The S Factor

Considering some nasty lows that came from what the medical community seemed to regard as the "miracle drug" for diabetics, I'm surprised I stayed on it for as long as I did.

The drug left my blood sugars unpredictable, sometimes cresting evenly after a meal, sometimes skyrocketing to the high heavens, and sometimes crashing flat on my face.

It made exercising when I want to excruciating to figure out, and I could never quite figure out if I was giving the right amount.

So that's initially why I stopped taking it.

Symlin, you silly person, not insulin. I'm not that stupid.

At first, I liked Symlin. A1C dropped another .5% and I lost 5 lbs. But the shots stung like a bee biting my ass, and I had some lows that seemed to be moving in for winter.

I slowly but surely started forgetting to bring my Symlin with me to school. I was down to taking Symlin once a day, and even then, I wasn't sure if it was working.

Then I went on the DexCom and witnessed my blood sugar dropping 40 points post-prandial, after taking 10 units of Symlin but zero units of insulin. It only happened that one time, but after that, adios Symlin.

Until now.

So why am I returning to the Drug of Undeniable Annoyance?

Well, first there's the whole "rising post-prandial" blood sugars. Oh, who am I kidding, it's the whole "rising pre-and-post-and-everywhere-in-between-prandial" blood sugars.

That's a pretty good reason.

Then there's the "my stomach is seeing an awful lot of fresh air these days" reason. I thought moving home was going to make eating healthier easier, but after twenty-two years of cooking dinners, my family is pretty much set on eating Jack in the Box and Taco Bell at least once a week (that is, once for Jack in the Box, and once for Taco Bell).

And I'm sure the scones and muffins from Peet's aren't helping either.

I want to say these problems can be fixed with insulin, and I feel guilty thinking that I can't figure out some way of even faking control with insulin. But I'm bouncing so hard my stomach is doing cartwheels.

I'm hoping that by restarting Symlin I can knock down a few of these stratospheric postprandial highs.

They don't just hurt my eyes and my kidneys and my heart.
They hurt my soul too.