Diabetes & Byetta

Hi,

I am a new member here and I just thought I would introduce myself.
First off thank you for having this forum. It has already been very
helpful to me
My name is Tammie, I am 45 and I have T2 Diabetes and IR. The way I
came about my diagnosis is interesting, so please bare with mel I
have other health issues that until a few years ago were little known
and they are linked to IR. The main issuse is a condition known as
Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) Simply put, it means you have boil like
lesions in odd places like the underarms, the breast, the groin, the
buttocks and other places. these lesions are very very painful and
sometimes get to the size of softballs. I have it severly and have
had to have many surgiers to remove areas. It also causes cellulitis,

a secondary skin infection that can be dangerous. For more on HS,
visit www.hs-usa.org

At anyrate, a wonderful who speacializes in PCOS listed HS as a
symptom of PCOS and went on to explain IR. I ended up befriending
him and he explained that PCOS and IR go hand in hand. I have a
strong family history of diabetes and my mother was a T1 Insulin
dependant diabetic who struggled for years and eventually passed on
due to all the complications that occur due to diabetes ( heart
failure, kidney failure, diabetic retinopathy, the whole nine yards

Once I finally got a dr to do an HBA1C test on me, it was determined
I was IR. I could’t get a dr to do the testing for four years! and
everytime they tested for diabetes, they didn’t do a full glucose
tolerance, but a simple finger prick test that determined I wasn’t
diabetic ( Yeah right) It took a while longer to get them to do a
full glucose tolerance test.

So, I began treating for IR in order to try to get my health back
and maybe help the HS (which i am on disability for) and did OKAY for
a while, but within six months of the IR diagnois, I tested positive
for Diabetes. I stayed on Metformin only and did okay with it, but
it was a struggle.

I heard about Byetta from another HS person whose dr had atteneded a
medical conference and put her on byetta from the info he received.
She called me after about six months on Byetta and told me about her
new treatment and how it helped her so much. So I went to my dr who
was a bit ambivilent about it as she was not real familiar with it
and she finally relented and said OKAY, I will let you try it. That
was in October. Since then, I have went on to lose 56 lbs! I didn’t
have any major side effects, a bit of naseua, and I have to eat
within the hour after the shot, but otherwise okay.

In the meantime, I ended up with L-4, L5, S1 Disc herniations in the
lower lumbar and totally compressed sciatica and DDD with stress
fractures in the lowerback as well. I wasn’t able to walk
unassisted, I could not sit at all due to the pain, even using the
restroom was a tramatic and painful experience. I wasn’t able to get
to the kitchen to make meals so was skipping them, and had to go off
the byetta for a few months as you can’t skip meals, and be on that
med. I have recently begun a series of spinal injections to get the
pain undercontrol and get me somewhat mobile again and so I am back
on the Byetta and loving it : )

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and let you all know that I
appreciate this group and the posts I have read so far. Hope I get
to know you all better and I look forward to the support and
education on byetta.

Tammie

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.