u/bigtimecommon

Hello friends, my mother was just diagnosed with stage 3a chronic kidney disease, and is naturally very worried and unhappy. She is otherwise pretty healthy and not overweight. Eats healthy foods. Right now she is most concerned about being able to get the nutrition she needs because she has some dietary restrictions (and is a little orthorexic).

What are the best, reputable, most evidence based sources of information about nutrition and diets that newly diagnosed people can follow?

As an older person she is also worked about muscle wasting. Thank you.

We noticed this term popping into the news lately and googled it to find this article from Forbes. It’s basically body dysmorphia after weight loss. I have this, for sure, and look forward to my brain catching up with my body :)

*can't edit the subject line, but added edit below for clarification*

I was checking my insurance formulary list for a totally different reason yesterday, and discovered they added an anti-obesity medication section, which was simply totally excluded previously. Lo and behold, Zepbound in all its doses and formats are now in that list, requiring a prior authorization. This change occurred last month. Just a heads up that people should regularly check changes to their formulary list from their insurance in case something changes quietly without their awareness and could lead to not needing to do the self-pay anymore! I have been doing self-pay since last July, and have now requested my primary care physician try submitting PA for me to get it covered in Maintenance 😊
Updated to add: Carefirst BcBS. PPO.

I misjudged my male primary care doctor. (I’m a middle aged female.) TLDR, I should have just talked to my PCP about Zepbound before adding a new virtual provider and now I recognize my own assumptions/bias.

I previously talked about my high weight with my PCP doc over a year ago and he recommended exercise and diet (which was not working obviously).

So, based on that limited discussion, when I wanted to talk to a doc about my obesity and to try Zepbound last summer, I made an appointment with a new virtual doctor through my insurance network whose bio said she was interested in weight management. I’ve been seeing her virtually and getting Lilly direct prescriptions since then, and now close enough to goal weight to be comfortable saying I’m in maintenance.

In my regular appointment with my PCP, ….male and not the BEST bedside manner ever but a good doc overall…he reviewed my labs that I had uploaded from the virtual provider’s orders. It opened the door for me to tell him for the first time about my journey on Zepbound. To my pleasant surprise, he began discussing the research recently, the new Lilly drug trial results, and even acknowledged that it’s a lifelong drug. He talked about costs being too high but likely going down, and the future of oral tablets replacing the shots. I asked if he would be comfortable taking over my Zepbound prescription and he didn’t hesitate to say yes, and put a script out for my maintenance dose immediately to Lilly direct.

I was so relieved to be able to simplify my life by having my PCP oversee care of this medical treatment for me like all the others he does.

Writing this here because I feel bad for making assumptions about his attitudes towards GLPs, which was based on my own bias, obviously. We hear a lot of stories here by people with a$$h0le doctors who do not respond well to the idea of GLPs and I was super scared to talk to him.

Well it finally happened to me… randomly ran into a colleague who sees me often enough without direct conversation, but is a friendly. She contorted her face and said I look like I’m “wasting away” and too skinny. She wouldn’t let it go for a couple mins. Of course I did not mention my meds because that’s not her business. I did mention that exercise helps me a lot. Which it does, for stress and for health.

Suffice to say I don’t need to post a photo here on this subreddit for reassurance to know that her comments are ridiculous, since I’m at a very healthy BMI (not far from the overweight mark) and my doctor has zero concerns about me.

I was surprised how her comments made me feel. It felt very bad, like the same as when someone asked me in the past why I have gained so much weight or made a fat shaming comment to me. Another colleague who knows my situation was very supportive with me about this later and agreed that no one should be talking about my body, especially not at work. All the same things everyone here always says. So, just a rant.