new to list and lizard spit
Welcome to the group, Codewriter. FWIW, not everyone experiences nausea
with the spit. I had a little nausea with my first 5mcg shot, then less
with the 2nd, then none. When I graduated to the 10mcg, I had very
little nausea with the first few doses, but experienced sleepiness for
two weeks. Hey, I needed the rest! LOL
February 24th, 2004 at 8:13 pm
I’m like Janie, I just don’t get nausea. In fact, on 5 mcg it does not affect
my hunger. 10 mcg does control hunger and I’m very careful not to eat too much
because I get VERY uncomfortable. It sort of feels like nausea when it happens,
but it is actually distress from overeating.
I was tired too (and had no time for it!). Mostly, though, I am just cold.
Cheers!
Marsha
February 25th, 2004 at 1:06 am
I didn’t get a free pen; I had to beg the doctor to even prescribe it,
though he had heard of it (had to look it up on his PDA, though). He
doesn’t prescribe it because he’s "conservative" and it’s "new." Actually,
he wasn’t even my doctor as I had never met him before. I got zip
instruction on injecting (the diabetes nurse was out of town that day, I
assume she was the one who would have done that had she been there) — I had
to teach myself from the internet. It wasn’t a very satisfying medical
experience, but I did get what I wanted. (And probably now have a
"difficult patient" notation in my chart — too bad.)
I experienced very minimal nausea for a couple of days for a couple of hours
and that’s been it (I’m on my third week now on the 5 mcg pen). I do tend
to feel very full after eating for hours (a minuscule breakfast will make me
not want to eat lunch 5-6 hours later!) and does seem to cut down on my
desire to binge on stuff I shouldn’t eat. It doesn’t really stop me from
doing it, though, if I want to I *will* eat it and so far the consequences
aren’t so bad that they forestall me from doing it, but I am cutting way
down.
I haven’t weighed myself, but my underwear is getting baggy, so I assume
I’ve lost weight. I’ve certainly been eating much better, but a good part
of that is through intentional effort.
It’s probably going to be a struggle getting him to go up on the dosage, I’m
giving it one more month on the 5 mcg and then I’m going to go in and fuss
some more. Then I’m going back to my regular PA (physician assistant). I
don’t think I’m getting anything from the "specialist" that she can’t do for
me.
Debbie
February 25th, 2004 at 4:49 am
Hi Debbie,
(laugh) Difficult Patient is probably my middle name. I have no compunctions
about firing a doctor who is unsatisfactory and I’ve got no compunctions about
calling them on inappropriate behavior. My former Nurse Practitioner (she
retired) says if all patients were like me we’d have a better class of doctors
around. (chuckle)
Few medical experiences are satisfying, in my experience (although my D.O. is a
really sweet guy). I have to do my research and be an advocate for myself.
Good for you for being your own good advocate.
Cheers!
Marsha
February 25th, 2004 at 8:56 am
I’ve said it before and I will didact again.I WORK for a large family
medicine practice and have a very good relationship with my doc (of 11
years), pharmd, diabetes educator, nutritionist, sports med doc, etc.,etc.,
and I STILL AM RESPONSIBLE FOR MY OWN HEALTHCARE. My doc is a jiffy guy and
I love him dearly (in a really manly-man way, of course), but he sees how
many patients a day/week/month? Every time we have a visit, he asks me that
same questions - when was your last A1C? What was it? What are you on? What
have your blood sugars been doing? What’s your BP? It’s not bad patient
care, he simply doesn’t walk around with that in his head - I DO. It’s up to
you to BE the difficult patient to some extent - don’t you send a steak back
if it isn’t cooked how you ordered it? Don’t you expect your new tires to be
inflated and balanced? Healthcare is a service and *I* expect something
close to my money’s worth. Docs respect that and actually APPRECIATE a
patient that comes in with a specific complaint and a written list (2
copies) of what you expect from the 5 minute average encounter. It makes it
EASY for the doc. I called mine up and told him I wanted to try the Lizard.
