FOR GREAT PRICES ON SYRINGES AND OTHER DIABETIC NEEDS SEE THE MEDICAL SUPPLY SHOPPE ON AMAZON.COM! ________________________________________________________________ If you put a bunch of monkeys in a room full or typewriters, the saying goes, eventually they'll write Shakespeare. I guess nowadays its a room full of computers running MS Word. The idea is, even random action eventually produces useful results.In the spirit of that, I think I accidentally, through dumb luck, hit on some important points all Byetta users need to hold close to their haerts. Through the miracle of copy'n'paste, here they are: Yesterday, Lindap wrote to me in a comment: "I'm still hungry with no loss of appetite. Do you think it will happen when I move to 10mcg?" I answered: "I don't know. Everyone's a little different the way they react. What I do is eat a Glucerna bar or drink a Glucerna shake for breakfast and lunch. Sometimes I supplement the Glucerna with a little fruit. You feel pretty satisfied with that on Byetta. Then enjoy a nice dinner, but if you eat a lot you really feel it, so you gotta watch the portions or you can feel sick for an hour or two after eating. The thing about Byetta is, it makes you feel full sooner, so you eat less. It's enabled me to naturally learn when I start to feel full, stop eating. What a concept! I used to stuff myself because the insulin resistance of Type 2 makes you unable to sense that fullness until you've overeaten. Now, there's always lots of left over's in the fridge and sometimes we have to throw stuff away, but it's a much healthier lifestyle. Maybe you need to try the five small meals a day thing that some diabetics do. The dietitions and certified diabetes educators don't seem to have any answers, we civilians have to figure this out for ourselves. Work with it, girl, you can do it! That Byetta pen is no magic wand, but it's damn close! Ciao!" That's the key. We Type Two-ers get into this vicious cycle. The insulin resistence of Type 2 prevents you from feeling full until you're totally stuffed, so you tend to eat more, increasing your weight, compounding the diabetes, raising your blood sugar, and so on. It's a downward spiral. The Byetta changes the way things happen in your gut so that you feel full much sooner, and tend to eat less. So now you tend to lose weight instead of gain, your blood sugar drops, insulin resistence decreases, and you're in an upward spiral toward good health. I guess all of this is in teh Byetta literature and on Amylin's web site, but it has just suddenly become clear to me. I feel like I finally "get it". Hope this is helpful to all of you. Hey, I just figured out how to use those stupid, little emoticons they put at the bottom of your screen on the blog page. Whatever the heck HTML means, it let's you use those emoticons, so here's some smiley faces for all of you. I know, you young ones are probably laughing your heads off at me, but when you're 57 this computer crap can seem awfully overwhelming. Anyway.......... Ciao Bambinos! Greg

Sorry Ginny, I can't find your comment in any of the threads, so I'll have to answer you with a general post. Something went wrong with the way I'm logged on to this system. I get an e-mail notice with the full text of the comment every time someone posts a comment on the blog. There's a blue "REPLY" button with the notice that used to take me straight to the comment so I could reply right underneath it, but that stopped working. At 57, I'm too old for this computer shit to figure out what's wrong. I'm no expert at buying stock, but I have a few small investments with Fidelity and bought Amylin stock through their stock brokerage. You can buy stocks on line real easy. I once bought a little stock through www.sharebuilder.com. You have to send them the money first, once they have it you then go on their website, log into your account and execute the 'buy' order. Then you can sell it the same way when it goes up (hopefully). Just google 'stock market' and you'll get about a bazillion hits from on-line brokers like the aforementioned sharebuilder.com. I bought Amylin at $34, I think its up to $44 now. Of course it's just high class gambling, it goes down too. I'd say Vegas is more fun because you can smoke cigars and drink booze while you're gambling, you can't do that in your broker's office. But I get no kick out of cards, or dice or slots. I'm not even into gambling on the stock market, but Amylin was crying to be bought, considering how well Byetta works for so many people. Give it a go Ginny, good luck with it, I hope you make a good buck! Ciao! Greg

Hi, I'm new to this list. <> I am thinking about going on Byetta butt...I have two concerns: 1) Has anyone had any bad side effects (I've read a lot of the entries, I gather nausea, stomach upset, and burning are normal) over the long haul of using Byetta. <>>I work in a law office that handles a lot of pharmaceutical liability cases. I know way too much about side effects that aren't mentioned in by the manufacturers of drugs. Had a personal experience with Lipitor <<>> and all statins so I don't use any of those (my doctor is a bit upset about it, but I'm using vitamins and minerals to control cholestral). Anyway, before I get off my Avandemet which has done wonders to keep my sugar down, I am looking around the internet to see if anyone has had some truly bad experiences with Byetta that the mfg hasn't included in their literature.<<>> 2) After you lose the weight you need, do you go off Byetta or stay on it? <<>>>> Does your weight lose level out and/or does your diabetes no longer have to be controlled with medication because your weight is down. <<<<>> Ciao, Greg

Good luck with the Byetta. My morning fasting sugars weren't too bad, up in the 150's and 160's, so the Byetta really worked for me. Now my morning sugars are like 109, 112 up to the 120's if I had any starch the night before. (Yo, what I wouldn't give for a big, steaming plate of linguini with clam sauce, with garlic bread on the side). But even if your doc is right and your sugars are too high for the Byetta to do any good, remember, it cuts your appetite. I eat about 1/4 of what I used to eat. So you will probably lose weight, which will help overcome the diabetes. I sure hope this does it for you. Don't get discouraged if you get the nausea, it will pass after the first month or so. I hope it helps you to lose weight like it did for me, that will help bring your sugars down. Stick with it!