#398 Arden tried Fiasp
Fiasp
Scott shares his and Arden's experience trying Fiasp insulin when she switched from Apidra. He discusses things to consider when deciding which insulin is right for you and explains how the insulin performed, as well as side effects Arden experienced and how those factors influenced the decision whether or not to continue using it.
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Scott Benner 0:16
Please remember as you're listening that nothing you hear on the Juicebox Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise please always consult a physician before making changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin. If you have a great doctor that you use for your type one diabetes care or you're looking for one, check out my site juicebox Doc's calm. It is a ever growing list of doctors and practitioners sent to me by listeners like you. If you love the diabetes pro tip episodes and you want to share them with a friend or revisit the measly you can check them out at diabetes pro tip.com. All right. Arden tried fast. And this is what happened.
Hey, everybody, it's Scott. This is episode. I don't know what episode this is Give me a second 398 of the Juicebox Podcast It's Friday night. This will likely be the shortest episode of the podcast ever. which ironically, is happening right before Episode 399, which I believe will be the longest episode of the podcast ever. I also think this is the first time I've ever used the podcast like a blog. And this is definitely the first time I've ever recorded something and then put it right out. So we tried fiasco. Now Arden uses Apidra as her insulin. And we wanted to try fast. Because we heard that for some people, it worked quicker and had a shorter tail or lasted longer in the system. Online. Anecdotally, it has about three different basic stories, right. So first, I guess what is fast fast is I'm gonna go right to the website fiasco is designed to increase the speed of initial insulin absorption. fiasco is the formulation of insulin as part with two excipients added to the solution. acceptance, I think I said that right. The act of molecule and fast is identical to novolog. The Fast formulation contains the addition of vitamin v3 and amino acid to stabilize the formulation. Now, I know about the zero but what that means, okay. But what I've heard from other people who have tried the insulin varies, the general stories are either I use fast, it works much faster, and I love it. I use fast, I didn't notice any difference. I use fast, it works much faster. But it burns. Now some people that say they experienced injection site like burning or stinging, said that after a number of you know uses it passed and it didn't burn anymore. Some people also report that the speed that fiasco works stopped being as impressive over time. Now, again, these are all anecdotal things that I've heard on the internet. But we wanted to give it a try. Why? Because we didn't like Apidra. No, actually, we love Apidra harden switch from Nova log to Apidra so many years ago, and I find Apidra to work very smoothly. It's consistent is the best way I can put it. I know what it's going to do. It does what I expect. peaks kind of gradually doesn't have a big tail. You know, we like it a lot actually love Apidra. So why did we try fiasco? Well, because people said it worked faster. So we asked our doctor if she didn't could have a little bit to give it a try. And she said sure. So here's the great news about it. It worked really great. Quick onset really quelled art in spikes, nice flat graphs, a significant decrease in a tail of the insulin, fewer lows later, even fewer than we're having with a pager, which is to say none and I overall found that it worked better. Meaning I think Arden's graph was flatter and more stable. fast. So that's all great news. We didn't have any trouble using it for the full 80 hours and an omni pod. There weren't any inclusions or anything like that. And Arden used it for two full vials. Ah, two vials, you're thinking, Well, why not three or four or five? Scott? Good question. Here's the answer to that. Immediately after the bazel insulin began running after Arden zombie pod was on with the fiasco in it, she said it burned. It stung or burned during, you know, a bolus pretty consistently. As a matter of fact, she said she was constantly aware of it. After she would take a pot off. She said the site where the the candle was felt bruised, and remained that way for hours if not a full day, a sore spot. So obviously we're like, well, this isn't gonna work. Now, the shame boat was I immediately saw a flattening of our graph, which you know if you can imagine Arden's graph is pretty flat to begin with. But fiasco made the times away from food even more steady. And remember Arden's using the Do It Yourself loop system.
