But look y'all, Something's got to be done! I'm downright loopy on all these drugs.
It's not a matter of cost. Except for Farxiga and Ozempic, these are all free. All covered by insurance. I don't even pay a premium on this insurance. I love me my Obamacare!
So I'm planning on titrating down quite a few of these and replacing them with what they should be replaced with, a more healthy lifestyle.
Gabapentin, that stuff's outrageous. Everything from chest pain, to palpitations, to irritability, to confusion, to narcoleptic episodic drowsiness and let's throw in heightened anxiety and insomnia to the mix. And all for what? As I described to Gonzalez, I don't have foot pain related to diabetic nerve disease, I have the foot numbness and loss of sensitivity in my feet. I don't think this is designed to cure that. So why was I on this? I thought it may help with social anxiety as that's an off-brand use for it for some people, but I guess these classifications of drugs don't work on me. Reminds me of Wellbutrin a few years ago that was totally ineffective as well in regards to depression and Social Anxiety. Me thinks my depression and Social Anxiety are directly related to alcohol withdrawal or dependency which I don't think there's a drug for that other than staying off of the hooch.
Allopurinol is next on the list. For years I've been wanting to reduce or eliminate this. First of all, instances of gout, which is the reason I'm on this, have been absolutely non-existent for probably 15 years or so. Yes, during the last blood work that tested for it, my uric acid levels were still teetering towards abnormally high, even with Allopurinol, but a lot of that is, you guessed it, alcohol related. So if I stop drinking, my uric acid levels will reduce. Goodbye Allopurinol.
The calendar says glimepiride titration to start this Friday but I think I already omitted it from my weekly load up of my day by day med dispenser. I'm not even really supposed to be on this still. The Farxiga and Ozempic should have replaced metformin and glimepiride all together. But my A1C was still stubborn lingering around 8.0 and I reincorporated them to get the blood sugar down. It did so, my blood sugar is down, but you know what else brings blood sugar down? Healthy eating, exercise, and, yep, reduce or eliminate drinking.
And towards the end of the month, I'm looking at reducing and eventually eliminating the 81 mg aspirin and its accompaniment of omeprazole. I read articles saying that 81 mg aspirin is recommended only for those that have specific heart disease related illnesses like hardening of the arteries, heart attacks, stuff like that. Well I do have the history of palpitations, AKA atrial fibrillation. But we all know what brings those on.
And the Omeprazole is simply to counteract the stomach acid produced from the aspirin, so there you go.
Now going back to speak of Ozempic, today I'm starting on 2 mg per week and we'll see how that goes. For the past couple months, I haven't felt the miracle appetite suppressant qualities at all anymore and my weight has, understandably, started to creep back up. So Gonzalez has me upping the dose, and if that don't work out, we'll switch to Mounjaro which, I quote, she said is like Ozempic on steroids.
When she talks about these drugs I swear she has dollar signs in her eyes. You know these prescribers get kickbacks, come on. I've been seriously thinking about cleaning house of her as well.