BYETTA

[KurvZ]

Hmmm I will have to monitor things closer for the start and see how I get on with it , thanks for reply and sorry I posted in wrong place again Dave

 

[cyberil]

G-d bless the Gila Monster

I found this blog tonight sitting up in bed too petrified to sleep in case my sugars drop too low. 24 hours ago I started on 5mg of Byetta. My average sugars had been 12-15 for over two years and now I'm at 6. All I can say is "G-d bless the Gila Monster".

I still can't believe it.

Paul

 

[Eiche]

Just a quick Byetta question

Byetta is meant to be taken within 60 minutes before your 2 main meals, but as it makes me feel VERY nauseous, my DN told me to take it 20 minutes before my main meals, which works fine for me. My question is this, when you take your dose, and your time calculation is way off as cooking dinner has taken longer then expected because of something that came up or whatever, and now the time is 1 hour 30 minutes since I took my dose, will it still work or have I wasted the effectiveness of my medication?

 

[cugila]

Re: Just a quick Byetta question

Byetta is meant to be taken within 60 minutes before your 2 main meals, but as it makes me feel VERY nauseous, my DN told me to take it 20 minutes before my main meals, which works fine for me. My question is this, when you take your dose, and your time calculation is way off as cooking dinner has taken longer then expected because of something that came up or whatever, and now the time is 1 hour 30 minutes since I took my dose, will it still work or have I wasted the effectiveness of my medication?

It is designed to be at peak effectiveness by taking it as per the manufacturers instruction, within the 60 minutes prior to your two main meals each day. If you take it outside of those parameters it may well be that it is not as efficient. That is what the manufacturers state.......

What I do is take Byetta immediately before my meal, wherever I am, around 5 mins before eating when the food is ready. That suits me and I have no nausea at all doing this. If at a restaurant or similar then if that means injecting when the food arrives ......so be it ! Takes only a minute.

What you should do if you find your meal is delayed is just eat something, a bread roll, even a biscuit, within the time constraints as it needs food to start working efficiently. BYETTA signals the pancreas to make the right amount of insulin after you eat. It acts like the natural hormones in your body that help prevent high blood sugar after meals, which helps lower your blood sugar closer to normal. It also stops the liver from making too much glucose when your body does not need it, especially after meals. It also slows down how quickly food and glucose leaves the stomach and so helps to prevent high Bg levels after you eat.

So that hour time frame is important.......

 

[Eiche]

Re: Just a quick Byetta question

It is designed to be at peak effectiveness by taking it as per the manufacturers instruction, within the 60 minutes prior to your two main meals each day. If you take it outside of those parameters it may well be that it is not as efficient. That is what the manufacturers state.......

What I do is take Byetta immediately before my meal, wherever I am, around 5 mins before eating when the food is ready. That suits me and I have no nausea at all doing this. If at a restaurant or similar then if that means injecting when the food arrives ......so be it ! Takes only a minute.

What you should do if you find your meal is delayed is just eat something, a bread roll, even a biscuit, within the time constraints as it needs food to start working efficiently. BYETTA signals the pancreas to make the right amount of insulin after you eat. It acts like the natural hormones in your body that help prevent high blood sugar after meals, which helps lower your blood sugar closer to normal. It also stops the liver from making too much glucose when your body does not need it, especially after meals. It also slows down how quickly food and glucose leaves the stomach and so helps to prevent high Bg levels after you eat.

So that hour time frame is important.......

Thanks so much for clearing that up for me! I have had incidences when I injected just prior to eating and had no ill effects because of it, but noticed that if the time period was overshot, my glucose readings were higher then within the allotted time *note to self* wait for dinner to be served before injecting

 

[topcatt53]

Just wanted to report my progress having had some my latest test results back HBA1C down to 6.2/44mmol and cholesterol is 4.8 plus lost over 10 kilos - still have to see GP because of some of the other test results but boy am I pleased with what BYetta is achieving for me!! Wish everyone a very Happy Easter and don't eat too much chocolate!