He printed 16 pages of drug info, took it home over the weekend, and dropped
a script by my office with an accompanying lecture on Monday morning. I am
currently the only patient in our practice on the drug. One of our docs came
upstairs this morning and asked me to come down to their diabetes group
visit and relate my experience with Byetta to the group - several candidates
were there. I do hallway CME all the time with the docs, nurse
practitioners, residents, and nurses - the weight loss is so obvious that I
get questions all the time. I’ve become the PosterLizard for Byetta ’round
these parts.
_____
I didn’t get a free pen; I had to beg the doctor to even prescribe it,
though he had heard of it (had to look it up on his PDA, though). He
doesn’t prescribe it because he’s "conservative" and it’s "new." Actually,
he wasn’t even my doctor as I had never met him before. I got zip
instruction on injecting (the diabetes nurse was out of town that day, I
assume she was the one who would have done that had she been there) — I had
to teach myself from the internet. It wasn’t a very satisfying medical
experience, but I did get what I wanted. (And probably now have a
"difficult patient" notation in my chart — too bad.)
I experienced very minimal nausea for a couple of days for a couple of hours
and that’s been it (I’m on my third week now on the 5 mcg pen). I do tend
to feel very full after eating for hours (a minuscule breakfast will make me
not want to eat lunch 5-6 hours later!) and does seem to cut down on my
desire to binge on stuff I shouldn’t eat. It doesn’t really stop me from
doing it, though, if I want to I *will* eat it and so far the consequences
aren’t so bad that they forestall me from doing it, but I am cutting way
down.
I haven’t weighed myself, but my underwear is getting baggy, so I assume
I’ve lost weight. I’ve certainly been eating much better, but a good part
of that is through intentional effort.
It’s probably going to be a struggle getting him to go up on the dosage, I’m
giving it one more month on the 5 mcg and then I’m going to go in and fuss
some more. Then I’m going back to my regular PA (physician assistant). I
don’t think I’m getting anything from the "specialist" that she can’t do for
me.
Debbie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Anything posted in this group is the opinion of the person who posted it.
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February 25th, 2004 at 10:36 pm
I absolutely agree, and am very involved in my health care, always have
been, and never expected it to be otherwise. This was different, though, as
this doc (and the Pharm.D. they had talk to me) were both absolutely set on
starting me on Lantus. They clearly had talked about it beforehand (or else
it was just their standing plan). I was pretty adamant that I was going to
thoroughly discuss the Byetta before we discussed the Lantus. We locked
horns a bit and they gave in (probably realizing I would just go somewhere
else — or just not take the Lantus, which was a real possibility). In
fact, they introduced themselves to me by saying, "I understand you’re here
to start insulin today." I begged to differ. It wasn’t out of the
question, but it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, either (obviously). I had
never met these people, they had a different agenda than mine from the
outset, and weren’t really comfortable with it.
My regular PA is always very accepting of my knowledge and involvement in my
own health care, and relies on it in the way you describe. (In fact, she’s
a bit scatterbrained sometimes, I truly worry about some of her less savvy
patients. Though I love her to death and really do trust her myself.)
These folks were obviously used to getting their own way and being "the
experts." Though they were quite pleasant and professional, of course, they
clearly weren’t used to a patient who wanted something other than what they
had planned.
By the way, I am in a position to read my own medical records (I’m a medical
transcriptionist at the same hospital) — the doctor was very professional
about it in the documentation and did not refer to my recalcitrance, but the
PharmD (while still professional) did. I don’t really care. And I’ll
probably never see her again.
