I'm so frustrated right now. Like cry myself to sleep frustrated. I started walking again five days ago. I had to skip this morning because at 5:50 a.m. my blood sugar was 231. I hate myself for that. But here's what happened. Yesterday, we were invited to a barbeque. In addition to the dessert I left on our kitchen counter, I also forgot to bring my medicine with me. I took the meds when I got home and ate something small just in case, but I still woke up to this hideous number. And of course, no matter how diligent I was all day I remained high because I can't take fast-acting insulin with Byetta. (READ MORE)

The open bag of chocolate-covered raisins stared at me from beside my keyboard. I had a craving that morning for something chocolate and popable, like M&Ms or junior mints. It was a strange craving because most of me didn't want to give in, but the part that drove me to the drug store and walked me to the candy aisle obviously won out.

I gave those raisins the evil eye before I twisted the top of the bag and threw them into my top desk drawer. I should have thrown them away, but I knew I'd want some later. Strange, yes, my thought process.

It was around lunch time when I sat on the couch, unable to move from the nastiness I was feeling in my stomach. Four times in two hours I had been to the bathroom. Getting back to work wasn't any easier as I was barely able to concentrate. (READ MORE)

Counting days on the calendar, I was shocked at my timing. I had started Byetta exactly 30 days ago, and yesterday morning, on a whim since it was around this time last month that I started the drug, I had renewed my prescription.

I was pretty anxious to get started on the higher maintenance dose. While it had taken a while for the side effects to kick in, I was definitely starting to feel the nausea and lack of appetite lately. Yes, this may sound sadistic, but I was hoping the higher dosage would increase these aspects. (READ MORE)

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. (READ MORE)

As I've said before, patience is not something we can call one of my good points. When I started Byetta, I really expected to feel something different-nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite-almost immediately. I was sorely disappointed when it took several weeks before I started feeling any of that.

But after a good month's worth of the medicine was coursing through my body, I started the higher, maintenance dose of Byetta, and, I'll admit, I expected to feel different almost immediately. This is really sort of silly, but I was pretty disappointed to feel roughly the same as I had the week or so prior to starting the higher dose. I was starting to wonder why we had to be weaned onto this drug if it wasn't going to make me feel any different. (READ MORE)