Upset, Confused, Discouraged
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| Sat, 11-03-2007 - 7:37am |
So I have been doing Byetta for several days. Dealing with the headaches - yesterday I had none at all, so maybe that's an improvement - who knows.
My fasting numbers are still bad - but a little lower every day. Halloween has been bad - too much candy in the house - I got rid of bags of it yesterday. My A1C this week (before Byetta started) was 9.7 (YIKES). My fasting numbers were 240, 222, 202 this week - sucky, but coming down a little, right?
Anyway, I got pretty serious about carb counting the last few days. Yesterday I pretty much did 25 gms bfast, and 35 or less for both lunch and dinner. My glucose was at 184 2 hours after dinner. Again, not a desirable number, but beating the heck out of 240 - making me feel excited that maybe things were getting back in the direction of controlled.
I got up in the middle of the night due to back pain. I took 2 advil with 2 sips of caffeine-free diet pepsi. I thought - hey, let's test now. At 2am, my glucose was 164. I was pretty happy that it was still heading down - progress is progress.
So I went back to sleep.
My fasting this morning was 211.
HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN??? I promise you, between the 164 and the 211, the advil and diet pepsi (about 2 oaz at best) were all I had.
How am I ever going to get in control if my levels are going up overnight with no eating???




Wende,
What you saw was the effects of insulin resistance. Your body (namely your liver) got busy about 4am and turned fats into glucose and then you weren't able to use the insulin that you make to bring your blood sugar down to normal. The easiet way to control insulin resistance is with exercise. If that doesn't work then medication is needed. Usually doctors prescribe metformin and then Actos or Avandia. But normally metformin does the trick. Weight loss will also help.
When do you see your physician again? Make sure you bring your glucose diary with you when you go for your next appointment. I don't believe that Byetta has any effect on AM blood sugars. In others words, that is not what it is used for to treat.
Is Byetta the first medication prescribed for you?
I agree with our esteemable Mary Frances - get moving. Exercise will improve insulin resistance and get those morning numbers down. When I was first dxd earlier this year, my morning numbers were typically in the 130s and 140s. Now they're in the low 120s and declining as I get moving more (I'm currently doing 30 minutes/1 mile of walking per day 5 to 7 days per week on our home treadmill, that way I have no excuse like "it's raining" or "it's too cold") plus my overall results at other times of the day tend to be better - even if I get a slightly high reading after a meal (for instance), it tends to come right down a lot more quickly than it used to. It's not -staying- high as long which is a good thing.
--Deb
Hi Wende,
I have the same problem.
Give it time. My DH went through the same thing with Byetta and metformin. I think you said before that you are on metformin?
I also had the higher morning numbers before Byetta. I have been on it for over a year and I no longer have that problem. My numbers are always below 100 even after a meal I rarely go above 90, so there is hope.
Byetta does work on insulin resistance. It is one of the drugs used to treat PCOS. It will bring your morning numbers down, but it does take time and you may need to add another med in the mean time, KWIM?
Also, a long acting Byetta will be available in 2008 (I think) which is one shot per week. It works even better at keeping your liver from over producing glucose at night.
I also agree with the other posters...get moving. I race walk for close to an hour on most days and it really does help. The dawn effect is difficult to overcome, but Byetta will treat it. My DH takes his metformon ER at night before bed...I know this has helped others bring down their morning numbers also.
Hang in there. You will get better.