Besides, I’ll show them I was right, I’ll get well. That’ll teach ‘em
Debbie
February 26th, 2004 at 10:26 am
thanks to all who wrote about their experiences. i hope i don’t get the
nausea too! but sleepiness…don’t have time to sleep more. i already nap 2
hours in the afternoon and don’t want to feel icky anymore than that. my son
and d-i-l say i nap more than my 3 month old grandson! oh and yes i do have
sleep apnea but it’s been under control for years due to cpap. my tiredness
is not from lack of the good sleep, rather from oldest daughter and fiancé
moving in with us last december. i used to be in bad by 9:15 pm when hubby
left for work. now son, wife and baby come over to visit and the 4 of them
socialize till midnight or later. of course, i’m not going to ask them to
leave because they would take the baby then. so "gammie" naps so she has
energy to play all night now.
jodi
that reminds me, son is thisclose to being a paramedic and he told me he
heard about issues with byetta and spleens. anyone know about this?
with the spit. I had a little nausea with my first 5mcg shot, then less
with the 2nd, then none. When I graduated to the 10mcg, I had very
little nausea with the first few doses, but experienced sleepiness for
two weeks. Hey, I needed the rest! LOL
Janie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
February 26th, 2004 at 5:21 pm
my first pen was given to me in the hospital and i was
shown how to use it. i was in ccu at the time. the
second pen my doctor gave me in his office..he had 5mg
but not 10. it took a while to get the full effect for
me (but then as you know, i am beyond wierd) and i
don’t think it has finished with what it is doing and
continues to lower my bs. and of course as my weight
decreases, my insulin resistance decreases as well
February 27th, 2004 at 2:40 am
Byette, it is not going to lower your BG by itself or with Metforin
I didn’t understand what you meant by that. I thought that was what they
were supposed to do. I take 2000 mg of metformin a day and 2 (5 mcg) shots of
Byetta a day. They lower my blood glucose a lot and keep it in a pretty
close to normal level. For example, 2 hours after a pretty good sized meal, my
blood glucose is about 95. However, with the Byetta I am learning to eat
smaller meals if I don’t want to feel uncomfortable for hours. My highest
blood
sugar reading is always the fasting one in the morning, which is usually
between 100 and 120. My doctor was worried that I might have too low blood
glucose when I started the Byetta but I assured him I’d be fine and would eat a
little of something sweet if my blood sugar got too low, which it hasn’t. Just
the metformin at times has dropped it as low as 58 between meals but I
didn’t have any symptoms, but I ate a small piece of fruit just to be sure.
Janet
February 27th, 2004 at 6:57 am
the idea of nausea scares me since i hate to vomit
When I started Byetta I was waiting for the nausea to hit, as others had
told me about the awful nausea they had had upon starting Byetta. Well, I
never
had one tiny bit of nausea!
The only thing I’ve noticed is that I feel full forever after a dose of
Byetta, which has taught me to eat lightly and not very often! I also was
concerned that 2 shots a day would be painful. Ha! I can’t even feel the shot
and
if I didn’t watch the needle go in, I wouldn’t even know it did! I could
hardly believe the shots are totally painless! Janet
February 27th, 2004 at 7:09 pm
i absolutely love my doctor. he is such a cutie, and
very willing to learn. i have a genetic disorder that
is quite rare and i can tell he has been doing some
research. he also approached ME about byetta. and we
did the happy dance together earlier this month when i
told him how things were going with my sugars… want
me to clone him???
February 27th, 2004 at 9:18 pm
Yes! Clone him. One for each of us. However, I do love my D.O. that I went
back to, so they’d have to share an office.
Marsha
February 28th, 2004 at 1:36 am
My friend, Linden, does not have nausea but has terrible stomach acid. She
takes nexium and it does not help. I have GERD and have taken prevacid for a
year or so and it controls all my GERD symptoms and I think it is why I have so
few stomach problems with the spit.
Marsha
February 28th, 2004 at 10:12 am
Hi,
The sleepies went away after a few weeks with me. However, sleepy or not I
still was able to go to law school and be functional, so it is something you can
endure.
Napping is a trade off for grandbaby time.
Our grandkids are next door and
we do some day care that often involves early mornings and then I go to school
late and night so I may get up early, see the 9 year old off to school, catch an
hour or two of sleep, study during the day, then go to class - and do it all
over again the next day. The days when we have the 9 year old and the 4 year
old and I’m trying to do things for school I end up feeling pretty ragged,
especially since the byetta, so I pace myself. It is something I have to do for
my own wellbeing. You’ll get a balance pretty soon.
