drug causing my 85yrs Aunt diarrhea 4 2wks

[sumarg]

Hello Everyone,

I'm being very selfish here and just venting my frustration for my Aunt.

I live in Italy so don't get to see her very often & when I telephone she doesn't like to chat about herself (that's the kind of person she is!)


I phoned her recently & she sounded terrible & rang off saying she would phone when felt better.

A couple of days later she phoned to say she had sickness & diarrhoea, started when she was out on Wed in the cafe with her friends. (how awful is that) she got a taxi home. But she still had the diarrhoea. I said to go to the doctors.

Phoned on Monday & her son had taken her to the doctors. She was very distressed as every time she ate she had to go to the toilet & was dreading eating although she was hungry. Anyway, her specimens would come back on Wed so she would know the cause or be referred to the hospital.

She phoned me on Fri & she said after 2 weeks her diarrhoea had gone! It was the tablets. The ones she was on for yrs have been taken off the market as could or causing heart attacks.

I arranged for a M&S fruit basket to be delivered to her to cheer her up. (In hindsight not one of my better ideas!)

She phoned me & I asked how she was - don't ask she said! The diarrhea had come back & she wasn't going to take her new tablets as they had the same name (ingredient?) as the other ones. She is going to the doctors tomorrow as she has to go for her yearly check up with the diabetic nurse.

Now my questions to you -

I am competely in the dark about diabetes & that is why I have joined you, to find out more.
Am I wrong to feel that she isn't getting the kind of care or support that I would have expected from a doctor ( she has 2 as one of them only works 2 days)
I realise I don't know all of the facts. But does any of my story make sense?
Would a doctor leave a elderly diabetic patient with diarhhea for 2 weeks?
Can't they check what tablets they give out and the side effects?

anyway, thanks for reading this, it's helped to get it off my chest!

 

[margie]

It sounds like your Aunt may have been prescribed Metformin - which is notorious for causing gastro problems. They effect tend to be worse following a high fat meal.

Its possible that her Doctor replaced standard Metformin with the slow release version which whilst it can cause side-effects tend to be less severe.

The problem with side-effects is that not everyone gets them and the Dr cannot tell by looking at someone whether they will be effected. If its Metformin that was prescribed it is believed by many Drs to be very good. It may be worth finding out what dose your Aunt was on as the advice for Metformin is to start on the lowest dose and build up that way side-effects are minimised and you give the body a chance to get used to the drug effects before adding on. I don't know if all GPs are aware of this though - they may have gone straight to a large dose.

I don't believe a Dr would leave a patient of tablets for 2 weeks if they realised they were the course - it sounds like they suspected another cause and only when that was ruled out where the tablets suspected.

All of the above is based on the assumption that Metformin is the drug your Aunt is taking.

 

[Northerner]

Hi Sumarg, no problems with venting your frustrations here! Form what you say I'm not sure it would have been metformin (or whatever the Italian version is called) as Margie suggested, as I can't imagine why that would be withdrawn from the market - it has been around since the early 1990s and is not linked to heart attacks. There is a drug that was recently withdrawn called Avandia (rosiglitazone) which is used in the treatment of diabetics, so that may have been the drug in question and she may now have been given one of the safer alternatives. However, this new drug has also caused her problems, unfortunately. With a new drug of this type it will normally take a week or two for any side-effects to settle down, so it may be that they settle down for your grandmother. If not then another drug or course of action must be considered, but the doctor would have had to allow some time to see if she would become used to the one prescribed.

I hope that her problems are eased soon and that she no longer needs to suffer such distress.

 

[margie]

the way I interpreted

"She phoned me on Fri & she said after 2 weeks her diarrhoea had gone! It was the tablets. The ones she was on for yrs have been taken off the market as could or causing heart attacks. "

was that after taking a tablet for many years it had been withdrawn and that for the last two weeks since starting the new meds she had been suffering diarrhea. That is how I got to Metformin. Of course I may have misinterpreted the post - I think I am having communication problems today.

 

[Northerner]

the way I interpreted

"She phoned me on Fri & she said after 2 weeks her diarrhoea had gone! It was the tablets. The ones she was on for yrs have been taken off the market as could or causing heart attacks. "

was that after taking a tablet for many years it had been withdrawn and that for the last two weeks since starting the new meds she had been suffering diarrhea. That is how I got to Metformin. Of course I may have misinterpreted the post - I think I am having communication problems today.

Not at all margie! At least we have covered all angles! 🙂