I do not care for food since the Byetta, take two or three bites of a
meal and have to stop. I bloat like I am pregnant. The food stays in
my stomach for too long also–acid reflux is a problem now. And the

injection site–abdomenal–stings like a bee-sting. I am also
freezing all the time and I never was cold before. I have not noticed
any weightloss yet. I certainly hope these side-effects go away soon.
I am exhausted and feel yucky all the time. I started Byetta after 6
months of ER visits and projectile vomitting and ‘aggressive’
diarrhea from metformin and it’s combinations. I was also RXd for
Glyburide and Avandia which I am not taking because of the Avandia
scare–I did start to have heart and PPH symptoms, and Glyburide is
on the Unsafe list of drugs for Porphyria but my doctor chooses to
ignore it. I did not see that they were helping anyway. Seems like 6
months is long enough to try something out and determine if it is
working or not.

My fasting glucose is between 140-180 no matter what I do, and even
on the Byetta -so far- it has not been any different. My post-
prandial is usually about 20 points lower than the fasting. To
prevent liver cancer (have had three family members with Porphyria
die of it in the last 10 years after being DXd with DM2 and
aggressive BG lowering) my blood glucose needs to be about 120-150 to
keep the Porphyria in check, but again this is something my doctor
chooses to ignore. As far as I know my BG was never above 280 at any
time before I ever even started on any diabetic medications. But I
had a Porphyria attack 3 years ago and had to go on Glucose Infusion
and my BG never came down to ‘normal’ again after the attack.

So here I am…and I do so hope I can adjust to this Byetta, I really
want it to work! But I also want to feel better again–tired of this
nausea.

One question for now—how do you take the Byetta before 2 larger
meals if you can’t eat?

Good for you to be taking it seriously! And the Byetta seems to be a miracle
drug!

I’m kind of a newbie. I was diagnosed 3 years ago but I never really controlled
my sugars besides taking my glucophage and actos daily. A month before starting
to take byetta I started keeping a log of my bs’s. It scared me, hardly ever
under 200 and usually closer to 300’s. I’ve been on byetta now for 3 weeks and I
have hope again. I get so excited seeing my numbers so low. It has sparked a
drive inside of me to take care of myself so that I can be around for my kids. I
have a long time since I in my early thirty’s. One question, what should be my
target BS level? What should I consider low or high? What is optimum level.

My doctor told me that the optimum fasting bg is now 90-99 per recent changes
in the ADA recommendations. According to what I have read, 70 is counted as a
very low bg.

Right now, my morning fasting bg runs between 120 and 130. Still working,
however, on getting it lower in the am. Of course, I get up pretty early so on
days I can sleep later (like 7 or 8 am) then my morning fasting totals are less.
During the day, I have better control and usually fall about 89-100. I don’t
like how I feel when I hit 100 but figure this too shall pass as it is my body
adjusting to the "normal" levels.

From what I understand, the ADA now considers 120 to 139 to be pre-diabetic
and anything over 140 diabetic. This is a change from 1999 when I went to the

doc and was told that at 140 I was pre-diabetic.

You should also ask, if you are not already on a blood pressure medicine,
about getting one. While you blood pressure may be fine, research is finding
that by keeping the bp low, you protect your kidney’s. These medicines are
called "ACE INHIBITORS".

If your bp is fine, you do have to monitor yourself so you don’t get dizzy. I
have had that happen a few times

Have a good one.

Melodie

Thanks for the chuckle, Pam!

What someone asked me, and I couldn’t answer, was how in the world some
researcher even THOUGHT of looking at lizard spit for a diabetic drug or
something related to it? Anyone?

(This is also the person who wonders who the first person was who was
brave enough to try eating a raw oyster - he doesn’t think they’re very
food-like, although I love ‘em ;@)

–

Andrea Frankel (andreafrankel at sbcglobal dot net)

"wake now! Discover that YOU are the song that the morning brings…"

The researcher’s name was John Eng. There’s a good article about him and his
Gila Monster research at
www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050429-9999-1b29amylin.html

Nancy