Ok ladies here's the scoop since I have told my kids. I was finally called back this morning. Let me digress so you can understand how truly angry I am. Because I have two siblings and a mother who died of diabetic complications, I have my A1C level checked twice a year. In August it was 6.4 which is borderline you should be 6 or below, but my doctor at the time said we would keep an eye on it. In February I had a new dr who is my current one and we did another A1C. She said if all was the same or ok I wouldn't hear from her and I didn't. Well, my former gyn had the file at the time when the results came in, put them in the file and had it refiled instead of giving it to my regular dr. My
A1C was 8.5!!!!!. I assumed all was ok. My female stuff had stopped completely the 10th of June so everything was hunky dorey. Gyn left the practice and gave me a prescription for the hormone double the dosage and said it could be filled if I started bleeding again. The second week of Sept it came roaring back with spotting, bloody tissue and blood clotting so I filled the prescription and took it everyday without fail. A week or so before the cruise I started having urge incontinence problems that were bad. I would stand up and urinate all over myself and couldn't stop it. I wore pads all the time but sometimes it just wasn't enough. I wet on myself several times on the cruise and I knew what was up because the urine was sweet smelling. I called my dr and got in as soon as I could, which was last Friday. She did a stick test in my urine and said I was spilling huge amounts of sugar. She did several blood tests including my tryglcerides, cholesterol, hdl and ldl, my liver and kidney function and my sodium potassium and another A1C test. (all except the A1C level were excellent btw) I got a call from PEM this morning, which is the pharmacy teaching group so I had my answer since the dr didn't call. I am so very, very angry on more than one level. On Friday my A1c was 14.2, my glucose on an empty stomach of 8 hours was 376!!!! On top of that I found out from an article my daughter sent me more about the drug and blood sugar levels : "Before taking this medicine tell your doctor…If you have diabetes. Megestrol may increase your blood sugar and change your insulin needs. You and your doctor may need to watch your glucose levels closely while you are getting this drug. Megestrol can affect your blood glucose (sugar) levels. A few people even develop diabetes while taking this drug. If you notice dry mouth, unexplained thirst, poor appetite, and increased urination, talk to your doctor. If you have diabetes, watch your blood sugar carefully." The gyn over 18 months of taking this drug never once checked my blood sugar. She didn't give the Feb test to my regular doctor and we could have started my plan back then. Kelly said I should possibly file a lawsuit. She said with the gyn knowing my family history and my obesity they should have never put me on a chronic dosage. On top of that, she doubled the dosage from 20 to 40 mg. It is extremely possible this drug helped push me right over the edge. So, I have an appt a week from tomorrow to get things rolling. I would have liked to get in sooner but that was their first appt. Jack is going to go with me which is great as he can be part of this all and ask all the questions he wants to.
I am ok about contracting the disease. I am already on the diabetic diet, which is where I got the exchange program in the first place a year ago and am really proactive about health stuff so I will deal with this, but frankly the part that scared me is thinking about what could have happened on the ship!!!
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