also starting a slew of new medications. It wasn't my first weigh-in by any means, just one of many after unexpectedly being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, largely prompted by a debilitating COVID-19 infection earlier that year. Despite this, no real emotions washed over me as I stepped off the scale.
I'd been an overweight child and clinically obese most of my adult life, but I just learned I’d lost 64 pounds. Losing lots of weight was something I had only ever daydreamed about.
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