And spikes were easier to control highs were easier to bring down. And I didn't find us having to Pre-Bolus so far out. So everything's great except for the burning. Which by the way, I think is in I'll find the packaging, sir, I think it is one of the things they say could happen. Now, in any normal situation, stinging or burning, I said to Arden, look, it works great. But you know, I don't want you to keep doing this if it hurts. She says, Well, what do you want me to do is like, I don't want you to do anything. But I did hear online, that it's possible that this thing could go away, after a little bit, said, how much of this would you you know, be willing to go through to find out if it's going to just go away? Now I have no idea why it would go away for some people and not for other people. That could be you know, Bs, as far as I know, but it's something I heard online. So I was like, Alright, we could you know, what do you think she was? I'll try another one. So we did twofold full vials, you know, she worked for a while, every time the same thing, always stung. uncomfortable and left bruising behind. Now when I say bruising, I don't mean like brown bruising. She said it felt bruised, the site felt bruised, it didn't look bruised. But man, it worked great. But by the end of the second vile, this thinking did not change. It wasn't lessening. And in all honesty, I just, you know, we couldn't keep doing it. Arden was not for keeping going and I couldn't, you know, in good conscience do it. the shame of it is, is that it worked astonishingly well. It worked better than any insulin she's ever used. It worked better than a Piedra, it was certainly better than novolog. For Arden. And it's one of those things I guess if you can get some to try, it's worth it. Now, she didn't have it on long enough to find out if it was going to stop working more quickly, which some people say again, anecdotally online. After three months or so some people see the speedy effect of it kind of lesson. Again. I don't understand how that could possibly be definitely not a scientist. But this is just you know, the quick story of how it worked for Arden. So I'm happy we tried. Arden was not disappointed that we tried. I think that a lot about Type One Diabetes is staying fluid and understanding how new things come into the world the next faster insulin that pops up is already out. I think Lilly put one out. I don't think we're going to try that one. But I am crossing my fingers that you know scientifi tries to speed up the way a pager works, because maybe that would jive better with Arden's physiology. Overall, what I can tell you is that a faster acting insulin that does not stay in the system for as long a time is definitely beneficial. Not that that's any great secret, but I definitely saw the benefit in it. I do think if we could have kept Arden on fiasco I think we could have more consistently kept her a one C in the lower fives rather than mid two. You know, right now I think she's like 555657 for like the last year so I have no trouble believing based on how I saw the fiasco. come online and handle initial spike, I would have no trouble believing that she could be more like five to if we were able to keep using it, but didn't work out. For Arden. It's not the biggest deal in the world for certain. And it was definitely worth a try. So you know what I always say, don't look up 10 years from now and say, oh, gosh, does nobody do it this way anymore? Am I like the last person using this thing? You know, try the new stuff out when it makes sense. We didn't just switch to switch. And it didn't work out. And to be perfectly honest, I've got a couple vials of fiasco, if you live near me, drop me a line to prove our point out. A few days after Arne was back on a Piedra, she had a high blood sugar. And I said, hey, let's try to fix it with fast and see what happens like just with a needle. And we did. And it worked just as I expected it to. But she said almost immediately, even with the little needle the injection site burned and stung, and persisted for for a while. And then she showed me the next day it was red. So I don't know what it is about vitamin B. Or, you know, those other acceptance excipients but it didn't jive well with Arden.
Unknown Speaker 11:15
Anyway,
Scott Benner 11:16
I hope you have a much different experience with it. I hope it works great for you if you try it. And you know, no shade too fast. But it really did work. Right. It just it wasn't perfect with Arden's body. And so it goes things you know, not the biggest deal. The Internet says that common side effects FPS include, you know, there's some stuff they have to list with the insulin, low blood sugars, allergic reactions, hypersensitivity injection site reactions. You know, blah, blah, blah, but really the injection site reactions and I think allergic reactions are the things that Arden was having. So your mileage may vary, of course, check with your doctor, etc. But it was an interesting little test. And this was kind of the post mortem of our experience. And this was sort of the end this is the post mortem of ardens experience. Not even a review. I think that's kind of weird to say because you may use this in something that may work terrific for you. You may use it and it might not even work as it might not work at all for you but not burn like I don't know, but you could always try, you know. Alright, that's it. I'll talk to you guys soon. I appreciate you checking out this episode.
Arden got fast through her doctor with a prescription and we of course paid for it. Nothing you heard here today was in any way related to the company that manufactures the insulin. Don't forget juice box docs.com diabetes pro tip calm if you're looking to find out more about the podcast that Juicebox Podcast can be found at Juicebox podcast.com work any podcast that check it out.
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