Hey, type 2s,are you eyeing a nice dinner out with the family at that new Italian restaurant where you'll likely want to fill up on your favorite pasta? Would you like a piece of cake at your friend's birthday party? Or maybe you'd like a handful of grapes.

Can't do it, though, right? Because your oral medications-or even Byetta, if you're on it-don't have enough umph to cover that many carbs. Heck, those meds won't cover more than 60 g. of carbs at one meal-even if they're good carbs.

So what's a person to do? I mean, we're all human, right? We all like a treat now and then. We all like to indulge our sweet tooth. And, let's be honest, there are times when we need chocolate. Why should we be hung out to dry with super high blood sugars for days with no recourse? You don't want to be wasteful by opening that bottle or pen of fast-acting insulin you have in your bathroom cabinet to use it just once or twice in a month. Although the thought has crossed your mind about a hundred times.

While I was recently dealing with some sweet tooth issues accompanied by some high blood sugar issues, it came to me that we need something equivalent to a single-serve insulin pen. Something that would allow those of us not already taking fast-acting insulin for every grape, bite of pasta or crumb of cake to have a way to eat those things without the resultant high blood sugar.

It would be something with, say, 10 units of insulin per pen. Something that could still be dialed up for the right dose to cover the number of carbs you're planning to consume. Sure, maybe you'll need more than 10 units, but that's why you'd have multiple pens. Your doctor could prescribe enough to cover your habit of eating a slice of cheesecake every night so you'd have enough on hand. You could get a box of pens-like lancets-and keep some in your car, your desk, your purse.

Having this kind of self-serve insulin available would allow us to do several things: not waste an entire perfectly good fast-acting insulin pen with enough insulin to last a month on just one or two splurges a month, allow us to take charge of high or potentially high blood sugars (even those highs that don't come from sweets and junk) immediately instead of waiting for it to come down eventually, and enjoy the freedoms that people without diabetes have.