Hey everyone, I just started on Victoza today. I am a type 1 and my doctor is hoping it will help me level out spikes and falls in my glucose readings, reduce my insulin intake, and lose weight. I was asked by another diabetes group I’m in to let them know how my trial of Victoza is going (my endo’s giving me enough for about 2 months) so I’ve started a blog with my experiences here on Tudiabetes. You can check it out here if you’re interested: http://www.tudiabetes.org/profiles/blog/list?user=1grzr33uzawvj. Since many of you are on it you probably won’t see much you don’t know there but I wanted to let everyone know!
Patty here. I started victoza 6.5 -7 months ago. I am on the 1.2 dosage also. I have lost 18.5 lbs and 14.5 inches since last Feb. I had my a1c done a week ago and it was 6.4. I am so happy with Victoza. A year ago I was at 11.1 on my ac1.
Hi everyone! Thank you to all who emailed me and welcomed me to the group.
I have been on Victoza for a year now and I'm very pleased with the results. I've lost about 10 pounds in that time but the weight lose has begun again. It seems the Victoza has me where I can not eat much at all any longer. I get a little hungry but get full very fast and stay full for a long time. As good as that may sound it really isn't. I get very full after eating only a few crackers and since I can't eat much, my sugar bottoms out frequently. I think the Victoza gives me the "itchies" and hiccups also. It's not a pretty site walking around with the hiccups and scratching myself. lol Has anyone (who injects in their arms) had any problems with their arms in anyway??
SheilaQ I have not been on Victoza near as long as you have, a little over a month for me, but I can tell you I am very excited about my results. I have went from a 7.8 A1C at the time I started to an A1C of 6.7 this past Friday and have lost a total of about 12 pounds. I get full fast as well. I do have the "itchies" as well along with some mild burping, but not hiccups. I have tried the arm method, and really didn't have any problems with it. I have tried my upper leg as well but guess my muscle mass was too much there and it hurt like all get out. I tend to like to inject in my belly, less pain (almost none at all). My big problem is that I just plain don't want to eat, to the point that I get nausea from not eating. Have only bottomed out a couple of times, but was lucky enough to have my angel of a wife there to help.
Well after a year or two on Actos and Metformen I am going to start taking Victoza. Seem working behinde a computer does not go well with diabetes. Going tonight to get some fruits and veggies like the doctor said. I hope Victoza works for me.
Mr Brown good luck!!! I'm like you, I work behind a computer on second shift. I have been on Victoza for a little over a month now and I love this stuff....starting to feel like a Victoza junkie, lol It works for me!!!
I just finished a 3 month period of using Victoza daily. Dose was daily at .8 units. I was a long term Symlin user prior. I just got my labs for the quarter and I dropped from 6.7 to 6.0. Really no problems using it at all - but I can't really do endurance cycling while using it. I can't keep BG up after 30 minutes of cycling. So I'll quit for the year, and probably go back to it next off-season.
I had been on Victoza for 3 months, the only thing I got was more hungry, which isn't what I wanted at all. Plus, I can't justify the cost. My insurance doesn't cover it and it would cost me $425.oo for a one month dose. I didn't have any other major issues. My Dr. told me to take it at noon, because I have other meds to take, so as not to interfer with it. She thinks it would defeat the purpose of taking it in the evening. Other than that, I ended up just stopping it altogether. I wanted to start a different program, but the Dr. said I couldn't, so now I'm on a no carb diet, well its no white carbs; sugar, potatoes, etc. I haven't lost a lot of weight, but I'm losing inches, works for me.
For those of you Victoza users that inject cold from the refrigerator, do you find that the injection is painful? When i first started injecting I did one straight from the fridge and it hurt badly but Ive been thinking maybe it was due to inexperience. I have a new pen that I am considering keeping in the fridge since some people say it is more effective? Thoughts please appreciated! Thanks!
