The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Mounjaro Update: Week 27

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Over Half a Year on this Expensive Crap

So, yeah, I’m being irreverent again. I’m calling the magic potion that has helped so many people and saved so many lives “expensive crap.” However, I am trying to keep my perspective. This is a foreign substance I’m injecting into my subcutaneous fat weekly, which has no business being there. My aim is to accomplish my objectives, then taper off the stuff and hope that I am not locked into an addiction cycle I cannot break. That is why I do not regard Mounjaro as my savior. Instead, it is a high-priced prostitute, pimped by Big Pharma, to whom I am paying big bucks, knowing that my momentary good feelings come at the risk of some serious long-term consequences. Let’s hope nothing falls off!

While I am still making progress, I will persevere with Mounjaro. What I fear the most is when the time comes to taper off, a rebound effect will reverse my gains. I hope I can avert that disaster by making permanent changes to my dietary and exercise regimens in the meantime. I will have lost a bunch of weight, and with rapid weight loss comes depletion of muscle mass, which in turn lowers metabolic rate. The reduced metabolism causes one to gain weight while eating less, and fear of gaining weight is what drives many people to become addicted to GLP-1 drugs such as Mounjaro, Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound.

In Big Pharma’s Grasp?

Being realistic, I do not have many years left on this planet. I would prefer not to spend my remaining days as slave to pharmaceutical products. When I think of the many people who would do anything to get their next fix of one of the GLP-1s, it makes me sick. Losing weight they have been unable to lose in the past is a powerful addiction enabler, and fear of the process reversing itself keeps them addicted. But for me, my desire is to take as few drugs as possible. Mounjaro is one of four drugs I’m taking since Dr. DeLorean (not his real name) took me off metformin. Next, I would like to get off Lipitor, but I’m not sure that I can. I’ve been taking statins for about the past quarter century.

This week, I’m a little late in getting this update out to you because of several commitments on Monday. One such commitment is my long-awaited visit with a physiatrist (physical therapy and rehab doctor), which I’ll report on below. The impetus for seeing him, as you may recall, stemmed from my back issues, which flared up during my August/September vacation. I have been performing physical therapy for strengthening core and stretching back-related muscles, which has produced decent results, but I have a lingering issue with numbness and burning in my right thigh, which suggests either meralgia paresthetica or nerve root compression stemming from my lumbar spine issues.

My goal with the back problems does not involve a complete cure. I just want to be able to comfortably hike for 7-10 miles at least once per week. A subgoal is avoiding surgery. In the past three weeks, I have hiked 8+ miles twice and then 6+ miles last week. The first two hikes were comfortably within my back’s capabilities. However, I had a setback on the most recent hike, as Jenny can lay witness. The last three-quarters of a mile was painful. I was walking uphill on soft sugar sand when my back stopped cooperating. So, it was a slow, hard trek from that point. I should not expect miracles, based on how bad my MRI looked, but I will not shy away from hiking. As a capstone on Thursday’s back episode, I was able to complete Friday’s and today’s gym workout pain-free.

Physiatrist Visit

I got my ten minutes with the physiatrist, who I’ll call Dr. Rabbit (not his real name). After viewing my back MRI, he reviewed a couple of problem areas with me, focusing on the potential cause of my right thigh numbness and burning. He asked enough questions and did enough manipulation to narrow down the issue with the lateral cutaneous femoral nerve to two possibilities: nerve root impingement, or pressure where the inguinal ligament crosses the nerve (meralgia paresthetica). To resolve between those two, he scheduled an EMG (electromyography) test for me next week. I’ll certainly let you in on the results. In the meanwhile, I’ll expect to see many more internet ads regarding back pain and leg numbness.

The Week on Mounjaro

My blood sugar is under good control despite being off metformin for a couple of weeks. Average morning glucose was 92 mg/dL (5.11 mmol/L). Overall average glucose was about 101 mg/dL (5.61 mmol/L). My weight was up one pound (450 g) this week, which means I am stabilizing. After my 52 lb (23.6 kg) loss in five months, I deserve a break! But weight loss was never the primary goal of the Mounjaro therapy, so I am happy with this plateau and wouldn’t be upset if I could stay right here.

