Truck Driver Worried About Avandia Side Effects

Dunlap, TNKurt H. says he took the Avandia medication for approximately 2 years, but stopped because he was worried that the side effects would result in him being in a truck accident. Kurt says he did not know about the possible effects from taking the Avandia diabetes medication.

Kurt does not believe he suffered a heart attack, but he does think the medication could have had serious consequences for him, if he had not stopped taking it when he did.

"I had Type 2 Diabetes and I got the prescription [for Avandia]," Kurt says. "At the time, I was a commercial truck driver and I started to get really bad headaches and started to feel lightheaded—I had to quit taking it [Avandia] so I wouldn't have a wreck.

I read about something called PPH [Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension]. I've never been diagnosed with it—I didn't go to the doctor for it, so I don't want people to think I have it—but those symptoms are a lot like what I experienced. I had problems breathing and I just got real lightheaded, where it was almost like I was intoxicated. Not exactly the same as being intoxicated, but close. It was kind of scary. I never got checked for heart attacks or anything like that, so I don't know whether I had anything.

I started taking Avandia in 2004—it was mid-2004 and I quit taking it in the summer of 2006. Stopped after I had an incident.

The doctor put me on a breathing thing [inhaler] when she put me on the Avandia. I'm not sure how that works; if they were aware there was something to the Avandia and breathing. At the time, I had a little bit of an allergy, but since I've been off the Avandia, I haven't had to use the Singulair or the breathing inhaler, so I think they go together. The doctor put me on Avandia, Singulair and the inhaler all at the same time. That didn't rub me right. I thought that was a lot of medicine.

The lightheadedness didn't start right away. I think it was probably 6 or 8 months after I started Avandia that I just started feeling worse and worse. One day I was driving [his commercial truck], and it kind of scared me that I was having trouble concentrating and I was really lightheaded. So, I stopped taking it. I didn't have those problems before I started taking those drugs and it just seemed to me that I was going in the wrong direction: I was getting worse, not better.

That one time, I pulled over into a rest area and stopped for an hour because I didn't want to get in a wreck. That's a worse problem than being dizzy—being in a wreck. I was dizzy and I felt like I was getting sick—it felt like I would pass out. It was scary.

I quit taking the medication altogether. I went to a different doctor and we worked on more of a diet program [to manage the diabetes]. I've actually been better without the medication than with it.

I'm not really familiar with medicines. I don't know how they [scientists] knew the medications were giving problems—I didn't access that info. I never received that information. If there are doctors prescribing it [Avandia] and it causes problems, they need to tell people. Relay that information to help people. I didn't know anything about it at the time. They need to bridge the gap to help people."