By now, if you've read this far, you are probably asking yourself... "Where are the Doctors in all of this"?
The ER Physician referred me to a local Doctor for tests. There I was, waiting in the Doctor's office, feeling extremely ill. In he comes with the test results in hand. These were the first words out of his mouth...
"...well Joe, your Blood Pressure is way too high, so is your Blood Glucose. That's near 400!! In addition to that, your LDL and HDL numbers are terrible... your cholesterol is over 350..."
(Now I ask you, isn't that one marvelously loaded sentence, done all in one breath?)! The doctor continued:
"...Due to the serious nature of all these different conditions... you will need to take these Medications for the rest of your life..."
He then proceeded to hand me six prescriptions which I found out later would cost me $650.00/month! Because I didn't have Health insurance at the time, he did hand me a box of samples to help me out. What surprised me most, the man never touched me nor did he ask me any questions about my history, my family history... nothing like that. On top of that... He spent no more than ten minutes with me! And this is after I told the Man I hadn't seen a Doctor In Four years.
I felt like a faceless number in a process. This is not a good feeling to have when you think you are dying.
He did have time to say I would be sick the rest of my life, have to stay on the medications and there was no cure... Have a good day!
After only ten days on those medications, I felt like I had been poisoned. The medication made me feel worse than none at all! On the last day I took the pills, I thought I was having a Heart attack! I rushed back to the Doctors Office where I was informed... "You're having a Panic attack."
An adverse Drug reaction is more like it!!
54 years old and no panic attacks, take Drugs for 9 days...Panic attack. For me, it made sense... "No drugs, no panic attacks." I stopped all the drugs and fired the Doctor.
The side effects of these drugs are horrific, but not one word of warning was ever given by the Doctor! I will never take another pharmaceutical Drug as long as I live. Odd thing though. When I was leaving the Doctors office, I Overheard the office manager say, "well we just lost one"! I felt like the "fish" that freed himself from the hook. Later I would learn that is exactly what happened.
Read on: Part 4