I want to apologize for the lateness of this post. I have had a lot going on over the past couple of weeks and I have not had the time. It is that time of year for my work to start getting busy, the kids are going back to school, and I just can't seem to find ten minutes for myself. I will try to do better in the future. I do want to catch you up on what has been happening and I will try to give as much detail as I can.
I am pretty sure that my new cardiologist hates me. I really don't care what she thinks. I am doing my best to educate myself on my condition and all the medications that are prescribed to me. She wants me to be a sheep that blindly follows what she wants me to do. I am no sheep. I had to go in and have some blood work done to monitor my cholesterol, insulin, and sugar. My cholesterol is not that bad. My overall cholesterol is 155, my HDL is 43, and my LDL is 95.6. According to what I have read, your overall level should be less than 200, your HDL should be greater than 60 and your LDL should be under 100. My HDL is improving with every test they do. My sugar is at 112 and it should be under 100 and my insulin is at 42.9 and it should be less than 25. I have developed what the doctors call insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is when the cells in your body are non responsive to insulin, which keeps your body from absorbing glucose (used for energy), which makes your glucose rise and the pancreas create more insulin.This is often referred to as pre-diabetes. The cause of my insulin resistance is where my doctors and I disagree. They want to blame my family history (it is worth noting here that only one person in my family has diabetes). I believe it is the statin (cholesterol) medication that I have been taking. I have been on Lipitor since I was released from the hospital. Everything was fine until June of this year. Out of nowhere, my insulin shot into the forties and my glucose started to increase. They were fine in May, but went crazy in June. At that time, my family doctor told me that researchers had discovered that statin use increased the risk for diabetes so she cut my dose from 20 mg to 10 mg. In July both my sugar and my insulin were down. My glucose was 104 and my insulin was 27. They were still a little high, but were getting close to normal. Then in August, they jumped again. I took this to mean that I just couldn't tolerate the Lipitor. My cardiologist did not agree.
I called her and told her that I was having issues with my insulin and muscle pain (another side effect). She wanted to lecture me on the importance of keeping my cholesterol low. I told her that my levels were within normal range and she said they weren't. I still need to drop my LDL another 20 points. I got sick of arguing with her and told her I would no longer take that statin and she needed to prescribe a different one. She prescribed 40 mg of Crestor, which has almost the same diabetes risk as Lipitor and the dose was 4 times what I was currently taking. I emailed her and told her that I would not be filling the prescription. The next day they prescribed 20 mg of Zocor, which cuts the diabetes risk in half compared to the other medicines. I received a letter from her in the mail detailing our conversation and had some printouts of articles about the importance of lowering cholesterol. I just laughed. I am not arguing that fact with her. I get that I need to get that number down to help prevent another heart attack, but I don't think that I should have to develop diabetes to accomplish it. Especially when there are other medications that work just as well without that added risk.
So now we wait to see if this medicine is going to work or if I need to change it again. I don't think my cardiologist was prepared for a patient like me. I believe that if a medicine isn't working, you should change it. She believes that you should just prescribe more medicine to offset the effects of the first medicine. And we wonder why the pharmaceutical companies make billions every year. They create customers, not cures. I refuse to be taken advantage of. I do not believe that doctors know all. I know that their opinion is just that, an opinion. It is not fact and should not be treated as such. If you ever think something isn't right with what a doctor tells you, get a second opinion. Always trust that initial instinct. It just might save your life.
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