Diabetes

Byetta seems to be working for so many people that visit this site. It's not surprising that the manufacturer is having diffuculty with supplying it.

I started Byetta 5 on June 10. No negative side effects, but no appetite suppression or weight loss either. Glucose lower after meals--but test at 3 and 4 hours to get a more accurate picture--because of delayed stomach emptying. Altius Insurance refused to cover it. $200 a month! about $230 for Byetta 10.

Hi! I started on Byetta on February 29. I love it! I have had no side effects from it and have lost almost 20 lbs. My blood sugar has finally stabilized. I am on Medicaid right now and it covers it but hopefully when I start working as a medical assistant I will have good insurance through the doctor's office.

I started on Byetta on June 1st and my medication has now been tweaked. My carvings for carbs is less and I have lost 15 pounds since June 1st. I am following a 1200 calorie diabetes meal plan which I have before and no weight came off. I am excited!

I only had the initial side affect of nausea from the first injection. I am blessed that my insurance company does cover Byetta.

People can go to the Byetta website and get reimbursement coverage if their insurance doesn't cover the Byetta.

Hi,

I have been on Byetta for over a year. I was wondering if there is anyone out there thats been on Byetta for a year or more and experiencing anything abnormal?
I'm having joint pain and going for tests but curious if anyone else has any problems being Byetta is such a new medication?

Thanks,
Joanne

I have been on Byetta on and off for over a year. I started on Byetta 5 mg. th eonly side effect I had was a sudden headache immediately following the injection. This only lasted a couple of times and did not require medication for the headache.

After 4-6 months on Byetta, I had not lost any weight in this time frame. However, I began to get an itchy hive/welt at the injection site.
At first the hive would show up an hour or so after injection, lasting about 24 hours. It then began to worsen, hives would not appear for sometimes 4-12 hours later, but would last 2-3 days.

We tried longer needles to see if that would help. It did not.

I have been border line- prediabetic since for nearly 8 years. I am now coming close to crossing the line to diabetes based on my levels.

Other than the hives, Byetta has worked wonderfully for me. I have no gastro issues which I have had with every other medication I have been on. The weight just began to inch down when I stopped using the byetta for four months, due to an illness.

For the past 3 months I have been starting back up on the byetta, using an insulin syringe. I take the tiniest amount of byetta and inject in my thigh (which doesn't seem to 'hive' as easliy as my stomach). I use a sharpie to circle and date the injection site so as to track my progress. Every 3-4 weeks (depending on how much I'm 'hiving' or not) I increase the dosage ever so slightly. This seems to be working, but it will be a very slow process to get to a full 10 mg dosage which is the goal.

If anyone else has had a similar reaction, please let me know what you have done to hopefully remedy the situation.

Also, my vitamin D levels are extremely low, causing joint and mucsle aches. It improved over the summer, but now that it is fall, stormy and I'm indoors more, it is starting up again. I am taking D supplements which is helping a tad.

Has anyone else had low D levels? If so what did you do about it? What did your doctors say?

thanks much
dc

quote:

Originally posted by dc:
For the past 3 months I have been starting back up on the byetta, using an insulin syringe. I take the tiniest amount of byetta and inject in my thigh [...] This seems to be working, but it will be a very slow process to get to a full 10 mg dosage which is the goal.

I'm a bit worried for your safety, dc. It says "do not transfer this medication to a syringe," but that's not why I'm worried. I'm worried because a full 10 mcg (not 'mg' but ' mcg') dose of the exenatide drug would be achieved with 0.04 mL of solution in your syringe. That would be 4 units if you're using a standard U-100 insulin syringe.

If you are putting 10 units of the stuff in your thigh, that's a 2.5x overdose.

10 mg of solution is almost 10 mL in volume, or a 250x overdose, but I guess I'm not worried about that because that's more than in an entire Byetta pen.

thank you for your concern. my dr and I have figured out the correct dosage of transferring the byetta from its original pen to an insulin syringe. my pharmacist also agreed that this would be okay even though it is indicated not to use with a syringe. At this time, I'm getting so little byetta, that I have to discard the pen long before it is fully emptied.
dc

Would you share the mechanics of how you do this? I can't get past the nausea from the 5mcg dose, and I would like to start with half doses. Do you mix with saline or with water? Where do you buy your sterile supplies? Do you need a prescription?
Thanks,
Monica