Intro and two questions
Hi all,
I’m new here, so here is a bit about me. I am 47 years old. I was advised that
I was
"borderline" about eight years ago, but then through rigorous diet and exercise
maintained normal levels for a few years. Then I started fertility treatment and
the
regime went to pot, plus I was taking fertility drugs and steroids (I think the
hormones pushed me over the edge).
Three years ago I was diagnosed and started both metformin and insulin (as I was
preparing for pregnancy) I did very well with my pregnancy levels and gave birth
to a
normal healthy baby boy, but my own levels have never gone back to their old
prepregnancy numbers.
My endo took me off of the insulin. I did metformin and avandia for a while.
Then he
decided to try me on the Byetta. I started on the 5mg for a month in September.
It
was uncomfortable for about a week or two, but tolerable after that. Then he
upped
me to the 10 mg and all hell broke loose. I had horrible nausea, alternating
constipation and diarrhea, headaches, chills, and general weakness and
disorientation. I also had a weird swelling and itching on my feet.
(Imagine what it was like for me to teach second graders in this state and then
go
home to chase my own two year old!)
I stopped taking the stuff, but have since gone back to 5 mgs with no bad
effects. I
feel a bit of fullness after morning and evening meals, but it’s tolerable. I
find that
even with the 10 mg that my morning fasting numbers are still high, even when I
eat
no carbs and am active, , my fasting numbers remain high…I just don’t know
what to
do! The Byetta has brought my daytime numbers down quite a bit ( and they were
not
horrible before.
Two questions:
One for the women: Have your cycles been affected by the Byetta? It seems to
lengthen mine!
I was taught by my prenatal diabetes counselors to test one hour after
meals…and
the levels at one hour post meal are way higher than at two hours.
Does anyone else test at one hour after meals?
Well enough rambling from me!
Thanks,
Didi
February 27th, 2003 at 7:52 am
Hi, Didi, and welcome to the list. I test approx 2 hrs after eating,
which is what my doctor suggested I do. I also do a fasting test, and
sometimes test before meals. I just test away. LOL
February 27th, 2003 at 8:29 pm
Testing one hour after meals, regardless of your medical regimen, is good
for showing you the effect of food. So if you take that number and
decide to change what you ate, it is worthwhile testing. Otherwise two
hours is fine. When I do PP testing, it is at two hours. I eat as low
carb as I can, I use insulin, and a high one hour test is not going to
lead me to change anything. But a high at two hours will.
Because we are diabetics our digestion may get ahead of our medication,
hence the one hour high. But…..if it is higher than 140 and the two
hour is higher than 120, some changes are necessary.
Now, the high morning numbers.
Check four hours after using byetta, when it is out of your system, but
the delayed digestion is still going on. I found I needed to shoot
insulin at two hours in order to avoid those four hour highs. If you are
going to bed with a four hour high, that may explain the number the next
morning.
Coupled with that you may have the dawn phenomenon. The liver sends
glucose into the blood to prepare the body for waking up. In non-Ds the
pancreas responds with insulin. That brings energy into the cells to
prepare them for the day. In us, we do not have an appropriate insulin
response to the liver’s "dump", the very scientific term for what
happens. So we end up with that glucose in our blood and our meters
confirm that.