Diabetes & Byetta

These are the things that really helped me understand Diabetes:

1. Diabetes for Dummies (book) No kidding! This book was really good
at laying out what Diabetes is and how to handle daily living. I
picked it up at Wal-Mart. I also picked up a little

2. Call you local hospital and see if they have a Diabetic Education
Class. My hospital offers a 4-week class every month. The info I got
there was EXCELLENT!!! (My insurance covered the class, but if you
don’t have insurance they will let you come for free. Give them a
call. They taught me how to use my meter, how to count carbs, what
diabetes does to the body, etc.)

3. Use your meter. Start out by taking your BS reading:
when you wake up

two hours after breakfast
before dinner
two hours after dinner
bedtime

Do that for a week or so and write down what you eat at the meals so
you can see what your food is doing to your BS. Your goal is staying
UNDER 120 BEFORE a meal and under 180 two hours after a meal. (Your
numbers will get better as you treat your diabetes, but that’s a
good start for a beginner.) When I say two hours AFTER a meal…I
mean two hours after your first bite of food.

4. If you use Byetta…take your shot and then BEGIN EATING within
one hour. If you go past an hour, you lose the value of the Byetta.
I have been reading on the internet and seems like most info says
that the best schedule is to begin eating 15 minutes after the shot
(for best results and lowest side effects.) BUT everyone is
different. See what works for you.

5. Diabetes Cookbook (ADA) Even if you don’t cook all that much,
read some diabetic cookbooks. They have a lot of info on how to make
simple changes in your eating that make a big difference.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 12:22 am 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.