The Avandia Deal

This time last week I was on my way to the emergency room with a fluttering heart and sick to my stomach. I was sluggish, and exhausted-- every time my heart flutters it's as though someone has pulled the plug on any energy stores I had at that time; not a good feeling. This whole heart fluttering business was nothing new to me, as I've had to deal with it since my first trip to the hospital a year and a half ago. Funny thing is, I had no such symptoms until the ones that first put me in emergency room.

Turns out-- as my new doctor informed me --I'm diabetic; type 2 with slight high blood pressure. Okay, I can deal. Or at least try-- not like I had much choice. The deal though came with my new prescription for Avandia and Altace [Amaryl came later]. The Avandia worked like half a charm in getting my blood sugar down from 250+ to within the 170 range, and that's when Amaryl was added to the mix. The problem though, was now my heart fluttered in my chest quite uncomfortably, reducing me often to a drooling idiot, spent and ready to just pass out.

This is where I was last Saturday/Sunday. Now here's where it gets interesting.

I admit I never bothered to study the information sheets that came with my prescriptions [I've glanced them over on occasion, but never studied them], I never thought it necessary. Then a few weeks ago I actually pored over it...

"POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: NO COMMON SIDE EFFECTS HAVE BEEN REPORTED with the proper use of this medicine. CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE if you experience unusual tiredness or weakness. CONTACT YOUR DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY if you experience the following side effects: nausea; vomiting; stomach pain; fatigue; loss of appetite; unusual thirst; unusual amount of urine; dark urine; rapid weight gain; bloating or swelling of ankles, feet, or hands; chest pain; or shortness of breath..."

Naturally, the "chest pains" part of that concerned me-- of lesser concern was my weight gain, tiredness, and shortness of breath, but I thought little of it. Just two days before my recent trip to Emergency I see a new ad for Avandia on television. Not the one with Della Reese hyping how wonderful the drug is, but the new style; the ones that offer a laundry list of negative side effects for most of the commercial.

"...do not take Avandia if you have a history of heart failure..."

"...May cause heart failure... Weight gain... liver damage..."

And then it struck me... My first trip to the hospital last year was undoubtedly due to high blood pressure and high blood sugar, but what kept sending me back was the Avandia.

A "relapse" just 5 months after my initial hospital stay earned me a heart catheterization-- not a pleasant procedure at all, one that the consent forms claimed could result in death! And there I was again last Saturday, trying to get a grasp on what was happening to me. The heart cath showed no-- I repeat, NO blockage in the arteries to my heart, so what gives? It must be the Avandia.

I'm not a doctor, that should go without saying, but I'm not a dim bulb either. I can put two and two together. So I stopped taking the Avandia. Last Saturday's dose was my last. I've now gone 7 days without that pill, and guess what? No heart fluttering, loads more energy. This by no means proves my assumption, but until the palpitations return this is the assumption I'm operating on.

How does one go from relatively healthy one week to being a pill-popping physical derelict the next? Something's not right here. And the only factor that's different is the pills, and the diet.

This past week I've been going to websites and bulletin boards looking for confirmation of what I've experienced. And I found enough for me to resolve never taking Avandia again. Doctor Johnson may not like it, but this is my body; my life at stake. He can offer to prescribe something else, and I may opt in, but I intend going the natural route. My diabetes is not so entrenched (according to Dr. Johnson) that I can't "back out" of it.

That's my Avandia deal. Nothing I've vented here should be considered by anyone else taking this drug to be reason to stop taking it themselves; consult your doctor if you have reservations about Avandia. For me, I don't believe diabetes is entirely incurable. For some with diabetes, a cure is out of the question at this point in time, but not for me. According to the doctor I can take control and kiss the drugs goodbye.

Now for the Rant...

Why would any drug maker want to see disease cured? Imagine the billions in revenue they would lose if disease could be cured? It took 5,000+ years to cure Leprosy, and that's undoubtedly due a lack of medical knowledge for 99% of that time. Do you mean to tell me we can't cure Diabetes? Cancer? AIDS? I don't believe this. The human body can fight off these diseases. The human body is so resilient. It then, quite simply, becomes a question of whether or not one chooses to do what it takes to give their body a fighting chance.

Granted, some diseases can become so entrenched that drastic measures, in turn, become necessary. But ask yourself this one question: Why is America so increasingly Obese? Obesity was not the problem it is today a mere 50 years ago. What about our diet has changed? What's in our food today, that wasn't there 50 years ago?

I think it's safe to say that much of America's growing health problems are due to the change in America's diet. Pollution? Free Radicals? Sure they account for some of it, but not to the proportions we see today; so much so we've labeled it epidemic. I believe we are killing ourselves every time we sit down to eat. I intend to change that. I don't pretend it will be easy. I won't lie and say I'll never eat this, or that again. But I will make more of an effort to feed my body what it really needs, rather than what it really wants.

And that's all I got to say about that...