Anyone who knows me-or has read me-knows that I was not blessed with patience. In fact, I'm sure that I'm getting a dose of what my mother went through when I was younger in the form of my nearly five-year-old daughter. According to my husband, she epitomizes-and quite often exceeds-my level of patience. And she's exasperating at times! (There is a point to this, I promise!)

I'm literally not kidding when I say that the instant I injected my first dose of Byetta I expected to be nauseous and for my appetite to be gone. I was quite disappointed when that didn't happen.

It was several days later before I had my first glimpse of nausea. It was momentary, but it was there. It didn't deter me, however, from eating. I found myself sighing heavily often and wondering if this drug was really going to do me any good. I had continued to eat and snack at the same level as I did prior to taking Byetta. I was starting to think seriously about calling my endo to question the drug's merits and I was really wondering why I even bothered at times.

I had hoped Byetta would be the crutch I needed to help me curb my eating habits. I didn't care, frankly, that I had to lean on something because everything I had tried on my own simply wasn't working. And now I was thinking that this wasn't working either.

Nearly a month in now, I'm looking back and seeing that my appetite is mostly gone. Toward the end of the third week, I started eating small amounts of raw vegetables and a hard boiled egg for lunch and feeling quite satisfied. And I even experienced my first 4 lb. of weight loss since starting Byetta. I finally felt like this was going to work. I suppose I can see now why patients are weaned on to the drug with a lower dose for one month before taking a higher maintenance dose.

It won't be long then, before I might start seeing more significant side effects. All I have to do is wait.