Wednesday, March 3, 2010

My Journey - Starting on Byetta

Byetta has been a drug on the market for several years now, normally prescribed for Type II diabetics in conjunction with other diabetes medication(s). One of the heavily promoted benefits touted by its makers is a side effect of weight loss, which has intrigued people who are not diagnosed with diabetes, but who are struggling with their weight. Does it work by itself? Does it work for non-diabetics? In doing some research about this drug, I could only find one study completed with this drug that involved obese non-diabetics.

I am a 32 year old obese and insulin-resistant, pre-diabetic woman (about 50 pounds overweight). I am not officially diagnosed with diabetes, although many doctors I have seen love this drug for its weight loss effects. So...I figure...why not check it out and see if it's all that it's cracked up to be? I am hoping that my findings on this, good or bad, will be helpful for others in deciding whether or not Byetta is a right choice for them.

I am NOT affiliated in any way, shape, or form with Byetta, the makers of Byetta, etc...with this site or outside of this site. I am a geniune person, who is interested in: 1) losing weight (obviously) to be a healthier person; and 2) seeing if Byetta is truly "all that" and the wonder drug some doctors promote it to be.

In being overweight, I obviously struggle with my weight. I do not overeat, I try to eat lower glycemic foods, I am vegetarian, and I have exercised my BUTT off to make the scale budge. It hasn't...not one pound. As a teenager and in my early twenties, I was a small size (just under most size 4s) and weighed 110 lbs at 5'4". I gained weight suddenly (40+ lbs in under six months) several years back, of which I'll blog more about in greater detail later, no doubt. I am hoping that Byetta will jump start some weight loss and retrain my body to let go of some friggin' FAT. :)

I try my best to drink 100 oz of water daily, and plan on doing so throughout my experiment. I am not drinking any alcohol, and my caffeine intake is limited to 1-2 cups a day of coffee. No sodas, diet sodas, juice, milk, or any other liquids except water (mostly from my reverse-osmosis filter tank, which I LOVE). I might try to cut out caffeine again at some point during this "trial", but I have noticed that my weight doesn't budge whether or not I am on a little caffeine (so long as it's in moderation), so I figure I probably won't sweat it.

I have already started on this a few days ago, so I will post my results below:

DAY ONE

I get the pen out and get it ready, grab a roll from my abdomen (uuughhh), and then freeze in fear, staring at the needle. I’m petrified that this is going to hurt in some way, and I keep hovering the needle above my skin, trying to convince myself that it’s going to be OK, and then freak out. It’s completely ridiculous. My husband enters the room and asks what the problem is, and I tell him that I’m a wuss.

Don’t get me wrong, the needle is TINY. I’ve had to prick my fingers before to test blood sugars after meals, and I have to say that those are WAY worse and by far much more painful than this. I think it was just the IDEA of sticking myself, so I made my husband stick me. :D He was rolling his eyes – kept asking how on earth I got through two major surgeries the past year (will blog more on that later) and yet I’m scared of this tiny little bit o’ nothing.

I couldn’t even feel it, so no, it does NOT hurt.

I waited about 45+ minutes after the shot to eat. All I ate was a moderately sized leafy green salad with veggies and a pinch of homemade dressing (very low fat), and a teeny tiny pinch of shredded cheese. By the time I ate, I was starting to feel really nauseous, and once I started eating, the nausea went away. Briefly.

The rest of the night before bed, I was feeling pretty sick and wondering what on earth I was doing to myself. The nausea was pretty bad, but there again, I’ve had worse. I didn’t throw up (although it felt like I probably could if I wanted to prod it a little further), however.

I felt a little woozy in the hours after the shot, and felt yucky enough that I needed to just crawl into bed. I eventually fell asleep, and despite the nausea, I was able to sleep all night with no problems. In the back of my mind, I knew I was NOT going to be able to continue taking this if I feel that bad each and every time I get my dosage. No way.

02/27/10

DAY TWO

I awoke this morning with a pretty good appetite – as though I could eat a pretty good meal. I no longer had any nausea, nor any ill effects from last night. Feeling pretty good. I debated skipping the dose, but then figured that I would try again, just to see. I “stuck” myself, and then waited about 10 minutes or so. I nibbled on a pinch of cheese and from a recommendation from the internet, snacked on 2 crackers. I had the intent on eating more, but I didn’t feel like it after that.

I was afraid that the nausea would return, but it really didn’t – at least, not much to speak of. Certainly not as bad as last night, so I was happy. A couple of hours later, I noticed that it feels like my stomach is full. It feels like the small amount of food I ate was just still sitting there in my stomach. I can only imagine how horrible it would feel if I ate a large breakfast or something along those lines, as this feels a little uncomfortable as it is.

I am feeling a little tired, so I’m going to take a short nap. Have a minor headache (not bad enough to take medicine for or anything like that), so I’m hoping the nap will help. Not sure if it’s allergies, lack of caffeine intake today (a very likely culprit), or the Byetta – or a combo of all three. Nevertheless, I am encouraged that last night seems to be a one-time thing, and maybe not waiting so long after the shot to eat was the key.

