SIGforum.com Main Page What's Your Deal! Why do doctors feel they have to change things when you’re doing well?
Main Page What's Your Deal! Why do doctors feel they have to change things when you’re doing well?Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
| Member |
Backstory…I’ve been a heart failure patient for years. At the low point, ejection fraction was 35% with PVCs hovering @ 30%. Cardiologist switched me from Lisinopril to Entresto a few years back. 6 months later PVCs are at zero and EF increased to 40%. I felt great the last few years and all testing showed I should. My cardiologist retired and the new gal suggested I go to their heart failure clinic. I thought why not? I could learn more about proper exercise and diet. So, the first thing the clinic guy does is add Aldactone and Jardiance. He says standard practice in my case. I told him I’ve been a patient of this heart group for over 10 years. If its standard practice, why am I just hearing about it now? He says, “I don’t know.” This was 4 weeks ago. I wake up with a headache every day and have to pee every hour including overnight. Sent a note to the clinic doc yesterday letting him know that Jardiance is in the trash and Aldactone will join it if I don’t feel better by Monday. And please cancel my follow-up appt. Why do they do this? I was doing great! Is pharma payola still a thing? ____________ Pace | ||
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Spread the Disease |
My endocrinologist did this a bit. My cholesterol was in the green. No issues. She still prescribed me a statin as a "preventative measure". Nope. They are sitting untouched in my cabinet. I'm not taking shit (especially that may have side effects) unless there is a reason. The best preventative measure to stay in the green for this issue is to not eat shit all the time. ________________________________________ -- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. -- | |||
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| His diet consists of black coffee, and sarcasm.  |
I thought Jardiance was a "diabeetus" drug.  That's what the endless obnoxious commercials say. You don't mention diabetes. What does that have to do with heart failure?
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| Member |
Additionally approved for heart failure in 2021. And yea, no green taint for me thanks. ____________ Pace | |||
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| His diet consists of black coffee, and sarcasm. |
^^^ Talk about the cure being worse than the disease. | |||
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| Member |
My endocrinologist reduced my metformin dose by 1/3 and encouraged me to reduce the insulin by 25 percent over time. We had a long talk, and she explained that metformin, when used long term in high doses, can contribute to dementia. The insulin was reduced to stop my blood glucose from dropping overnight. I never change a med unless we have a long talk about it and with specific reasons for the change. | |||
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Prepared for the Worst, Providing the Best |
They tried to do that to me, too. I refused. My cholesterol is still fine. | |||
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| Member |
The simple solution is to have a discussion with your doctor. I doubt this is about pharma kickback. There are individual differences with drugs. Part of the problem is getting your information from TV ads. | |||
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| Member |
Sorry, I don't get your inference with this comment. It's very simple. I felt fine without the new drugs. I felt crappy with them. TV had nothing to do with it. ____________ Pace | |||
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| Member |
My brother had a stroke some years ago. He recovered pretty well. Since all that required doctors, doctors did what doctors do, screw around with things by prescribing lots of pills. I believe it was his cholesterol med that was practically killing him but he went weeks thinking it was a digestive problem from his stroke causing him to use too much hot sauce or bad food. He cut it all out except blood pressure meds but he should be something for diabetic symptoms. “That’s what.” - She | |||
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| Member |
^^^^^^^^^^ You sure took this personally. If you look at the posts above yours you will see the reference to TV pharma ads. | |||
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| Member |
It is concerning to hear about sudden changes in your medications and the resulting side effects. It is important to maintain open communication with your medical team and understand the rationale for any new treatments that are recommended. Your comfort and well-being are always our top priority. Therefore, it is important to discuss your concerns with your doctor and explore other options. ___________________________________________________ in the 'Merica Navy they teach you to go pew pew pew... Luckily in the PNW they taught me to go BANG BANG BANG | |||
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| Member |
Nope, not personally at all. Since you mention pharma kickback, I thought you were addressing my OP. Corrected I stand.This message has been edited. Last edited by: pace40, ____________ Pace | |||
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| Thank you Very little  |
New SOP is to google any new prescribed drug and read up on it's advantages and issues. I've had two doctor prescribe medications for BP with severe reactions, gout and chronic cough, sparing the details, my research brought to their attention the problem and we changed meds. Not until after the reactions were treated as separate from the BP meds, I had to research it to show them what was causing the issues. So far both medications being eliminated fixed the underlying reactions. Read the information, google the drug, read about what it does and what it side effects can be, no matter how little the pct. You could be one of those people with the side effect. | |||
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אַרְיֵה |
Yup. I was taking Lisinopril for BP. Had a persistent dry cough. The Google said that this was a known side effect for some patients. Send an email to my doc. He replied, telling me to discontinue the Lisinopril and attached an Rx for Losartin to his email. Cough was completely gone in a week or two. Bonus: BP numbers are now way better than they were with Lisinopril. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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goodheart |
Yeah, the chronic cough was lisinopril, the gout probably hydrochlorothiazide or chlorthalidone. BTW I had my PCP switch me from allopurinol to febuxostat (Uloric) a couple of years ago after I sent him some articles about benefits of febuxostat. It dropped my urine uric acid levels to near zero, and I've had no gout symptoms; also probably decreased risk of recurrent kidney stones. The proper reaction to concern about changes in medications is to ask to talk to the doctor about it. Aldactone has been shown to improve outcomes for CHF, but it's not for everyone. Here's what Wikipedia says:
_________________________ “ What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”— Lord Melbourne | |||
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| Member |
Well, it was definitely Jardiance causing the issues. After stopping it, back to my normal one pee break overnight and the headache and brain fog are gone. But...back to original question. Why do doctors have to fuck with things if you're doing well? I display no heart failure symptoms except what shows up on echos. No shortness of breath, no fluid retention. O2 sat is steady at 99%. Great BP. Last 3 echos were the same. Nuclear stress test confirmed the echos. Nothing. I'm certainly not going to run a marathon, but I didn't do that when I was 25 either. Why not just say, "Hey, you're doing great! Keep doing what you're doing. See you next year. Call if you have any issues." I guess I should say some doctors because my last two cardiologists did exactly that. Is it because they feel they're not doctoring unless they DO something?This message has been edited. Last edited by: pace40, ____________ Pace | |||
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| Member |
Speaking as a medical professional we get pressured by patients frequently to “do something” and often, when things are on the edge ( doing ok but not great) we get bad reviews that “ I went to the doctor and he didn’t do anything for me” As medical professionals we are compelled to make an effort to optimize a patients condition. A dammed if you do dammed if you don’t situation | |||
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Member |
Wait, what? Metformin itself reduces the risk of dementia. Stopping or reducing metformin increases your risk of dementia by like 20%! | |||
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