Slowly stepping up doses and feel so unwell on 8.75

[lostinthememory]

This is all done with the permission of my prescriber.

I had very few side effects on 2.5mg, and so after two months when I wasn't finding it as impactful we agreed I'd step up to 3.75

I tend to stick to each "normal" dose for two months and then the step up dose for a month.

I took my first 8.75 on Tuesday and I just feel awful. I feel sick, I've barely eaten today (an apple and a protein coffee), my head hurts, I feel weak, I'm going hot and cold.

What on earth do i do???

Step back down again next week?

Or do you mean what do you do right now about how you're feeling? Just rest, and try to eat a little at regular intervals and keep drinking water.

Who is prescribing to you that they recommend you mess with your doses like this? No wonder you can’t tolerate it, you spend so long on low doses and your body can’t take more. You need to wait till it wears off.

but god change your prescriber. What a bunch of idiots.

I'm a bit confused what you mean?

So far I've done

2.5
2.5
3.75
5
5
6.25
7.5
7.5
8.75

This was suggested because I respond well to each dose, but need to keep stepping up

You probably feel sick because you have barely eaten.

Is your provider a private doctor or are you maybe not in the UK? I am a little surprised that a prescriber would advise you to use the pens in a manner that they weren't intended to be used.

Also wondering why you need to keep stepping up? Normally you don't need to. I've been on 7.5mg for months.

This is what I mean. I don’t know anyone who would tell you to do this, which prescriber is telling uou to do this?

It's a private doctor - I'm just doing what I've been told to do, because I want to lose weight.

Which one though? Because that’s utterly appalling.

I would strongly suggest that you contact your doctor and ask them for advice on this, as they are the one who has instructed you on this schedule. You know that you don't have to move up doses if you are losing weight and tolerating the medication. I would discuss that point with them specifically.

They're a private doctor near me, I don't want to name them because it's very outing - but now I'm really concerned!!!

I would be. Any professional telling uou to mess with partial doses sounds like they are taking advice from social media.

Can I ask why partial doses are an issue?
Genuine question

Which is exactly what the OP is doing if she is following people on here telling her her doctor doesn’t know what they’re talking about ….

Why should she trust you, a random someone on SM?

It's not the partial dose itself that's the issue. I'm surprised that a doctor is prepared to instruct a patient to use a self inject pen in a way that is against the manufacturer guidelines and not what has been approved. They are taking on the responsibility if the OP makes a dosing mistake or uses the pen incorrectly and so on.

Thanks everyone. I've left a message and asked for a call back, I picked this clinic as they seemed most convenient, but now I'm worried!

This and if you speak to an actual doctor they say the risk is the volume of the drug in the partial doses may not be correct due to how it is suspended, it isn’t as simple as clicks.

Have you checked that they are fully GMC registered?

Hope you feel better soon. It could be the case that your feeling unwell is completely unrelated to the medication perhaps- maybe you’re just caught a bug?

Were you doing well on the dose below that?

7.5 was good for me, but he said I should move up to speed things up

It doesn't work like that.

You don't have to step up at all if it's working for you. You can just stick to 7.5 if your happy, losing weight and getting no side effects.

I've just spoken to him.

He says feeling unwell can be normal, it's just the side effects.

With regard to the stepped doses, he's saying that it's not the way they recommend but that it's what he recommends and if I disagree with his opinion I'm free to go elsewhere

Are they just telling you to move up so they can flog more product? You don't need to titrate upwards if it's still working, it doesn't speed things up. Is the Dr registered with the GMC?

I'm concerned the doctor feels you need to speed things up, assuming weight loss somewhere in the region of 2lbs a week, that is fine. If you are continuing to loose weight you absolutely don't need to go up.