Cheers!
Marsha
February 29th, 2004 at 12:05 am
only when i eat eggs have i had troubles lately
queasyness has never
been that bad. but YMMV
Rebecca
February 29th, 2004 at 5:32 am
i had horrid GERD going in. i was on 3 different meds
for it. well i can’t afford those meds now, and i have
only had maybe 4 incidences of problems in 5 months..
GROSS ALERT!!!… i have noticed however that
sometimes when i am throwing up, even though i have
eaten only 5 or 6 bites of food and have little or
nothing to drink, i throw up huge amounts of liquid.
as if i had recnetly drunk a half gallon or more of
water. but even then it is only nausea and not horrid
heartburn and after i throw up i am immediatly
relieved, the nausea doesn’t continue
February 29th, 2004 at 12:40 pm
Jodi, never heard about spleen problems with byetta. Do you have a link?
February 29th, 2004 at 9:16 pm
Carl, I’ve been known to fire doctors who won’t work with me. I once had
to work full-time for two weeks to straighten out my billing with one of
my docs, and two years’ later, it still doesn’t jibe with what I come up
with. I’m outa there. <g>
I have a log that shows fasting, post breakfast, pre lunch, post lunch,
pre dinner, post dinner and bedtime slots. I fill them in as soon as I
take my bg, around 3-4 times a day. I can tell, being off the Lantus,
that pre dinner and bedtime are problematic because the spit has waned
out of my system, so I have Humalog on hand in case that sandwich poses
a problem. Interesting though, for Easter, I had a large piece of
Tarimasu dessert, and my reading only came to 121 post dinner and at
bedtime. Maybe it was the chocolate. LOL
Anyway, I make a copy of this log, plus a sheet that says what meds and
supplements I’m on (highlighting anything changes), refills on scripts,
and anything else I need to tell my doc. This follows me into the
appointment and it is very much appreciated.
March 1st, 2004 at 5:00 am
Yep, yep, and yep. I hear all the time in our Diabetes Collaborative
meetings - how do we get the patient involved with their own healthcare?
_____
Anyway, I make a copy of this log, plus a sheet that says what meds and
supplements I’m on (highlighting anything changes), refills on scripts,
and anything else I need to tell my doc. This follows me into the
appointment and it is very much appreciated.
Janie
March 2nd, 2004 at 4:49 am
i had a doctor that raked me over the coals adn
berated me for doing my own research and thinking. it
insulted him. i got to thinking… i am a night shift
nurse. i can be verbally abused anytime i want to by
just picking up the phone. i don’t have to drive an
hour and a half for it, and i don’t have to pay $70. I
fired him immmediatly and found a really good doctor
who listened and encouraged me to think research and
try to find some answers on my own. he appreciated the
effort. and as a said in my previous post, i am gonna
clone Dr Finney and give everyone here a copy of him.
I just love him to death.
March 3rd, 2004 at 4:18 am
Like in anything, there is a fine line between informed and
annoying.<grin>.but the majority of the docs I know appreciate a patient
that participates and IS informed.
_____
i had a doctor that raked me over the coals adn
berated me for doing my own research and thinking. it
insulted him. i got to thinking… i am a night shift
nurse. i can be verbally abused anytime i want to by
just picking up the phone. i don’t have to drive an
hour and a half for it, and i don’t have to pay $70. I
fired him immmediatly and found a really good doctor
who listened and encouraged me to think research and
try to find some answers on my own. he appreciated the
effort. and as a said in my previous post, i am gonna
clone Dr Finney and give everyone here a copy of him.
I just love him to death.
