Interesting Side Effect

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Starting a new medication today and I note that a known but rare side effect of the drug is "Sudden Death Syndrome".

That makes me feel pretty good.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Hope it's a medication you really, really need. That would make me think twice!

 

[LuvOrlando]

Yeah, Dr's game me a biologic for joint pain that can cause cancer and other horrifying side effects and my body was shutting itself off for years, whole situation was insane and Drs kept acting like I was making it up - such a PO.

Now, I tell them unless a problem shows up that is life threatening I am not taking a life threatening medication. Done, so done with medical community trivializing side effects. Being a statistic is terrible.

For the record, so no-one misunderstands, I include Depression and other severe mental health issues as a life threatening diagnosis that would warrant careful consideration of even black box medications but after my brush with big pharma I would tread carefully and try everything safer first.

 

[tvguy]

Yeah, Dr's game me a biologic for joint pain that can cause cancer and other horrifying side effects and my body was shutting itself off for years, whole situation was insane and Drs kept acting like I was making it up - such a PO.

Now, I tell them unless a problem shows up that is life threatening I am not taking a life threatening medication. Done, so done with medical community trivializing side effects. Being a statistic is terrible.

For the record, so no-one misunderstands, I include Depression and other severe mental health issues as a life threatening diagnosis that would warrant careful consideration of even black box medications but after my brush with big pharma I would tread carefully and try everything safer first.

Tell me about it. My blood pressure was averaging 127/80. Doctor added a blood pressure medicine that had a side effect impacting my kidneys. Blood tests spotted that, but not before some damage was done.
Then the KIDNEY Doctor put me on another blood pressure medicine because she wants my BP below 120/80 and THAT had a side effect of afib.
I will never know, but I think I would have been better off with a BP of 127/80 than with the side effects trying to get it below 120/80.

 

[disykat]

I wrote a post and couldn't bring myself to leave it public so without going into specifics suffice it to say I feel your pain due to a genetic trait. In our family, we are living on the theory that everyone has risks and we're just doing our best to mitigate the risks we know about knowing full well any of us could be hit by a truck tomorrow. Yours sort of sounds like a "pick your poison" situation and hopefully you can find a solution. Drs. must not be too concerned about it - so sounds like hopefully minimal risk?

Will you be monitored periodically to assess risk if you decide to take the drug? If risks rise, is an ICD an option?
There's actually a lot online about sudden arrhythmia death syndromes, so it's not as unusual as you might think. Many people live and thrive with these conditions; it's just another risk in a life full of risks.

Sometimes we know too much!