 

[cugila]

That's great news TC. A very Happy Easter to you too.........

 

[wilma08]

i am on glucophage 500mg thats all i can take insulin 20units bt ant byetta 5units x2 but i was sent a letter from the consultant saying it was not licensed to be used with insulin , but the outcomes have been great .
i am from scotland so this seems different from south of the border :?

 

[KurvZ]

Hi Just a Update Happy Easter all , I moved up to the 10MG of Byetta last Sunday still no side effects apart from feeling a little sick now and then ..

My diet is spot on I know have lost 3 stone in weight since the beginning of march , and I'm sure a lot of that is down to the Byetta ..

I regulated my eating to 3 times aday Breakfast Lunch and Diner , and oh yeah a slice of bread or toast at 9:00 to see me through the night ..

In General I'm feeling great , and looking forward to my next Blood test results from the Doctors ..

As I have was prescribed Byetta from day one I cant say what life was like without it , but im sure glad Im taking it at the moment

Dave

 

[cugila]

i am on glucophage 500mg thats all i can take insulin 20units bt ant byetta 5units x2 but i was sent a letter from the consultant saying it was not licensed to be used with insulin , but the outcomes have been great .
i am from scotland so this seems different from south of the border :?

It's actually quite common now in many parts of the UK and not peculiar to Scotland. Many Consultants or GP's are routinely using Insulin with Byetta in an 'off licence' role. This is because of the great results with the combination therapy. I was once offered it as an adjunct to Byetta when having anti-Cancer treatment because my Bg levels were all over the place. I persevered and managed to get the levels back down without the use of Insulin. That was around 12-18 months ago.

 

[peecee]

Just a quick update on my previous post about contamination in my Byetta pen, after several weeks i recieved a reply from Eli Lilly, the contamination has been confirmed as small pieces of the rubber bung (septum), which can break off when screwing on a needle. So keep checking your pens and discard if any contamination is noticed.
Phillip

 

[cugila]

Just a quick update on my previous post about contamination in my Byetta pen, after several weeks i recieved a reply from Eli Lilly, the contamination has been confirmed as small pieces of the rubber bung (septum), which can break off when screwing on a needle. So keep checking your pens and discard if any contamination is noticed.
Phillip

Thanks for the update Phillip. Will keep an eye on my own but must admit after over 2 yrs had no problems......

 

[iwtrucker]

Hello to everyone,
I'm a new Byetta user of 3 days and having read all 132 pages of this post I still have a question ,When should I take my other medication as well as the byetta?
At the moment I am on the 5 pen twice daily as well as 1X80mg Gliclazide twice daily and 1X850mg 3 times daily and 1X 40mg simvistatin daily.
I'm lucky not to suffer side effects with any of the other medication so I can take them any time during the day and would like to take them so that they are maximum effective. Having been taking Byetta for 3 days now ( I know it's very early days) Nothing has changed regarding blood sugar readings,...over 10 mmol no matter what time of day I test which at the moment is 6 times a day.
So I'd like to help myself by making sure I get to take all medication at the correct time.

Thanks,
Adam

 

[cugila]

Hi Adam.
Well done on getting through all the pages........ Welcome to the Forum as well.

When you were prescribed Byetta you should have been told how to take any medications you are on if there was any way that the Byetta would interfere with them. In general terms this is from a PIL (Patient Information Leaflet) about taking other medication :

Tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. BYETTA slows stomach emptying and can affect medicines that need to pass through the stomach quickly. BYETTA may affect the way some medicines work and some other medicines may affect the way BYETTA works.

