Surgery and Dapagliflozin - Is this normal?

[madfish]

Hi,

a couple of months back I had an inguinal hernia AND a gallbladder removal surgery (same time). During the pre op tests everything was ok except my sugar levels (mainly fasting) was coming out high.

I was prescribed Dapagliflozin 10 mg in addition to my usual 2000mg Metformin, and surgery went well and is done.

I have been through the stress of surgery and even had a very painful inflammation on my tongue posts surgery. ( I think there was a tiny scratch on my gum from intubation, which got aggravated with eating some hard/sharp food.)

I had to apply mouth gels multiple times a day for a month before it went down. During that month of post surgery it was agony eating/swallowing. I did eat, but through a lot of pain chewing and swallowing.

All this to say I've gone through quite a bit of stress mentally and physically with the surgery and tongue pain.

I still haven't discontinued the Dapa.

Is it normal to lose weight with this Dapagliflozin and/or the surgery I've had? I've lost around 4kg since the surgery and 2 months of taking Dapa in addition the the usual 2000mg Metformin I've been on for 15 years.

Thanks in advance to anyone/everyone who replies 🙂

 

[saffron15]

My understanding is it can cause modest weight loss. There is a recent thread about the drug and a link to the NHS guidance. It causes you to pee out glucose so I assume there is less circulating causing you to gain weight. I have recently peed more. I have not lost weight but this may be because I've worried whether I am eating enough carbs and am probably adding too many. I had lost a stone and a half before being prescribed SGLT2 in September. Given the stress you must have been under and the pain in your mouth i assume surgery would be the primary cause. When I was placed on SGLT2 my metformin dose which had only reached 4 tablets the previous week was reduced to two on the basis I had begun to have the runs and the two drugs overlap on some functions
You should check with your surgery. It is supposed to help cardiovascular health too but I don't know if that is a benefit you need or want.

This is the latest update

SGLT2 inhibitors: monitor ketones in blood during treatment interruption for surgical procedures or acute serious medical illness

SGLT2 inhibitor treatment should be interrupted in patients who are hospitalised for major surgical procedures or acute serious medical illnesses and ketone levels measured, preferably in blood rather than urine. Treatment may be restarted when the ketone values are normal and the patient's...

www.gov.uk

 

[Chelseagirl]

I lost 8 kilos over the first six months. Then it levelled out and haven’t lost any more for a couple of months.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi,

a couple of months back I had an inguinal hernia AND a gallbladder removal surgery (same time). During the pre op tests everything was ok except my sugar levels (mainly fasting) was coming out high.

I was prescribed Dapagliflozin 10 mg in addition to my usual 2000mg Metformin, and surgery went well and is done.

I have been through the stress of surgery and even had a very painful inflammation on my tongue posts surgery. ( I think there was a tiny scratch on my gum from intubation, which got aggravated with eating some hard/sharp food.)

I had to apply mouth gels multiple times a day for a month before it went down. During that month of post surgery it was agony eating/swallowing. I did eat, but through a lot of pain chewing and swallowing.

All this to say I've gone through quite a bit of stress mentally and physically with the surgery and tongue pain.

I still haven't discontinued the Dapa.

Is it normal to lose weight with this Dapagliflozin and/or the surgery I've had? I've lost around 4kg since the surgery and 2 months of taking Dapa in addition the the usual 2000mg Metformin I've been on for 15 years.

Thanks in advance to anyone/everyone who replies 🙂

I suspect your weight loss is partly due to your difficulty eating because of your sore mouth.
Do you need to lose weight if not you could have easy to eat high protein foods like yoghurts, eggs, avocado, soups, tuna or mackerel pate.

 

[madfish]

I lost 8 kilos over the first six months. Then it levelled out and haven’t lost any more for a couple of months.

Thanks very much for letting me know! Appreciate it 🙂

 

[madfish]

My understanding is it can cause modest weight loss. There is a recent thread about the drug and a link to the NHS guidance. It causes you to pee out glucose so I assume there is less circulating causing you to gain weight. I have recently peed more. I have not lost weight but this may be because I've worried whether I am eating enough carbs and am probably adding too many. I had lost a stone and a half before being prescribed SGLT2 in September. Given the stress you must have been under and the pain in your mouth i assume surgery would be the primary cause. When I was placed on SGLT2 my metformin dose which had only reached 4 tablets the previous week was reduced to two on the basis I had begun to have the runs and the two drugs overlap on some functions
You should check with your surgery. It is supposed to help cardiovascular health too but I don't know if that is a benefit you need or want.

This is the latest update

SGLT2 inhibitors: monitor ketones in blood during treatment interruption for surgical procedures or acute serious medical illness

SGLT2 inhibitor treatment should be interrupted in patients who are hospitalised for major surgical procedures or acute serious medical illnesses and ketone levels measured, preferably in blood rather than urine. Treatment may be restarted when the ketone values are normal and the patient's...

www.gov.uk

Thanks very much for your reply. I went to the doc who didn't seem very concerned about my weight loss and put it down to stress.

I have to check my HBAc1 in a couple of weeks to see if I need to continue with the Dapa. It's suddenly seeing none of trousers fit that alerted me to my weight loss. As unintended weight loss isn't a good sign it's freaked me out a bit (yes I do suffer from health anxiety). But thankfully I don't have any other problems.