October 31, 2009

Hello

This week has been pleasant.  I have reached a stage where there aren’t very many problems.  This week I think I will tell you my decision about my decision to take Glyburide. 

First let me explain my situation.  I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in June of 2009.  I worked very hard to gain control of the diabetes through exercise and diet.  In August, I went back for my first tests since starting my program.  I had lost about 22 pounds and dropped my A1c from 7.4 to 5.8.  This was awesome work according to my doctor.  I was noticing some differenced happening at this time though.  My blood sugar wasn’t as easily controlled and I had gained a few pounds back.  The thing was that I hadn’t changed my routine.  After noticing some other symptoms, I checked to see if I was pregnant.  I was and then life really changed.  I thought I had controlled my diabetes well enough before that I could do it with the pregnancy without medicine. 

My doctor let me try for 2 weeks then said I just wasn’t getting my fasting numbers low enough.  I had always had a problem with this though.  My fasting numbers were usually the highest of the day.  He suggested Glyburide.  I take one 2.5 mg tablet a day before bedtime.  It is just to lower my fasting blood sugar.  The doctor told me it was safe, it is what gestational diabetes patients use and would be better that possible side effects from high blood glucose levels.  I trust my doctor very much.  I didn’t question him much.  I had done a lot of research on what the diabetes could do in pregnancy.  I was very worried at this point about what the high glucose could do to the baby or me.  After the visit, I researched the drug.  I had only heard of insulin treatments for pregnant patients not Glyburide.  I wanted to know more.

Unfortunately, the internet can give conflicting reports.  I found one site that you could enter drug names and it would tell you the rating as far as safety during pregnancy (A,B,C,or D).  Glyburide was a B.  This was an okay level.  I found one site that said only insulin was safe.  I decided that I would have to just decide yes or no on my own since I couldn’t find any definite answers.  I decided, as I said before, that the benefits of the medicine far outweighed the possible side effects.  I have since found one report that stated that Glyburide taken in the first trimester could cause possible ear defects but since most patients didn’t start the medicine until the second trimester, it was a safe drug.  I wasn’t usual but I didn’t find this until I was in my second trimester. 

Even though I have found this information, I think I made the right decision.  I can’t say that I suffered any side effects myself from the medicine.  Some of the side effects listed are some the same problems suffered during the first trimester anyways like nausea, headaches and stomach cramps.  I had all of these but who is to say it was the medicine or the pregnancy.  As far as possible birth defects, only time will tell at this point.  I think I can deal better with an ear defect than a stillborn baby, miscarriage or baby with hypoglycemia.  For my own personal choice, the medicine was for me.  It may not be the same for another woman.