side effects of byetta
I am a type 2 diabetic, diagnosed about 6 years ago buty probably had
it for sometime before that. I take humalog, lantus glucophage and a
handful of other pills to control blood pressure and cholesterol. I
had poor glucose control until my Dr. put me on byetta as well. I
take 10 mg and have been doing so religiously for the past month.
I’ll admit, I didn’t take the meds like I should have due to
horrendous side effects and prohibitive cost of the drug. My Dr. told
me that he would put me on an insulin pump if I didn’t lower blood
sugars and this convinced me to stick it out with the byetta. My avg.
glucose levels have fallen to 100-107, quite a change from the 150-
160 that I had before.
The side effects worry me though. I am a professional chef and I have
lost my appetite completely, I have to force myself to eat to keep
blood sugar levels from bottoming out. If I take byetta at lunch, I
find it hard to function during the day and when I take it during the
evening I become nauseous and very sleepy. Do the side effects go
away?
Are somethings easier to eat than others? Does the type of food
consumed effect the degree of nausea? And since my blood sugars are
approaching normal for the first time in years, how long should it
take for my body to adjust to this mormalcy?
Sory for being so chatty. Any help and advice would be appreciated.
R. Johnson
April 3rd, 2004 at 2:02 am
i have had a very long haul with the nausea thing, and
yes, it does get better, and yes, for me WHAT i eat
matters more than how much i eat.
April 3rd, 2004 at 1:28 pm
A chef! Cool! Welcome to the list.
I had sleepiness for a few weeks after I started my 10mcg pen. Hardly
any nausea, though. It gets better with time, but a minor few have had
to stop byetta due to nausea.
I can eat anything, but some things don’t taste good to me like they did
before byetta. Feta cheese, for example, a stable in my diet for years,
now tastes too salty. I love hot spicey foods because nothing else gets
through, taste wise. I also crave warm sunny spots on rocks, so I guess
I’m turning into a gila.
Oh, I also went from 60 units of insulin to hardly zero, and am running
with just byetta and rarely, a 2 unit injection of humalog if needed to
cover carbs.
April 8th, 2004 at 9:46 pm
Hi R. Johnson,
The flip side of not eating is that you can lower your medications. So maybe
you could lose the humalog or lanuts or some of the glucophage and accept the
lower caloric/carb intake, yes? Works for me, anyway. As a chef you only have
to taste, you can taste, chew and spit if you have to. I’m not a chef, but I do
that when making high carb items for my grandkids since I don’t want the impact.
Consider yourself a wine taster who sniffs, sips and spits.
Bernstein talks about getting used to lower numbers. He often takes patients
from high levels to around 150 for a month or two and then reduces it from there
so they don’t feel like they are in hypo city all the time. I sometimes feel a
bit wierd in the head but I’m never low enough to be considered a hypo - it is
just my body accomodating. I rarely get as low as I’d like but I am a heck of a
lot better off that I was a month or six weeks ago when my BG’s were sometimes
in excess of 300.
I got past the sleepies on the 5 mcg in about 3 weeks, just in time to get them
all over again on the 10 mcg. :^p
I think you will find that YMMV regarding what you can eat. I do really well
with fats, others can’t tolerate them. I do well with high protein, others eat
grains, fruits and the like, which would spike my BG. I was prepared for
problems with fats after listening to the comments on the list, but it never
happened. I find that I do best with chicken and fish, have some digestion
problems with beef that is not ground or diced fine. I can eat spicy foods, but
no longer do well with insanely spicy foods in terms of mouth tolerance.
Cheers!
Marsha.