That’s it for another week. I’ll be back next week right here with more egocentric clinical rambling and acerbic opinions. I hope my personal horn-blowing will provide some benefits to others considering Mounjaro therapy for type two diabetes. Until then…

Penalties’ll Killya

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Oregon 45, Penn State 37

I know you’ve all hashed and rehashed the game ad nauseam, so I won’t furtherhash it here. We knew in advance that if Penn State got off to a slow start against the #1 ranked team, it would be an uphill fight that had few chances of ending well. We all cringed as we recalled the myriad playing from behind situations we’ve observed this year, against the likes of Bowling Green and USC. The worst-case scenario would be not only starting slow and making execution errors but throwing in mental errors. Against the #1 team, that amounts to suicide.

Well, we saw all the above. The only thing missing in the early dullard performance was a plethora of coaching errors. No, the boys didn’t need any coaching help to shoot themselves in both feet, repeatedly, like Keystone Cops on a Mack Sennett set. I mean, how in the hell do you get a personal foul on a kickoff that was destined to be a touchback. I WILL blame the coaches for this kind of crap, which we have seen every week throughout the damn season. Why the hell is it still going on entering the post-season?

Four fifteen-yard penalties for fuck’s sake! Some of you like that “in yo’ face” shit. I don’t. In this case, it cost us a realistic shot at winning. After the first one, the guidance from the coaching staff should have come through loud and clear: Control your impulses, assholes!

Turnovers’ll Killya, Too!

As if the dumbass penalties weren’t sufficient half-witted errors to lose the damn game, we had Drew Allar’s two interceptions. He had his head straight up his ass for both. (No, I won’t be gentle. It is true and he will be the first to own up to it.)

The first crappy interception occurred in the second quarter, from the Penn State 11 yard-line already down 21-10. It was not quite a pick-six, but it put the ball on the PSU one yard-line. Oregon easily scored on the next play, making it 28-10. This was a crazy-ass pass to throw into coverage on second and ten from one’s own red zone. No excuses. Just a brain fart.

Similarly, Allar had no business throwing deep to a tightly covered receiver to end the game on second-and-one with time on the clock and the running game working well. He admitted that he mentally committed to targeting his primary receiver and went with him all the way. Another brain fart.

Penn State had a decent chance to win the game, but they screwed up. Losers will talk about officiating like children making excuses for their failures. Blow wind if it makes you feel good, but in your heart of hearts, you know that lack of discipline and patience, the most fundamental of fundamentals, is what screwed Penn State out of a serious shot at this Big Ten Championship. Big credit to Oregon, who played a mistake-free game and kept the game out of reach. They are deserving champions.

Playoff Bracket Revealed

Shfting to the College Football Playoffs, all the bullshit and predictions are behind us, as we now know what the playoff bracket will be. Penn State drew Southern Methodist University in the first round. It will be a home game for the Nittany Lions, which James Franklin facetiously characterized as playing with sixteen inches of snow on the field. Yeah, mid-December games in an open stadium in the frozen North are to die for — literally! But Penn State fans, being what they are, a hardy bunch, are elated that they’ll have another home game. By the time they thaw out, they’ll be wishing the game had been played in Dallas. (I remember one Pitt Game in late November, 1964, after which they had to put me on top of the dorm hallway radiator to unfreeze my balls. But I digress.).

Frankly, I do not know much about SMU. I can remember Shifty Craig James and his PSU hatred, but that has no bearing on the outcome of this game. Also, I remember Doak Walker. (Younger readers will say, “Who???”). But about this year’s squad, I know zilch. Thus, I will make no comments here about the game, snarky or otherwise. I’ll save that for a later preview and prediction.

One thing I can say now is that the Methodists and the Kitties get no respect from the schedulers. The contest is scheduled for a nominal noon kickoff on December 21, in sixteen inches of snow at Beaver Stadium. Imagine the bemused, dullard looks on the team exiting the tunnel into a snow cave. A whiter than white White Out! A veritable winter wonderland! I’ll speculate more about that in my pre-game post.

And was the selection committee expressing a sense of humor by giving us a path to the semi-finals through horses? If the Nittany Lions can cathandle the SMU Mustangs, they have the Boise State Broncos to look forward to (fortunately, not on a blue football field)

So, what else can I say? See you next time, when I lay upon you some heavy bullshit about the first-round playoff game with SMU.