Mobile, ALDonald, 72, a retired attorney, a type 2 diabetic and a former Byetta user, says Byetta is not to be trusted. "I want to get the word out that Byetta is a bad drug, and I want to help get it off the market." says Donald.
"Why would someone with any intelligence take this drug, knowing it's bad? Because it works!" Yet the risks of Byetta far outweigh the benefits. "I urge anyone taking Byetta to ask their doctor about an alternative med that has the good side effect of suppressing your appetite without causing kidney failure," Donald says.
"My doctor said it would make me a little nauseous—what an understatement. I can adjust to a great deal of discomfort if I think it is beneficial, but why would someone take a med that makes them deathly ill?"
Although no one came right out and told him that Byetta has caused serious kidney problems, all fingers point to the drug. "Since 1990 I've had blood work done every few months because I have congestive heart failure, then I take Byetta and all of a sudden I'm in stage 4 kidney failure," Donald explains. "Given those circumstances, I think anyone would conclude that Byetta was the cause."
Donald's doctor prescribed Byetta to help him control his weight. "He never mentioned any kidney problems associated with this drug," adds Donald. "I had researched the effects of insulin and weight gain, so I tried Byetta. He said it would make me a little nauseous—what an understatement. I can adjust to a great deal of discomfort if I think it is beneficial, but why would someone take a med that makes them deathly ill? I think a lot of people (I personally know six) started Byetta and stopped the first week.
"It made me violently ill—I had dry heaves all night; the nausea is basically uncontrollable. The next morning I took my blood sugar and it was down to 110 from 250 or 300. I figured that maybe this Byetta works, otherwise I wouldn't have touched it again.
"So I took it again but six hours later the nausea was debilitating. I kept at it, however, and my blood sugar remained at a level I hadn't seen in years. It worked! But for the first month any food I ate resulted in violent vomiting. It subsided over time but I had a few setbacks. Several months into taking Byetta, without any warning whatsoever I vomited all over everyone in Sears Roebuck. It was the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to me. Then I threw up in front of Wal Mart. When it happens you have no warning.
"The strange part is, toward the end of each month the nausea decreased. You take it for 30 days—you never use the injection pen after 30 days. Every time I started a new pen, I had a lot of nausea again. I mentioned this to my doctor and we decided maybe it was because the dosage in the new pen was stronger at the beginning. Something was diluting it as the month progressed…
"I wasn't sure that I could live with this damn medication, but after 18 months on Byetta, my blood sugar level was under control. And the violent vomiting eruptions had subsided. I was nearly bulimic but I learned to live with it.
"Then I had a regular check-up and blood work. Soon as I got home I had a phone call from the nurse. 'Stop taking Byetta and some of your other meds,' she said. 'Your potassium is out of kilter and you need to have more blood work.' My doctor told me that I had stage 4 kidney failure.
"'Stage 4 what?' I said. 'We've never talked about kidney failure. What the heck is that?'
"'It's chronic and your blood work shows you are close to dialysis and people with congestive heart failure die within the first year on dialysis,' my doctor said.
"'I'm a hearty man; is dialysis that bad?' I replied.
"'No, you don't want to be there. I'm sending you to a nephrologist.'
"The specialist sent me to the hospital for more scans and tests, put me on sodium bicarbonate, which is nothing unusual, and told me to come back after he examined the test results.
"'I have good news,' he told me in August. 'Your kidneys have made remarkable progress and I don't need to see you until November. 'Meantime, take some iron shots.' I'm not sure how much was a placebo effect, but I felt pretty good after that.
"The nephrologist also told me there was a new drug out, called Victoza, which worked just as well as Byetta without the side effects. It is a miracle drug! So now I am back on all my meds except for Byetta. Although no one would admit it, not one medical professional advised me to go back on this drug, and that is very suspicious."
Victoza was approved by the FDA in January 2010 (It was approved in Europe last July). Byetta has been very successful as a weight loss aid, but the nausea has made it intolerable for some people. More alarmingly, Byetta has been linked to renal failure. Victoza has a longer half-life, so it can be injected just once a day, at any time. Byetta, on the other hand, has to be taken at every meal.
Victoza, however, is still the "new kid on the block," and it may be too early to suggest that no serious adverse health effects like those associated with Byetta could occur.
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