March 3rd, 2004 at 7:31 pm
very true. in my case my doc had me on huge amounts of
meds and a very restricted diet. i followed his
instructions to the letter. but couldn’t get things
under control. i was taking glucophage 3000 mg,
Rezulin 700mg, glyburide 20 mg and 300 units of
insulin.. the more meds i took, the higher my sugars
went. so i decided to do some research.. i discoverd
syndrome x and belived that since i had PCOS,
hirsutism, high blood pressure, high triglycerides
,heart issues and obesity that this just MIGHT be what
was going on. so at my next visit i asked…"Do you
think i might have Syndrome X.." and offered him the
print out i had which listed the signs and symptoms.
he brushed the paper away and told me that just
because i was a nurse didn’t mean i didn’t have to
follow the rules like everyone else and didn’t mean
that i could just do what i wanted and eat what i
wanted…i was eating the 500 calorie diet HE put me
on and taking the meds HE prescribed exaclty how he
told me to. that is when i decided to switch doctors.
i hadn’t badgered him, or annoyed him. it was one
simple question.. when i asked the new doc the same
question he thought a minute and said" you know, i
think that is exactly what you have." and then
proceded to do more tests to see.
March 3rd, 2004 at 9:40 pm
Hi Rebecca,
I notice a lot of people here can’t handle fat or protein. I can eat bacon (pan
fried) with eggs and I’m better off than trying something that has less fat. Go
figure. So instead of boiled eggs I have fried, although I like boiled eggs
too.
Marsha
March 4th, 2004 at 1:30 am
nope, just what my son told me. they were discussing diabetes in class
and his prof mentioned it. i asked him to find out if it was byetta for
sure. he’ll let me know monday night after class.
Jodi, never heard about spleen problems with byetta. Do you have a link?
Janie
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
March 4th, 2004 at 6:16 am
Hi Janie,
I just had a confrontation with a billing department at the doctor’s office I
just fired.
They sent me four pages of billings with NO evidence of a $140 payment and then
are trying to tell me it was really credited and I should pay another $200 and
just trust them since they are trying to save me time and trouble. I told her
if this was true it should be on the statements. Oh, no, it isn’t on the
statement, but she can see it and I should accept this.
This semester I am working for an attorney who does bill collections and defends
against bill collections (as well doing as domestic law) and what I’m being fed
by this account manager is bogus. Being diabetic means having lots of charges
(at times) and I’ve noticed that it is not uncommon for co-pays not to be
credited all the time. A word to the wise to others to watch those statements -
hosptials too. I have 80/20 insurance and they end up billing me later and then
not crediting my payments.
So, I appreciate how one must struggle with billing offices and how intractable
they can be.
Cheers!
Marsha
March 4th, 2004 at 3:32 pm
I wouldn’t trade my current doctor for the world. He’s very involved in
my diabetes care, very compassionate, and doesn’t feel intimidated by my
research or questions. He also has no problem saying, "I don’t know"
when he doesn’t know anything. I’m going to keep him. <s>
March 4th, 2004 at 9:18 pm
you don’t have to give up yours. i will just send you
a dr finney clone to keep as a backup. for vacations
and such
March 5th, 2004 at 12:08 am
I wish I had the magic answer, Carl. I guess they’re floating down the
river of D Nile. I was in that river for years, btw. Stress made it hard
for me to concentrate on my own health.
janie
March 5th, 2004 at 3:35 am
Don’t EVEN get me started on medical billing.I work very intimately with our
billing dept and it is a cluster f..
_____
Hi Janie,
I just had a confrontation with a billing department at the doctor’s office
I just fired.
They sent me four pages of billings with NO evidence of a $140 payment and
then are trying to tell me it was really credited and I should pay another
$200 and just trust them since they are trying to save me time and trouble.
I told her if this was true it should be on the statements. Oh, no, it
isn’t on the statement, but she can see it and I should accept this.
This semester I am working for an attorney who does bill collections and
defends against bill collections (as well doing as domestic law) and what
I’m being fed by this account manager is bogus. Being diabetic means having
lots of charges (at times) and I’ve noticed that it is not uncommon for
co-pays not to be credited all the time. A word to the wise to others to
watch those statements - hosptials too. I have 80/20 insurance and they end
up billing me later and then not crediting my payments.
So, I appreciate how one must struggle with billing offices and how
intractable they can be.
Cheers!
Marsha
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Anything posted in this group is the opinion of the person who posted it.
_____