As I said in my last post, I’ve been taking Byetta for about two months now, and I wanted to talk a little bit about my experience with the medication so far.
For the most part, I think I’ve taken to the whole injection thing rather well. I was, admittedly, a little bit nervous at first. Much like the apprehension I felt when I first started poking my fingers to test my blood sugars, the nervousness I felt about the injections subsided quickly. I never cease to be amazed by the things you can get used to doing when it has to be done in order to survive.
As I mentioned before, I currently take two 5 mcg injections each day. I take one within 60 minutes of breakfast, and another within 60 minutes of dinner. And as I said before, the only side effect I’ve had so far has been an increase in acid reflux, which is now under control. The only other issue I’ve had with the medication is in regard to injection sites.
The directions that come in the Byetta box indicate that the medication can be injected in the subcutaneous tissue in the abdominal region, the thigh, and the back of the upper arm. For me, though, I’ve found that I can only take the injection in the abdominal region, and I found that out the hard way.
I had wanted to see which of the sites offered the best absorption, and also wanted to be able to rotate injection sites as needed, so I decided to try an injection in my right thigh. Now, I’m not bragging or anything, but my thighs are all muscle. There’s no fatty tissue there at all. And guess what I hit when I injected that shot of Byetta. My entire right leg was swollen and hurt like crazy for a week or so after that incident. So, I’ll be sticking with the abdominal area. It hurts less, and works well as far as glucose control is concerned.
As far as the dose is concerned, the 5 mcg dose seems to be adequate for me right now. Should the time come that I need to step up to the full 10 mcg dose that is available, I’ll make that adjustment. For now, as always, I’m sticking with what’s working best for me.
