Follow-up: This past week, all of a sudden, my blood sugars dropped lower. I read something in the Blood Sugar 101website about timing of other diabetes meds in addition to Byetta which was really helpful. My oral meds [only Metformin and Januvia now] seemed to be doing nothing. Then I read this:
Byetta slows emptying of the stomach. Thus meds taken at the same time as the Byetta shot could be slowly dissolved in the stomach and prove to be less effective than intended. It is therefore wise to take meds at least an hour before or a couple of hours after injecting. This is especially true regarding metformin, which is frequently taken after a regular meal since it can cause an upset stomach. Please follow your doctor’s directions for medications that must be taken “with” food.
Wish my doctor had mentioned this timing issue.
I started waiting two hours after a shot before taking the oral meds. I also have stretched the time between Byetta injection and beginning eating to closer to the one hour limit and that has helped curb the appetite.
Along with eating less, I have stepped my cycling and exercise, feel great and have steadily lost weight: over 20 lbs in less than four months on Byetta.
It’s amazing how everyone’s body works differently. I take my Byetta 30 minutes or less before eating. lately I’ve moved my Metformin up from taking at bedtime to taking at dinner. I take my Levimier at 8pm every night. For the last week my sugar has not gone over 150 but most of the time I am under 115. I was having high’s at night before bedtime until I moved the metformin back. Last night my bedtime sugar was 95. This mornig it was 129. I’m very happy with the way things are working out. Right now I’ve got another medical issue that is causing some stress which could raise my BS, but that all should be resolved by the end of the month. Thanks again for your input.
Thanks for sharing this. I guess you start getting nauseous if you wait more than 30 minutes after your shot to start eating? Closer to 60 min. works for me, but as you say, everyone’s body works different,
I’ve been charting my numbers, and the last week was wonderful — that and the scale has started to move downward again [had hit a “plateau.”]
My doctor actually wants me to drop the Metformin — I though he was being a bit overoptimistic. He’s like really gung-ho on Byetta. When the numbers came tumbling down this week, I thought he might be onto something — he told me to be patient about the BG numbers. He’s very confident about Byetta.
I plan to still take the Metformin if my numbers run high — like now after my mother let me eat a small piece of cake. [Thanks, Mom.]
My eyes have been bothering me — blurred vision, I think, from all those high numbers these past months. Suddenly I WANT my reading glasses — they were optional before.
Thanks for responding to my post — really can’t talk to anyone else about this; they just don’t get it.
This is a great conversation thread and very helpful to me since I’ve just starting taking Byetta 2 weeks ago. I was hoping for instant results but haven’t seen anything different. My numbers have been steadily increasing and today they were over 300 when I woke up. I had pasta for dinner the night before because I read that eating carbs with Byetta helps but that doesn’t seem to be the case with me. I’m glad to learn that Byetta will work if you give it some time. So I’ll wait and see what happens. The one thing I’m thankful for is that I didn’t have any side effects, which is what I was really concerned about at first.
Byetta helps by increasing your bodies natural response to carbs that you eat. Hence it won’t help you reduce an already elevated blood sugar, only to amplify your bodies natural response when you eat. This does not mean that you have a license to go eat huge amounts of carbs. I have found that 20-30g are generally sufficient to initiate an insulin response and small enough to assure that I can be on target at 2 hours. My doctor recommended that I inject 1 hour before meal. I had spent my first 6 months injecting 15-30 minutes before eating with little benefit. My endo suggested 1 hour and I’ve seen some benefit.
Why are they saying it is new? I started in 2005 when it first came out. Lost a lot of weight without trying. Doctors take me off it I switch Doctors and now use it sparingly. People are right it loses it’s effectiveness especially as the pen ages. I take a double dose before dinner and it brings me down well. Exercise is key in all this though for me.
Oh and the other thing I wanted to say that the weight loss for me was only at the outset after first 6 months it stops helping you lose. I thought it was a miracle drug but then it came back down to earth, I have 5 pens to send back or donate somewhere as my use is marginal now.
I am also on Byetta - I have been on the 5 mcg dose, and I have been unable to tolerate the 10 mcg dose after a couple of tries. The best advice I was given was that inject and wait at least 30-40 mins before I eat, and also, when using Byetta make sure i eat at leat 30gm carbs (3 exchanges) with each Byetta injection. The Byett ahas helped my BG post prandially immensely as well as a 30 lb weight loss (along with diet and exercise).
Hi, Tony:
Forget the advise about carbs — pasta is a killer, advice from one Tony in SF to another. If you can limit it to one cup, you’re okay, say like a side order. Protein and veggies are really more of what’s required, especially a very small amount of protein at bedtime to prevent the “dawn effect” from occurring. It takes me literally days to get my numbers back in range after a pasta dinner. It just cannot be the main course any more for me. I’m finding that the use of Byetta causes me to eat smaller meals. I never used to be a person to take a doggie bag home from a restaurant. Now it seems it’s rare that I can finish an entire restaurant meal. Oh, and forget bread too. I’d rather give up bread than a little pasta from time to time. My health coach told me her husband got his A1c down under 7 [down from over 9] simply by eliminating bread entirely from his diet. We’ll have to see about that. The real secret is much less food. And, ugh, exercise. Good luck to you.
