byetta and Insulin

[Jane2206]

currently on novarapid, glargine and metformin have lost nearly 12 stone in 2 years and haven;t had surgery !! very low carb and lots of exercise still 3 stone to go .....now have a prescription for byetta and due to see GP on Wednesday to start it Feel on edge of hysteria as don't do needles well and GP wants insulin to continue. I'm prepared to give it a go as I want to lose rest of weight and I need to balance insulin resistance with reasonable BM's. Wouls like to know anyone elses experience of combining it with insulin as all my internet searching clearly says it's not for use with insulin etc etc

 

[Dennis]

Hi Jane,

We do have a few people who are on an insulin and Byetta combination. Have a look at the thread "Anyone Use Byetta" in the Diabetes Discussions section. Because Byetta encourages your pancreas to produce insulin, and at an appropriate amount for what you have eaten, you should need a much lower dose of insulin than you have been taking in order to avoid an over-supply of insulin and resultant hypos. What seems to be the normal approach is to reduce the insulin initially by between a half and a third. But you will need to test at every meal in order to get the balance right.