Livingstone, TXAgainst his doctor’s advice, Don, age 47, stopped taking Januvia, saying he would rather deal with high blood sugar than kidney stones, blood in his urine and severe abdominal pains.
“As soon as I started taking Januvia, my stomach started burning, and about a year ago, I started to urinate blood clots,” says Don, who was on Januvia for about two years. “Then my urine turned a brownish color and I passed some kidney stones - the pain was so bad I wound up in hospital. They x-rayed my abdomen and found a sharp kidney stone that I hadn’t passed. By January, I could barely urinate at all and my toes went numb - not pleasant.”
Don adds that, after researching the side effects, he is worried about Januvia pancreatitis and Januvia cancer. His doctor advised him to stay on the diabetes drug to keep his blood sugar levels in check, but Don decided to stop taking it anyway. “I didn’t have any of these problems before I took Januvia,” he says, “and nobody could tell me why I was getting these symptoms. I wasn’t on any other meds so it was too much of a coincidence. But I did take antibiotics for a urinary tract infection because the kidney stone I passed was sharp as a razor blade.
“Before I took Januvia, my blood sugar was about 400, and after I took the pill, it ran up to 490 for an hour or two, then went back down to 400. ‘You aren’t worried that you could destroy your kidneys and your heart could shut down?’ my doctor asked me. I would rather live with high blood sugar and take my chances than possibly develop Januvia side effects. Now I’m afraid to take any drug now. Instead I just watch my diet and exercise, and I’m feeling a lot better since I stopped Januvia - it just made things worse.”
Don adds that his health issues first started when he was prescribed Seroquel: he developed diabetes from the drug, filed a lawsuit against AstraZeneca and settled in federal court.
Don is hopeful that he can join other patients who have filed Januvia lawsuits against Merck, and whose cases have now been consolidated to a special federal multi-district court in California. (In Re: Incretins Products Liability, Sales and Marketing Litigation, MDL 2452, United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation).
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