After 18 months of being on Victoza, I still feel great and I am holding steady at 45lb loss. I gained 10lb back over the winter, but this was primarily due to my easing up on my low carb diet. After going back & being stricter w/ my diet I've lost half of it. I keep my Victoza in the fridge and I'm at the 1.2 dosage.
Not so happy!!! got my first month of victoza and the gd pharmacist forgot to tell me i needed needles who would have thought an injectable medication may need needles yet they couldnt tell me. so frustrated i was hoping to start it tonight but i guess not :(
For the past couple years my fasting numbers have been up, happened just suddenly, and they weren't terrific to start with, but acceptable.
First the doc kept increasing my glyburide (I also take metformin, the highest dose), then she wanted to try other drugs, and I was very leery, because I constantly fight side effects of everything she wants to try me on.
So I got her to prescribe Lantus. It was like being Alice down the rabbit hole weird--my sugars in AM and all day long were HIGHER than before, and I crashed seriously every afternoon (numbers themselves not so bad, but going down nearly 100 points in an hour was!). So we tried Levimir, same exact thing. I had thought that duh, taking insulin would be the answer. Not so much.
So when I broke into tears in her office this week, she decided it was time to get me to an endo. I had researched endos on my insurance plan but the wait period was over 4 months so I felt pretty hopeless. But--she got her referral person to look for someone I could get into as quick as possible and I actually got an appointment (due to cancellation) THAT afternoon about an hour away--worth the drive! This was a nurse practitioner who works with an endo and thus specializes in diabetes. And she didn't play the guessing games my general doc had done (not blaming her, she is terrific but not a specialist), and she started me on Victoza. But, she said, I wouldn't notice any difference as she was starting me on the lowest dose, but she wanted to see how I did nausea-wise.
THE NEXT morning my fasting was lower than it ever has been since my diagnosis 12 years ago. This is a miracle! She also said that because of the slower stomach emptying I would get full faster and to stop eating the minute I did. Starting with that first breakfast I can only eat about half what I usually have eaten, and my sugars are amazing all day long, before and 2 hours after meals (I am testing like a maniac). Today I tried a higher-carb breakfast (I have been eating extremely low-carb breakfast because of my high fasting) and post-meal not so good, but still NOTHING like before. I just hope this continues to work this way. Would hope not to have to increase dose as I am going on Medicare in a very few years and worry about cost. But so far I am one happy camper!
one week on V and down 3-4Lbs i am happier combined the 8 weeks before V and the 1 week after total of 30-31 Lb Loss
Anyone else having vivid, unpleasant dreams on Victoza? Last 2 nights, one after another, awake every hour after wild dreams. And if so, does it go away with time?
Vivid dreams during the night can sometimes be an indication of low blood sugar. It may be helpful to check your BG around 2:00 am to see if that may be a contributing factor?!
Thanks Leilani. That's a possibility, because my morning readings are so amazingly lower than they have been for at least 12 years. Wasn't so bad last night though, so maybe it was just a "thing" for a couple nights, you know, a couple nights of weird dreams for no reason except the life chaos of this particular weekend. But worth checking, for sure.
What's interesting is that though my sugars are so much lower than ever before since I've been measuring (that is, since my diagnosis), I don't feel "crashy." My regular doc kept saying the numbers I told her when I "crashed" on the lantus/levemir(80s to 100 in late afternoons) weren't really bad low, and I knew that, but it felt that way, because I charged down to them within an hour from 150 or more. I think calling them crashes as I did makes sense, because what made me so uncomfortable was the rapidity of the change. Now I am often at those numbers and feel fine.
Victoza has been a miracle drug for me, amazing levels like I have never seen, but I read on a forum that it stops working after a couple of months. This has me terrified. Is this true for most people, that it will suddenly stop working and I'll be back to square 1 after only a few months? I really like what it's doing for me.
Last week i was put on metformin 2000 mg a day and victoza. I was on janumet. My morning number is still 135-146 same as before. Should i take victoza later in morning or break my metformin up and take the last one maybe closer to midnight? Any clues? Thanks
These morning numbers seem pretty good to me.