Week 9 and the big news is Eric Fenar who had a doctors appointment, and he measured an A1C personal best at his doctors office of a 6.3 (yes, a pre-diabetic number) using Afrezza for just 103 days. That number is his 22 year Personal Best–his lowest ever! And he is happy to say, it was with no Carb Counting.  You did it Eric–and we are so happy for you and your family! Here is his video announcing his A1C. Considering that out of 4 people in our group who had a doctors appointment in the last couple of weeks that 4 of them achieved a “lifetime” best/low A1C–it is as Dr. Bode likes to say, “unbelievable”.

On an adminstrative note, you will notice some slight future changes in the table as we have unanimously decided to adjust the reporting ranges of our BG (blood glucose) levels beginning next week. Simply stated, we realized that a BG reading in the 50’s is not something we want people to think we approve of, recommend or would ever suggest to anyone taking Afrezza, and we didn’t want it to ever be misconstrued in that way (thus it will be updated to reflect a higher range of 60-150 next week. I have added several new ranges to the list moving forward.  BTW, the original range was only ever meant to be used as a reporting tool to show where the numbers were at for comparison purposes and we believe going forward this will better help Endocrinologists, Primary Care Physicians, Physicians Assistants, Diabetes Educators and diabetics/patients considering Afrezza to see the new  “time in zone” of our blood sugar levels at an even more discerning level. At the same time, we all believe this is also an important differentiator between the BG control using injectable insulins vs. the results of Afrezza – none of us  could ever achieve this kind of “real-time” control on our “old” insulins. 

Unfortunately, there is also some sad news to report–I will be in England for the next week or so visiting my sister who was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer and has only a few days or weeks left.  She will leave behind a wonderful husband and 3 adorable kids under the age of 10. I grieve for her situation and treasure the short time we have together.  At the same time, I also recently received a heartfelt email from a person in London named Brendan, who watched my interview with Emily Coles on TuDiatebes.org, and wrote to me about his difficulty with his current situation handling diabetes.  His words echoed exactly my own situation and experience before I started on Afrezza, and he openly shared about his worry, exhaustion and mental health from diabetes and feeling like giving up when he goes through the “hypo followed by hyper” attack which wipes him out. I shared and understand that battle he is going through and meeting him in person will be a happy highlight of my trip. Hope is a very powerful thing, and I am enthusiastic that he may become the next  “Afrezzauser of England” and spread the word about “life-changing” Afrezza to all of the UK when he is able to obtain a prescription. I will include Brendan and his story in a future blog.

For those of you wondering where most foreign visitors to Afrezzauser.com  come from–(so far 105 countries have visited my website) this is for you:

Top 25 Foreign Countries visiting Afrezzauser.com

1. Canada
2. United Kingdom
3. Germany
4. Russia
5. France
6. Italy
7. Australia 
8. Singapore
9. Belgium
10. Switzerland
11. Japan
12. Hong Kong
13. South Korea
14. Spain
15. India
16. Netherlands 
17. Austria
18. China
19. Ireland
20. Israel
21. Denmark 
22. Taiwan
23. Thailand
24. Mexico
25. Saudi Arabia

Here are the numbers for this week!

What surprises you most about the Week 9 data?

Well, it’s not really a surprise, but having 4 out of 4 people achieve lifetime A1C #’s is very powerful.  Congrats on your new official A1C’s everyone, including Eric. Surely more will follow!

What is the Afrezza Users “Real Life” Results Group?

It is a group of Afrezza Users who use a Continuous Glucose Monitors (Type 1’s) seeking tighter diabetes control and measuring the time spent in each blood sugar range. Laureen uses “finger prick” measurements throughout her day to measure her blood glucose levels while the rest of us are using CGM’s (continuous glucose monitors). It is NOT a competition between T1’s and T2’s nor among any of us and was only started so people could understand and see the inherent benefit of why Afrezza provides better control and higher patient satisfaction for t1 and t2 diabetics over any our previous regimens. In essence, this is a “real-world” trial of “do your best”, and have good and bad days, but keep track of it all, and let everyone know the results. Well, the results thus far are clearly unbelievably positive.

Why are you doing this?

There has been so much discussion about the FDA Afrezza Drug trials and why I feel as a participant in the Affinity 1 trial, there were significant “hold backs” as to why we were not able to materially outperform Injectable Insulin because of the protocols on the trials. This is no longer the case!

To Summarize here are just a few of the hold backs why Afrezza didn’t get to show how great it works:

• Afrezza Dosing only changed approx. every 6 weeks, and not flexible dosing depending on meal
• No CGM’s allowed
• Time in Zone not measured
• Patient quality of life not measured
• Brand new Afrezza users vs. Very experienced Injectable users (what if it was brand new injectable users vs. experienced Afrezza users—would that be fair? No-they would stop the trial right away because it would be a TKO/referee stops contest victory for Afrezza which we are proving by real world experience.)

 

What would you like to express to everyone out there considering Afrezza or to any doctors considering prescribing Afrezza for their patients?

My opinion is that Afrezza is a “life-changing” drug that is not yet very well understood by the diabetic community at large—both doctors and patients. This will definitely change! It improved my life and gave me hope in treating my diabetes. I would wish the same for you or any other diabetic you know—enjoy a better and higher quality of life! Please demand to try Afrezza from your doctor, and if he/she won’t or is not able to prescribe it–go find one that will–your life and the quality of it matters!