Debating whether or not to take the night dose. If I am still not feeling too hungry by dinnertime, I won’t. Maybe sticking to once a day might be sufficient, especially since I’m not full-blown diabetic. If I’m feeling starving by dinner, then I’ll take it again.

Good plan.

This afternoon, I awoke from my nap, and had a little lunch (vegetarian chili – a medium to small sized serving) around 1:30 pm or so. I wasn’t really “hungry” at the time, but I felt like I COULD eat, and the “fullness” feeling was pretty much gone at this point.

I ate probably about 350-400 calories at this meal (max – more than likely less, actually), and then suddenly felt a brief craving for sweets. I looked in the fridge, and spied a carton of strawberries, so I washed about 4 of them (strawberries - NOT cartons, haha!) and ate those. After this, I was beyond satisfied.

My headache, albeit dull, is getting a little annoying, so I made myself some coffee. Felt a little more “with it” after a cuppa, and the headache disappeared, so I am assuming the headache was just from caffeine withdrawal, and not from the Byetta itself.

I’m still debating whether or not I should take a night dose. I’ll probably decide around 6 pm or so, depending on how “hungry” I feel.

I snacked on a couple of crackers mid-afternoon (about 3-4), but otherwise felt fairly “full”.

7 pm
I’ve decided that I’m getting a little hungry, so I go ahead and take the shot. This time, I felt the “prick” a little more (although it’s still not as bad as pricking your fingers to test blood sugars), but it wasn’t horrible. Not sure if it’s the location of where I’m pricking my abdomen that makes me a little more sensitive to feeling it, or if it’s just a psychological thing, still.

I wait about 20 minutes and then eat a moderate sized meal (homemade lentil soup), my best estimate being around 450 calories, as I added a couple of crackers and a small pinch of cheese again. On top of that, I ate two oranges (too lazy to calculate how much those were), as I had the same feeling like the night before that I wanted something sweet. The oranges totally hit the spot. (I do not recommend eating that much in fruit if you’re diabetic.) Compared to my other meals, I felt pretty piggish this night. 

Had a few minor twinges of nausea, but nothing much to speak of the rest of the night. I went to bed and slept soundly again. Not bad for Day 2.

02/28/10

DAY THREE

Although I am probably not going to be posting every single day during this “trial”, I figure that I’m going to write every few days after day five and update my progress. I do not weigh myself every day, but I’ll probably weigh myself tomorrow morning, first thing, and see if I’ve lost any weight thus far.

I awoke this morning with a little achiness in my back – not sure what that’s from. I “stuck” myself again, and again I felt the prick a little more strongly. Enough to utter a little “owie”, but again, nothing too major. I’m a chicken and have an extremely LOW tolerance to pain, so this is no surprise. Plus, I noticed that I seem to “feel” it more while I’m watching the needle go in, hence I think it may be more psychological. I’ll probably try NOT looking while I stab myself next time, and see if that helps. :D

I ate a little breakfast, and I almost felt like I could eat more, but I wasn’t hungry enough, so I decided to wait a little bit longer to see if I ended up feeling too full to eat more.

Yup! I didn’t feel like eating another bite, and started having that “full” feeling, like it was just sitting on my stomach. I drank lots of water, and then had my cup of coffee (didn’t want to repeat the headache of yesterday).

A couple of hours later, I am starting to feel a wee bit nauseous. It’s not enough to make me want to crawl into bed, but it’s subtle and it’s there. Not sure what that’s about, but I still feel very “full”. I sorta burped up some coffee kinda in the form of acid, I guess? I don’t normally get acid reflux, so that was a bit annoying. Yuck.

TMI - One thing kind of strange, though, is that my urine is not clear – it’s a yellow color (not a strong yellow, but for the amount of water I drink every day, it seems a little unusual to me). Prior to this, my urine was pretty clear unless I didn’t drink enough water. Since I’ve started Byetta, I haven’t taken any vitamins (probably need to!), so I know that’s not the culprit. I’m not drinking anything else weird, so I’m a bit curious about this.

I am also feeling more thirsty since being on Byetta. Not sure why, either? I drink a big glass of water before bed, and when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I feel SUPER thirsty to the point that my mouth is parched, almost close to cotton mouth – something I normally don’t feel unless I’m sick or dehydrated. Hmm.

Days 4 - present have been actually pretty good. I haven't felt any nausea anymore (I make sure and eat about 10 minutes or so after I take it, so I think that's the key for me), and I have to REMIND myself to eat. I end up eating 3 fairly small meals a day, and that's it - I'm done and FULL, and don't want anything else. This stuff does work for appetite suppression, that's for certain!

I weighed myself yesterday, and I actually LOST about 2.5 lbs since starting this last Friday. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!! I'm trying not to weigh myself every day and not be too obsessed about it, even though the point of this whole thing is to lose weight. Um...I guess that doesn't make much sense, eh? :D Oh well...c'est moi!

Will post more tomorrow!

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