AfrezzaUser

Advocate for Afrezza

Week 12 Brings Another Personal Best A1C and Two New Members

Week 12-New A1C lifetime best to announce-a big “high five” to Howard, and we also have a brand new member in our T1 Group to welcome, Gustavo and another new member Brian Lynch in our T2 Group! 

With great pleasure I am proud to announce that Howard, after only 60 days on Afrezza had a doctors appointment recently and his A1C measured a 6.4—a new lifetime low (when he started on Afrezza his A1C was a 7.4), and at the same time he reduced his basal dose by 35%. Congratulations Howard, and we are thrilled for your success and the encouragement you bring to the entire group!  What Howard is telling all of us is that he has had no side effects on Afrezza, is now off his insulin pump, can workout when he wants without “crashing” and most importantly, he can sleep through the night 98% of the time without his Dexcom alert waking him up to do a correction (even though it only takes a minute to correct now). In addition, he also lowered his high alert on his Dexcom from 190 to 140–all with zero hypo’s!  He expressed it best by saying–“So much less stress when your blood sugars are in control”.  And he certainly has done that.

Our newest member of the Type 1 Group is Gustavo Basualdo who started Afrezza on April 15th. Gus is 44 and was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2008 he moved here with his family to the Pacific Northwest. In 1991, while training for triathlons we was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic. Historically, most of his insulin therapy was injection-based, but in 2012 he switched to pump therapy and a CGM, which gave him very tight control. In spite of having a decent A1C, he felt it was at a very high cost to him and his family. Constantly he thought about his “diabetes” and all the sacrifices he was making to achieve that number, including a strict low carb diet, very rigid schedules, and a fear to ever change his routine. That all changed for him 2 months ago when he switched to Afrezza, and shortly thereafter became pump-free by adding Toujeo to his therapy. He describes his Afrezza journey as being “life-changing” to him and his family. Sound familiar? We welcome Gustavo and his Afrezza feedback and also his flair for athletic adventure to the Afrezza Users “Real-Life” Group and thank him for his energy, service and sharing!

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks and you will see more blog articles and updates in the near future–word about Afrezza is spreading, and I find myself busier than ever trying to juggle emails, answer inquiries, and provide greater awareness about Afrezza and the miracle diabetes drug it is. One last note, I am going to now have 2 charts for Afrezza data this week and from now on–since we’ve grown. More good news–another type 2 member will be joining this week also. Stay tuned!

Here is the Type 1 Chart for this week:

Screenshot_6_16_15__1_14_PM

Here is the Type 2 Chart for this week:

Screenshot_6_16_15__1_32_PM

Please join me in a hearty welcome for Brian Lynch into our T2 Group! Brian is 59, and works as a sales manager for an electronics and graphic arts distributor in North Carolina. He also enjoys great food, golf, horse racing, and spending time with his wife. It is a real pleasure to have Brian as a “real life” user in the Type 2 Group and for him to share his Afrezza journey with all of us. Thank you so much Brian for your valuable experience and insight as a Type 2 diabetic–you are a part of the largest segment of diabetes in our society, and you will teach and show so many others how to deal with and thrive fully in spite of this disease! Welcome and Thank You Brian!

What surprises you most about the Week 12 data?

This week, I look at our results as a group and I am stunned, as should every physician and diabetic reading this. However, as strange as it may seem, it’s all very true and documented! Before Afrezza our average Group A1C was 8.06 and currently as a group our Average A1C (from our doctors office) is a 6.33–a “pre-diabetic” number–and we haven’t even reached our final numbers yet! Expect further improvements. Thank you to everyone in our group for sharing your experience and firsthand numbers using Afrezza, and spreading the word.

A special shout out this week goes to Jay Stokcton, a true creative genius, who expresses the power of Afrezza so well in so many of his Afrezza marketing pieces of perfection, and I include one of them here:

How to Inject insulin

Thanks Jay for all you are doing to help the diabetic community and all people with diabetes understand that there is another option in the fight against “out of control” blood sugars that can prevent complications, and is a better way to win the battle! Your work Jay is awesome and greatly appreciated for all you do!

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 was 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 already 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. It improved my life and gave me hope in treating my diabetes. I 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–it’s your life!

3 Comments

  • Reply Ben Camooso |

    I’ve been a type 1 diabetic for 32 years. My A1C is 6.3 but at the cost of highs and lows. I’ve been using a Medtronic insulin pump since 1996. I am tired of the lows. I need help. In January I broke my femur and had a rod put in my leg from my knee to my hip. My blood sugars have been up and down. I will ask my Endo on my next visit which is July 30

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