Byetta 19: Discussion Forum for the week of April 16
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john h
I think the shot works better in the thigh, but i find a weird satifaction sticking it right in the belly fat I am trying to lose. I have had several “bleeds” in the abdomen, my blood vessles must be close to surface.
Toni and Eileen: Yes, I use the pen beyond 30 days. I’ve found that it’s good for about 36 days or so. In other words, they load it for about 70 injections more or less to cover priming. Over the last 9 months, I’m up to almost 2 pens ahead. That way, I don’t have to worry if I mess up and leave it out too long. I have an extra…YIPPEE!!!!
Hi,
I live in Canada and am desperate to get on Byetta as it probably is the only hope to get my BS under control- have tried every type of oral and insulins- nothing working great. My problem is Byetta is not approved in Canada yet. My specialist is trying to get it for me under compassionate grounds. Do you guys know if I went to the USA and bought it there would I be able to take it over the border? Any info would be much appreciated!
Just starting
Saturday I start Byetta. Wondering how it will affect my afib meds, but my eye doctor said after the last exam (last month) that it was time to take getting numbers under control seriously.
So, I will.
Of course I hate needles anyway, but this sounds better than insulin and the weight loss prospects won’t hurt either. (I had rabies shots as a kid and the draft doctors many years ago couldn’t find a vein but kept trying seven times before giving up.)
Will be following others here and hope to post my own good results soon.
Dave in Tucson (soon moving to El Paso)
michjen re: pens
Because the pens are still sealed, you might call your prescribing doc’s office and see if they can provide them to needy patients as trial pens. Nice to “pay it forward” if you can…
Okay folks, how long do I wait before I call my endo and tell him Byetta isn’t working–or atleast not working well. Im still on Avandia and Metaformin and have been using the 5 pen since Monday. Blood sugars are wacky and high–over 200 before lunch after a bowl of Cherios for breakfast. 250 at night three to four hours after a light dinner. Fasting at 170 or higher.
These numbers are much higher than with my old orals–including Prandin and Glyset and I am not happy walking around with 200 plus BS.
I know it’s only been five days but….
Len
Len
Call him when you want to call him. I went in high and out of control 200s-300s. It took until the 3rd week of #10 to begin to come down to the 100s. I still haven’t seen anything lower than a couple of 102s.
I have lost a pound. I am going to stick it out as long as I can. My last A1C was a 10, I will see what my next one is for sure in May. I think it will be below 7, we shall see.
It is your choice, I say it is too soon.
I just started double injecting the 5 two times on Thursday. WIll be seeing the endo on 5/4 and since this is a pretty new pen, I expect to have enough spit to get me through. I called his office to tell them what I am doing- I have not had good results with the 5 and appetite supression wasn’t on the 5 anymore so, at this point, I feel almost like when I first started the spit on 5 two times in mid January. I hope this dosage will work steadily as I do not want to take anymore than 10 twice daily. THe only hitch is that I prefer to inject around the waistline and I’m getting a belt of black and blues around the front. Maybe I’ll glue some diamonds there for a little bling LOL!
Welcome to Len and Dave and Debbie and Michjen!
Len, if you aren’t getting results from the byetta pretty quickly, it’s not working for you. There could be a couple of reasons — The pen you have could be dead, or you may need a higher dose than 5mcg, or your body may not be producing enough insulin for the byetta to work for you. You really need to call your endo right way.
Dave in Tucson (I’m in Tucson too), I don’t think the Byetta injections are as bad as the finger sticks.
KAT RE: SHIPPING BYETTA
As many others said the mail order pharmacy option isn’t too bad. I don’t get my Byetta that way but my wife gets two other meds that have to be kept cool that way. In almost 5 years of doing this we’ve only ever had two times that were near problems. Once weather held shipments so it took two days and another time it was just the lunkhead delivery company that got the package in our local area but didn’t deliver it for an extra day. Both times the polar packs inside were nearly melted but still good enough for the med. When it does get here overnight they are just fine. I think its an okay option but just know that sometime there is going to be a three day delivery that will be ruined. We’ve come close but so far have avoided it.
DAVE IN TUCSON RE: WELCOME
Welcome Dave and best of luck to you on Byetta. I hope it works even half as well for you as it has for me and you will be well pleased. Let us know how it goes for you.
I was surprised that the injection didn’t feel like a shot. Actually didn’t feel anything but a smooth sliding in of the needle.
I hope I don’t have the morning side effects since I’m starting a neew job in El Paso in a week. I’ll be trying some of the tricks I’ve seen here over the last couple of week. Just ate breakfast and hope I don’t get ill. My fasting blood surgar was 183 this morning which is a little bit low for me lately. Maybe that is a good sign that some of this mental, too.
I never would have gone ahead and done this without the insights I’ve gotten from reading this blog. I know I have to do this and with the help here, it will be easier.
David,
I must say that this forum is what made me decide to not ignore my sugar any more. My Doc told me about monster slobber and I thought “Nope…no injections” and I have been afraid of the pill problems. Reading here about the good results and general “not as scary as you would have thought” finally got me to decide on doing byetta. Posts here have also helped me be willing to go on metaformin (is that right?) if the doc says so….my wife is much happier now that I have come around….thanks folks…I probably owe you a couple of years of life.
