Dear Editor,
I had a very enlightening event happen to me his week. I have been a Diabetic for the last 50 years and like everyone have been taking all kinds of pills to control it and they have been working for me as after all these years I still don’t have to take insulin needles like a lot of my friends.
This week I was in need of filling my prescriptions and phoned to get an appointment with my doctor whom I have been seeing for the last 20 years and been happy with what he has done for me. He was booked up for the next three weeks so I decided that in order to get my prescriptions filled I would just go to the drop-in clinic which I have done before when I couldn’t see my doctor.
In the drop-in clinic I was introduced to a very nice middle aged doc that took one look at my prescriptions and said to me (why are you still taking Avandia) to which I replied I have been taking it for at least 35 or more years. He then said to me that (you know that it causes Bladder Cancer).
Well guess what I have been fighting Bladder Cancer for the last almost 4 years and have had four operations and three sets of six week treatment the last one being Chemo. The Chemo seems to have worked as I have had two all clears in the last six months.
The thing that bugs me the most about this is that the Urologist never once mentioned anything about me being on Avandia or Rosiglitazone which it is called now. My drugust had talked to me once about it being hard on my heart but there was no mention of it causing Cancer. I have been taking it after going through all those operations and treatments to cure my cancer and to find out that it would probably cause it to return made me mad.
I have written this letter to warn anyone who is a Diabetic and is taking AVANDIA or ROSIGLITAZONE, please go to your doctor and have him give you something else.
James A. Cook, Westerose