Sitting in my endo's office on the day he prescribed Byetta for me, he told me to inject it 0 to 60 minutes prior to eating. Great, I thought, it will be similar to Novolog, which I typically took shortly before my first bite and it didn't seem to make a difference that I took it at that time.

When the nurse came in to give me more detailed information about the pen and the injections, he said I should inject 30 minutes prior to eating.

"But, the doctor said 0 to 60 minutes," I protested. I mean, he is, after all, the doctor.

"Yes, that's fine, but if you do it at 30 minutes then it's a happy medium," he said.

Ok, whatever, I thought to myself. I'll take the darn thing whenever I want.

Which, up until a few days ago, tended to be closer to the 0 minutes before eating than the 60 or even 30 minutes.

I have found that much of my diabetes care is accidental. What I mean is that I found out by accident that my blood sugar doesn't tolerate fruit until late afternoon (any type of fruit before, say, 4 p.m. shoots me through the roof), and that not eating enough carbs in an effort to be safe can actually make my blood sugar go high.

So I suppose it's no surprise that I found out by accident that the timing of my Byetta injection actually does make a difference in how I feel and my appetite. I'm not sure when this happened or even if it was a conscious decision, but there tends to be more time between my injections and the start of my meal lately. And, interestingly, I have noticed an increase in a general distaste for the idea of eating. Which is exactly what I need because when I can't fathom the idea of eating some of my favorite foods, we've made real progress.