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The Poster Child for Weird
It was time for my 2-year GLP-1 check-up. I walked into my doctor’s office expecting the usual routine checkup. You know the drill. While sitting on that crinkly paper, you answer a few questions about how you are feeling. Maybe get your blood pressure checked, and walk out fifteen minutes later with a clean bill of health and a reminder to eat more vegetables.
That was not what happened to me.
Instead, I found myself sitting across from my physician as he stared at my chart with the kind of expression usually reserved for unsolved mysteries or particularly challenging crossword puzzles. After what felt like an eternity of paper shuffling and thoughtful humming, he looked up at me with a mixture of amusement and scientific curiosity.
“You know what?” he said, leaning back in his chair. “You might just be the poster child for weird.”
Now, most people might take offense at being called weird by their healthcare provider. Most people might question their choice in medical professionals or wonder if it was time to find a new doctor. But I am not most people. I grabbed my notebook and started taking notes.
When Your Body Becomes a Science Experiment
The journey that led to this moment began 24 months earlier when I started my first GLP-1 medication. What the marketing materials do not tell you is that your body might decide to become a walking, talking collection of the most unusual side effects ever documented in medical literature.
My adventure started with Mounjaro, then progressed to Zepbound.
The transformation was gradual at first. I noticed the typical side effects that everyone talks about: decreased appetite, occasional nausea, some digestive changes. Standard stuff. Nothing to write home about. But then things took a turn toward the extraordinary.
Conversations No One Prepares You For
There I was, sitting in medical offices having conversations that would sound absurd in any other context. Just imagine trying to maintain your dignity while asking a licensed medical professional whether it is normal to experience dry heaving at the mere scent of toasted bread. I am sure you can imagine the look on their face when you explain that your burps have developed what can only be described as a barbecue sauce aroma, despite not having consumed barbecue in weeks.
The weirdness did not stop there. I found myself documenting symptoms that seemed to belong in a surreal comedy sketch rather than a medical chart. There was the mysterious case of the left eyebrow that would itch exclusively on Thursdays. I had the vivid dreams featuring elaborate lettuce-based storylines. There was the emotional breakdown triggered by watching a squirrel methodically eat a cracker on my front lawn. Oh and the common to many but also random to most one, the skin sensitivity they call Allodynia.
Each symptom was more peculiar than the last. I had created a collection of experiences that defied conventional medical wisdom and left both my doctor and me wondering what exactly was happening inside my body.
The Catalog of Curious Side Effects
While other patients dealt with the standard GLP-1 side effects, my body decided to get creative. The nausea evolved into something more specific. A complete aversion to the smell of fresh basil that would trigger immediate gagging. Water suddenly tasted like what I can only describe as liquid anxiety with undertones of sucking on pennies.
My relationship with food became complicated in ways no one could have predicted. Eggs, which had been a reliable protein source for years, became the subject of an internal emotional drama. A drama that played out every morning at breakfast time. I sometimes stand in front of the refrigerator, staring at the carton, experiencing what can only be described as culinary indecision, mixed with existential dread. Do I love eggs today, or hate them? Monday is Love. Wednesday is my revolt!
The physical manifestations were equally bizarre. My body developed its own unique approach to temperature regulation, choosing to produce perspiration exclusively behind my knees. The burping situation escalated to levels that would make a carbonated beverage jealous. My dreams became populated with a rotating cast of meats that I no longer had any desire to consume.
Perhaps most memorably, there was the incident where a particularly vigorous sneeze somehow managed to trigger pain at my injection site, creating a domino effect of discomfort that lasted for hours. These experiences are not in any patient information pamphlet I have ever received.
Understanding the Science of Strange
When my doctor declared me the poster child for weird, it was not meant as an insult. It was recognition of something important: I had become a walking case study in how individual bodies can respond to medication in completely unexpected ways. His comment was delivered with the kind of respectful bewilderment that scientists reserve for phenomena that challenge their understanding of how things are supposed to work.
What he meant, I realized, was that I represented something valuable in the medical community. I was the patient who documented everything, who asked the uncomfortable question. The new me was the one who showed up to appointments with color-coded symptom diaries and researched explanations for why certain side effects might be occurring.
I was the reason he updates his patient files more frequently than most people update their social media profiles. I was the canary in the coal mine for unusual GLP-1 reactions, providing data points that might help future patients understand their own strange experiences.
The Hidden Value of Unusual Experiences
The more I thought about my designation as medically weird, the more I realized how important these unusual experiences actually are. For too long, patients experiencing atypical side effects have felt isolated. They have felt uncertain about whether their symptoms were legitimate or worthy of mention to their healthcare providers.
People dealing with similar situations often minimize their experiences. They have convinced themselves that they are overreacting or that their symptoms are too strange to be real. We laugh off the weird stuff. Others apologize for taking up their doctor’s time with unusual complaints. Often, we simply suffer in silence rather than risk being seen as difficult patients.
But strange symptoms are not meaningless. They are data. They represent your body’s unique way of communicating what is happening during your treatment journey. When your digestive system develops an inexplicable aversion to the sound of air fryers running, or when you find yourself emotionally moved by television commercials featuring household cleaning products, these reactions deserve attention and documentation.
Embracing the Extraordinary Patient Experience
There is something liberating about accepting your role as the medically unusual patient. Once you embrace the weirdness, you discover several unexpected benefits. You become the person other patients seek out in online support groups. And why? It is because they finally found someone else whose body responds to medication in creative and unexpected ways.
I have developed the confidence to ask the questions that other people are too embarrassed to voice during medical consultations. Now, I make my healthcare providers simultaneously laugh and take detailed notes as they try to keep up with my unique symptom presentations.
Most importantly, I help normalize the conversation around atypical medication experiences. My doctor said that my willingness to discuss the strange stuff openly creates space for other patients to share their unusual journeys without feeling ashamed or isolated.
A Message for Fellow Medical Mysteries
If you have found yourself in a similar situation, if your body has decided to respond to GLP-1 medication by developing preferences that would puzzle a team of researchers, if you burp in patterns that could be mistaken for coded messages, then welcome to the club. You might be a poster child for weird too.
The key is owning these experiences rather than hiding from them. Document the strange symptoms. Ask the uncomfortable questions. Show up to your medical appointments prepared to discuss even the most peculiar aspects of your treatment journey.
Your weirdness matters because it represents authentic human experience with these medications. Strange symptoms might be the key to helping other patients understand their own unusual reactions. Your willingness to be open about the bizarre side effects creates a more complete picture of what GLP-1 treatment can look like in real life.
The Bigger Picture of Medical Weirdness
At the end of the day, being called the poster child for weird by your doctor is actually a compliment disguised as an observation. It means you are paying attention to your body. It means you are engaged in your healthcare in a way that provides valuable information to both you and your medical team.
The GLP-1 journey is about much more than just weight management or blood sugar control. It is about learning to listen to your body even when it is speaking a language you have never heard before. It is about developing the confidence to trust your own experiences even when they do not match what the textbooks say should happen.
So here is to all the medically weird patients out there, the ones whose bodies write their own rules and create their own side effect profiles. What you experience matter. Your strange symptoms deserve attention. Your willingness to document and discuss the unusual aspects of your treatment journey helps create a more complete understanding of what these medications can do.
Being weird just means you are paying attention, and in the world of healthcare, paying attention is exactly what you should be doing. Love your journey, friends! If you want to read more about all of my “weirdness”, please consider getting a copy of my new book entitled “My Life On GLP-1: The Honest, Hilarious, & Gassy Truth About Losing Weight and Finding Myself”.
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