So I'm seeing my GP. So we spend four months stabilising me and getting me on to the tablets that I'm now on. We tried metformin and gliclazide and I was up and down like this, my blood sugar was all over the place, it just wasn't stable. One minute I was 10 point something, the next I was 3 point something. And there was no relationship to the type of food I'd been eating, it was just, it was all over the place.
My blood pressure was being stubborn and not coming down. And my cholesterol had come down but not come down enough, so there was increasing the statins and they're horrible when you first start taking those because they really, you take them last thing at night and you just spend all night with like indigestion when you first take them, and it's pretty uncomfortable.
Eventually we moved me from metformin and gliclazide to a new tablet called Avandamet, which is metformin and Avandia. It is a very strong dose of metformin it's a 1000 mg twice a day, combined with a low dose of Avandia - the 4 mg now this, I can't remember the proper name, but I think it's 'rosiglitazide' [rosiglitazone] or something. There's a big fuss about this tablet because it apparently has an increased risk of heart problems, for people that take it.
I discussed this with my GP because he said, “Look, are you concerned about taking this tablet?” I said, “Well no, because taking this tablet has reduced the risk to me from all the other things that diabetes gives me. So overall, my risk of getting something is lower and if I don't treat my diabetes I've got a higher risk of heart problems anyway.”
I don't, I haven't had since I've had the medication all my chest pains have stopped. So, no I'm my only concern is that they will take the tablet away from me not that, you know, they'll say no we can't, because I've looked at all the alternatives - I've done research on the internet - and the side effects of all the other alternatives are worse, in my view, than what the Avandia has, so I'm comfortable with that. I reassure my GP every time I see him that I'm happy with that.