Especially tell your healthcare provider if you take:
• insulin, or any other anti-diabetes medicines.
• birth control pills that are taken by mouth (oral contraceptives).
BYETTA may lower the amount of the medicine in your blood from your birth control pills and they may not work as well to prevent pregnancy. Take your birth control pills at least one hour before
your injection of BYETTA. If you must take your birth control pills with food, take it with a meal or snack where you do not also take BYETTA.
• an antibiotic. Take antibiotic medicines at least one hour before taking BYETTA. If you must take your antibiotic with food, take it with a meal or snack where you do not also take BYETTA.
• warfarin sodium (Coumadin®, Jantoven®).
• a blood pressure medicine.
• a water pill (diuretic).
• a pain medicine.
• lovastatin (Altoprev®, Mevacor®, Advicor®).

Speaking personally I never took Metformin, Gliclazide or my Statin at anything other than the normal times. Had no problems with that and it was what my Endocrinologist recommended I do.

Regarding your highish levels.....it is very early days and in any case, I found that dietary adjustments also helped reduce Bg levels more quickly than just the Byetta alone.
If you are not sure then please discuss with your own GP.

 

[Jude]

Hello everyone

I am back - on Byetta that is. Having started on Humalog 25 last November my HBA1C has come down but my weight has gone back up. So, seen the Consultant today and he has prescribed Byetta for me to take alongside the insulin hoping it will help with weight loss again. Am not looking forward to the persistant nausea but really need to lose the weight which the insulin has piled back on. :wink:

 

[janet holland]

hi - i am about to start using byetta and seem to find a lot of conflicting information about it. I think I was offered it because i have put a lot of weight on since taking metformin six months ago. would appreciate any comments from current users - like did it help with weight control???

 

[cugila]

hi - i am about to start using byetta and seem to find a lot of conflicting information about it. I think I was offered it because i have put a lot of weight on since taking metformin six months ago. would appreciate any comments from current users - like did it help with weight control???

Hi
Welcome to the Forum.

You will find plenty of information about Byetta in this thread from those of us that use the drug, good bad and indifferent. Personally all good as far as I am concerned. Does everything it says it will and has turned my life around.

Lost over 5½ stone, Bg levels all well within targets and life so different now. Full of energy, vitality. Was previously on max doses of Gliclazide and Metformin now only on half dose of Met daily and NO Gliclazide. After 2 yrs on the drug I have also had to reduce back down from the 10ug dose to 5ug.....

All looking good and hope to stop the Metformin soon......which is another thing, Metformin is not recognised as a weight gain drug, in fact quite the opposite in some people. Usually it is diet that causes the weight gain.......especially if you have been following the NHS/DUK advised diet ? I see you have another introductory thread I or somebody will post our advice which we hand out to newly diagnosed Diabetic's (some not so new as well). That information may be of help to you........

 

[janet holland]

Thanks for the reply - yeah been following so many diets in the past few years and none seemed to work - think i was probably a diabetic long before i was diagnosed - which may have contributed to weight gain - need to lose 5 stone so keeping fingers crossed. been reading the threads and found them really useful - thankyou everyone

 

[cugila]

Yep.....I followed the NHS/DUK trail for over 10 yrs before I realised it was that diet that was putting my weight on me and making my diabetes and many other things worse.......reducing carbohydrates together with a low GI and low GL diet worked fantastically well for me but everybody has to work out their own path to better Diabetes control and if needed weight loss, everybody is different.

I have given you mine and Sue's advice in the other thread to save cluttering up this one.

 

[Jude]

Hello Janet

I was on Byetta for 15 months and lost 14 kilos which was absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately it did not bring my numbers down enough and last November my diabetes nurse put me on an insulin mix (it is a combination of a rapid & medium lasting insulin) and my HBA1C has come down but all my weight has gone back on!! (story of my life!). Anyway, last week I managed to get back to see the Consultant at the hospital and he has put me back on the Byetta alongside the insulin to see if it will help me lose some of this unwanted weight.
Diet wise I have struggled very much because I also have chronic IBS and the best diet for that is carbohydrates but too many carbs seem to make the diabetes worse, so I have quite a task on my hands but I feel a bit more positive again now that I am back on Byetta - and so far not too bad on the nausea.
This forum is the place to get the best support - we are all in this together! :wink: Jude