JohnH
I find the pen injections to be so much less painful and more convenient than using insulin needles. Unfortunately, I am still on 30 units of Lantus once a day so I take three injections instead of one. The shorter needles that came with the starter packs were really nice, but my endo prescribed the longer needles for me. Still not so bad.
PEN LIFE
TONI in CALIFORNIA
Yes, I’ve found that out with expiration dates for many things. My concern was if I continued to use only one injection of 10 and one of 5 each day I’d be extending the use of each pen to 60 days.
MARK in MISSOURI
Thank you. I too found that method very easy. At first turning the pen while the needle was still inserted sounded gross! But actually doing it was a breeze.
HI TIM SLIM!!
Oh dear, y’think 36 days, huh? Could I ask how your arrived at that number? If I continue with 10 b4 breakfast and 5 b4 dinner I’m looking at using each pen for 60 days. Hopefully I’ll be able to use big brother at dinner time soon.
DONNA & INJECTING AT WAISTLINE
unless your bellybutton is above your waistline you need to inject in a different place. Injections should never be at the waist line. No closer than 2 inches either side or below the bellybutton. Sorry about the diamonds. hahaha
Just began Byetta last night but did call the hotline to ask two questions. You need to eat WITHIN the hour of taking the shot – so you can eat one minute after the shot and up to 60 minutes.
You can leave the pen out for 6 days during the month – I believe 6 days straight at room temp up to 77 degrees. I can’t remember how many hours this is – 144? So in a pinch – I can be out during the day and go out to dinner and not have to fridge the thing.
I have so far experience very slight nausea – nothing major but LOTS of belching! Tell me the belching goes away! I took some Protonix and have eaten some crystallized ginger but nothing is helping.
I am just praying that this works for me – I am running out of options.
I get the SMALLEST, THINEST needle I can find and I almost never feel the shot with these. Anything longer and I am in pain everytime. Stopped using Lantus – thank god – that needle was killing me!
Thanks for this great forum!
Well folks I hate to be a pest, but you all have been so helpful I must relay my frustration. My BG has just gone through the roof in the past week. I wrote earler about having a breakfast of a hard boiled egg, 3 oz. of salmon on some (3) flatbread crackers. After exercising my Bg went from 143 to 333. Someone here suggested that I wasn’t eating enough carbs for the spit to work. I just had pretty much the same breakfast, but this time with 1/2 a rye bagle (no exercise). this time BG went from 121 to 363. Now after reading the latest comments I am wondering if my pen is working, because as I look back, these real high after meal numbers coincide with starting this pen. Can someone give me some help. Is it what I’m eating or is it the pen? I was hoping for an inproved A1c when I see my endo early next month, but at this rate I don’t thing I’m going to see it.
Beth in az
thanks glad to here your new pen worked for you hope mine does Tue. hope
you guys that had these problems was your lot number as my last two dead 10 pens number 9sc15m
maybe most of that batch was dead
Jeanie in md sounds like yours is dead to check you lot number
Linny
One doc told me even two hours after the injection is ok. You may get more appetite suppressing that way., my problem is PORTION control but not anymore Byetta has done the trick for me. I usually do eat right away tho.
Symethacone(sp) works for the belching GasEX or a house brand. I inject, take the capsule and very little burping. If i don’t take the gas pill I could compete w/ the truckers(no offense people).
LINNY RE: BELCHING
Linny, just get yourself a Harley, put on some black leathers and either you’ll just seem to be in character when you belch or else nobody will dare say anything to you about it….
For me it seemed to diminish as time went on but there are still times when it just has to be. In fact depending on what you eat it might seem that you are getting nauseous but then if you can bring up that belch its almost instant relief. So its just one of those things that you have to do. Everyone around you that knows you will understand, if they seem disturbed explain it to them. Anyone that doesn’t know you and is offended, well it doesn’t matter anyway right?
Just tell everyone that you were raised in a country where after the meal belching is a compliment to the chef. So just let fly and then announce ‘My compliments to the chef!’. (Actually I think I saw that in a movie but can’t remember which one…)
Eileen in Michigan,
Tim and I were talking about using ONE pen for as long as it will go, which is about 8 to 10 extra shots. When it is empty it just stops and you can’t inject or turn the knob.
As for the sixty days, Tim must be going near that if he only uses at work once a day. Also, the pens seem to have a pretty far out expiration date, like 18 months or so.
Were you thinking of always staying on ten and five and not ever going to the ten for both shots?
Jeanne in Maryland,
It sounds like a bad pen to me, I had one on my first ten and since I never did get nausea, the only way I could tell was that the BG numbers went back up to where they were pre-Byetta. As soon as I got a new pen(which I paid for out of pocket because it was too soon for the insurance to pay for another) my numbers went down the next day! It was well worth the money as I didn’t want to try to hassle with the insurance co. or wait for a voucher or blame the pharmacy for not keeping it cool.
michgen, The half-life of byetta is only 2.4 hours, so if you wait for 2 hours, it’s basically like taking half a dose. I doubt you’re going to get better appetite supression that way. Pat in ID
pat from az
Thanks, I learn more everyday. I usuually do eat right away but will get to it within the hour for sure from now on.
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