This past week I was sitting in the office of an endocrinologist in Findlay. I was seeing him for the first time to manage my diabetes which has been out of control. I did not realize just how bad I was until I was taking my blood sugar 7 times a day and recording it for the doctor to see.
While I was waiting to be called back. I watched a cadre of people, many females. Sluggish , overweight, and barely able to walk with their walkers to get to a seat. I had an epiphany at that moment.
I am on a ton of meds for my heart, plus the diabetes meds. ( insulin only) and a thyroid med, an acid reducer, and a handful of vitamins. As I was pondering this I thought, I bet that most of the people in this waiting room are also on a ton of meds, and have been like me for some time.
WE are all taking this pile of meds everyday and no one is getting any better. We just get worse. Or so it seems to me. So I thought... Why am I taking all of these poison pills that the pharmaceutical industry has put out there and my doctor pushes on me? I know I have health issues, heart disease, and diabetes to name a couple. And I know that one of these is going to kill me, so in that epiphany moment. I accepted that I am going to die from one of these conditions, so why should I pay the drug companies to kill me quicker with their poison.
I decided at that moment I was not going to take anymore medications. Well almost none. I still take the thyroid pill as I believe that does help me, and if I don't take the Omeperazole, I will be so miserable with heartburn I will want to die quickly. The next day I did not take any of my meds or the vitamin supplements. And that day I felt better than I have for months. My brain fog was gone, the aches and pains and tiredness were also gone. I exercised at the gym, and walked the dog at the reservoir. I did a few household chores, and all of this without having to sit down and rest my aching back every 5 minutes. ( the back pain BTW has been gone since last MOnday..)
I began to use the new insulin that the endocrinologist ordered, and my blood sugars are returning to normal levels. I am still feeling well and this is day 5 without any heart meds, blood pressure meds, water pills, blood thinners, etc. etc. I do need to take my blood pressure just to make sure it is not going off the charts. But I am amazed at how good I have felt all week.
I have not decided whether to tell my cardiologist about this new direction I am taking. He is a middle eastern male, and I don't think he respects women's opinions too much. He has been hounding me to take anti cholesterol meds for years. I tried Statins, nearly everyone out there, and they give me such horrible muscle cramps I cannot sleep at night as I am too busy jumping out of bed and dancing around trying to stamp out the Charlie horse in my legs. I also developed rib cramps. If I would turn the wrong way or sometimes just sitting I would get a cramp in my ribs. Which required me to get into all kinds of stretching positions to relieve. I never had rib cramps before those damn statins. IN fact even after stopping them I had the rib cramps for several months. I think they are finally gone, haven't had one in some time... But they were very annoying....
Anyway the cardiologist wanted me to take a new anti cholesterol med , Repatha, an injectable. WEll after careful assessment by whoever and my insurance company I was approved for it. But the co pay was going to be several hundred dollars a month. So I am definitely not taking that. I have not broken the news to my cardio doc. But here again, this is a new drug, probably not fully tested, and who know what the side effects are I am not paying $200 per month for the pharmaceutical company to kill me.
The one point I scored for the new doc. was when he asked me why I wasn't on an anti cholesterol med and I explained all this and told him about the Repatha. He kind of chuckled and said " I bet you can't affor that one. I don't prescribe it to my patients because it is so expensive. " He moved up a notch or two after that comment. However the new med a rapid acting insulin he prescribed will cost me about $130 per month. But I figured in order to save my limbs, my eyes and my kidneys it was probably worth it...
So that's my story today. I f I haven't died of heart failure next week I will post an update.
No comments:
Post a Comment