Lizard spit

Gila Monster spit to be precise.

I am finding that you can take the girl out of the desert, but you can't take the Gila Monster out of the girl.

For those wondering, the Gila Monster is a desert dwelling lizard, its suppose to be highly venomous. In all my years of living in the desert I never had the pleasure of meeting one in person, they are quite elusive, but you learn to avoid certain indigenous species in the desert and this is definitely one to avoid.

So imagine my surprise when I found out that this ugly spud of a creature ( actually they are quite beautiful in a quazi motto sort of way) is what is keeping me alive!

I inject Gila Monster spit every day, twice a day and it in turn regulates my blood sugar, ergo, I don't slip into some random diabetic coma, or find that my kidneys have failed or my legs must be amputated.

Don't worry I am not under the care of some witch doctor, or voodoo queen, high priestess, medicine woman, though my doctor has the exotic looks of one so she could be one in her private live. Nope this is a real medical break through that seems to be taking the diabetic world by storm.

From the way I read it, back in the 80's there was a doctor/researcher who was doing research on humans who have been bitten by venomous creatures, Said researcher began to realize that the venom had an effect on both the pancreas (stimulating it) as well as most venomous creatures seem to have a very slow digestive system. Now if you know anything about diabetes these two things can be good for a diabetic.

Insulin, the thing that either is missing in a diabetic or is not recognized in a diabetic (hence the term insulin resistant, which is what many T2 diabetics start out as being) is manufactured in the pancreas. Also, slowing digestion in a diabetic in turn slows how quickly carbohydrates are absorbed by and enter the body...carbs are enemies of diabetics, well mostly, I mean there are good carbs and bad ones so we have to be very careful about what we choose to eat. I am VERY sensitive to carbs, basically anything white ( rice, flour, sugar, even milk and fruit juice) I have to stay away from or really use sparingly, they spike my BS numbers fast and high. For instance. I had a bowl of cereal yesterday. I was running around 140mg/dl when I ate it and after the cereal started feeling sort of bad (I feel like I am getting the flu when my BS spikes high), so two hours later (called a post prandial reading) retested I was at 283mg/dl... yipes!

My normal meal nowadays consists of meat (lean or fish) and veggies or salad. Potatoes, pasta, rice, bread - all bad for me and don't make it to my plate very often.

Now it should be noted here that a small spike in blood sugar is quite normal after eating. For the normal person, erm... that is NON diabetic, this spike should really be no more then 20 points. Diabetics might see a bit more, but that is one of the goals of a diabetic to try to keep huge spikes, like 140 pts, down to a bare minimum.

Anyway, these spikes and just my over all fasting readings were getting higher and higher with each passing month to the point that one of my tests (A1c, a 3 month average of your blood sugar) was 11.7... it should be somewhere under 7 so this was substantial and the reason my doctor put me on lizard spit. AKA Byetta.

The good news is that it is working, for the most part. There are side effects, mostly ahem....digestive, but that seems to be the way it goes with a lot of the diabetic meds that you take. It is an injectable too, so I have injection site issues to deal with on occasion. For the most part though, it has been a god send. There is the added benefit of weight loss. This, however, seems to be a temporary thing and as your body adjusts to the drug that wonderful little perk, sadly, goes away, and I am noticing that my appetite is returning somewhat.

Lizard spit....Isn't Mother Nature brilliant! You just never know where healing might come from.