Re: Anyone use Byetta?
Only just found this message board.
My wife has FPLDV (1)
My wife is on Byetta 5ug bd since Sep 07 as high doses of Insulin or Rosiglitazone with Metformin and Gliclazide did little to bring her bg below an average of about 16 mmol/l Even 96U daily of Insulin failed to have any impact (in fact this
raised her bg by about 2-3 mmol/l shortly after being administered.)
The nausea is a big problem initially at least, but its continued for even now to a lesser extent. She tried the 10ug bd but could not tolerate it. She may try again soon.
She has lost 35 lbs so far on this, but failed to lose weight on Accomplia.
One tip worth noting, and this was checked with her endo. is that Byetta is recommended to be injected 2 doses 12 hours apart, but if you read the P.I.L. it says not less than
6 hours apart so she has one injection about 7am and the other about 1pm which allows neatly for the requirement to "eat something" within an hour AFTER injection (NOT before).
Food taken can be something as simple as a bannana or biscuits and tea or whatever small snack you usually have, its only to give the stomach something to act on.
The 6/18 regimen for injections works well we find as it allows her to rest in the afternoon and then later in the evening allows her an "alert" phase of about 4-6 hours which helps maintain some quality of life, otherwise she would be completely worn out 24/7
The drugs active ingredient was isolated initially from the saliva of the Gila Monster Lizard, a venomous lizard from N America I believe. It was observed that once its prey was injected with its saliva it simply followed them until they collapsed, and ate them! Scientists wondered what the venom was but could not find any, but on examining the dead animals they found the bg was very very low, and thats what killed them. So its synthetic offshoot is now helping diabetic humans. Even more interestingly, I think, the Gila Monster can inject
itself with its own venom, not to kill itself, but to allow it to go
up to 12 months with no food, beat that Weightwatchers!
My wife's bg is now dropping down to single figures some days as the Byetta has its reputed theraputic long term effects as promised. It was down to 8 the other day, something thats not happened for years.
There have been episodes when her bg was off the scale (>33 mmol/l) on the meter but this we think was due to a combination of steroids and illness and antibiotics (she has COPD).
We now have a new meter that can upload the results onto the computer (which she cant use because of her other disabilites btw) and make pretty graphs for the GP/endo etc.
After trying just about all other treatments (including Accomplia and high fat diet etc etc) the Byetta seems to be the one that may just work, but its a long term thing, so dont be disheartened when your bg goes up temporarily (ie for a month or two maybe as it did for my wife).
If she was to stop the Byetta she would go back on the Avandia, which is even more expensive, so they are happy to keep her on it for now.
ian
Notes
(1)
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/co ... /26/5/1350
(My wifes information was given with permission)