Good tip, thanks. My coughing started with the inhalation, so water might’ve helped. Probably doesn’t help that I have (very mild, practically unnoticeable) asthma to begin with.
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Yeah, same, I have relatively mild cough-variant asthma.
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Ok, so I’ve gotten to the point where at least 2/3 times I inhale it with minimum coughing and seem to get most of it in, I think? But I remain very underwhelmed… it just doesn’t seem to do much? I’m using only 12s at this point, and I just don’t see much effect at all. Nothing like what I’ve heard from other folks. And I’m pretty insulin sensitive usually—I’ve struggled with a full unit being too much for a small correction before. So I don’t know if my lungs just don’t absorb insulin well (and if there are people for whom this really isn’t very effective) or if I’m still using it wrong somehow or what. Going to keep experimenting with the remainder of my sample pack, but at this point, honestly not sure I’ll bother to get any beyond that if I can’t figure out how to make it useful.
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Sorry it isn’t working out for you. That is a bummer, I had high hopes for Cody to start using it once he gets an adult endo and we can convince.
This is probably a stupid question but are you sure you’re inhaling it all the way into your lungs and not just into your mouth?
The bg lowering power of 12u of afrezza is tremendously higher than 1u of injected so if you’re saying it seems to be doing less then it seems something just isn’t adding up as far as it not entering your bloodstream
Yeah I’m not saying it’s doing less than one unit, was just using that to say I’m pretty insulin sensitive, but it seems to be doing pretty little? Like I’ll see a pretty small quick dip, but it’s pretty minimal, so not that useful. I think I’m getting it into my lungs, I’m taking really deep, long inhales and holding it, and I do end up coughing a couple of times afterward usually, and I could tell the one time I really clearly didn’t get it down because I coughed out a cloud of powder. But the rest of the times, I’m not coughing any powder. So I don’t know what’s going wrong? I agree though it’s clearly not getting into my bloodstream somehow though, or most of it isn’t anyway.
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Try the opposite maybe… tilting your head down makes no sense to me… think of how they taught us to tilt someone’s head back “to open their airway” in cpr courses
I tilt my head slightly back and told inhaler slightly downward
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Will try that next time!
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Ok so I think the issue was actually that I had a fairly subtle mild cold or something (definitely not COVID, symptoms were just increased fatigue and sneezing, and apparently there are things going around now that are easier to spread through surfaces and other ways that COVID doesn’t), so I think that was screwing with my blood sugars overall and maybe made inhaling insulin less effective too? I’m feeling better and now it seems to be working more as expected. I’m mostly only coughing a few times right afterwards now, nothing too bad. Honestly, I do think using my pen is actually more convenient, comfortable, and easier than Afrezza, as well as much more subtle for future times when I’m back out in the world again, but the speed of Afrezza is indeed amazing and worth it. I had yogurt with some PB Chex/granola in it this morning, which normally I’d need to prebolus for and still find tricky to match, huffed an 8 right afterward, and have been a pretty much flat line since, not breaking 124. I don’t see it entirely replacing Humalog for me, since I’ve also seen with some foods that it takes care of the early rise but not the later one, and while I suppose I could then huff more, I think I’d rather take both Afrezza and a bit of humalog at the same time as I figure it out more, sort of like the equivalent I think of a square bolus on a pump? And I think Humalog will be preferable for low carb meals and some other situations. But I’m picking up my new script for it ($45 co-pay, reduced to $15 with the savings card) and will definitely keep using.
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It’s real beauty is the spontaneity it allows for… like you said instead of having to prebolus and make a big production out of everything with Afrezza you have the ability in your life again to just be like “damn, that sushi looks good… yes I’d like some”
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This made a huge difference – I swished with water rather than sipped, and I sipped afterwards. And raised my chin slightly One tiny cough, and a tickly throat for about half an hour but I was able to suppress the cough.
Unfortunately was on sensor warmup at the same time, so I couldn’t watch the effect in real time, but with no IOB, 8U dropped me from 12.4 (223) to 9.7 (175) in half an hour, which Fiasp could never do in that time, and I levelled out at around 7 (125) after two hours. I was hesitant to try 12U but now I think I could have.
Much better experience than the first time!
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An update—I have found that if I use Afrezza too often (like as a more regular basal which quickly became tempting), my sensitive throat starts to get much more reactive to it. Not sure of that’s a mast cell reaction brewing or what. But I had to take a few days off. I think for me, it’s going to need to be occasional use only, which is too bad, because if I could, would probably use it very regularly.
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