Statins are contraindicated with Dasatinib (Sprycel) which is the chemo drug I am taking. It is because of the way they are absorbed in the body through the liver. To keep the explanation simple, just imagine a turnstile and two people attempting to go through it at once. Statins are the bully to pushes Dasatinib out of the way to pass through the turnstile. So your body never absorbs the dosage you are supposed to be taking to treat the leukemia.
That becomes a bit of a quandary.
Keeping things in the dark is not healthy! |
I was very frustrated, unhappy and annoyed. Especially annoyed. With continued high lipids to challenge my heart health, it began to look like I would have more medical problems to deal with! Believe me, I've got enough diagnoses to educate a med school student. Was there nothing more to be done?
I researched information on Dasatinib. I contacted the maker, Bristol-Myers Squibb to see if they could recommend something. No, they said to talk to my doctor. My primary care doctor was adamant that all I could do was to keep to a healthy diet. My oncologist could not give me any suggestions.
Why would a drug manufacturer not have some kind of suggestion? I understand why my primary care doctor could only advocate diet and fiber. Prescribing chemo drugs was not in her realm. And why hadn't my oncologist investigated further to see what else could be done? It all seemed quite irresponsible to me. I wondered how many other patients go through this and feel helpless. How many just go along with the situation and accept things as they are? No, don't tell me. I don't really want to know. I really wish that there could be classes one could take to become a more savvy medical consumer.
I've learned over the decades while dealing with my myriad of medical problems that if I don't keep a watchful eye on things, mistakes can happen. I wanted to solve this dilemma of the lack of a safe drug to take. The more I researched the more I learned. Pravastatin is okay to take for a person who is taking Dasatinib! Pravastatin is NOT A Bully!
I presented my doctors with the evidence and now I have taken Pravastatin for two months. I am so relieved and happy. Look at the results:
Chart
Total cholesterol | 289 H | 274 H | 249 H | 192 | |
Triglyceride | 276 H | 308 H | 221 H | 125 | |
HDL cholesterol | 47 | 44 | 35 L | 57 | |
LDL Calculated | 187 H | 168 H | 170 H | 110 | |
VLDL (Calculated) | 5.0-40.0 mg/dL | 55 H | 62 H | 44 H | 25 |
Cholesterol to HDL Ratio | 6.1 H | 6.2 H | 7.1 H | 3.4 |
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love your comments! I will approve and respond as soon as possible. Thank you for posting them.
I'm sorry that Anonymous comments are no longer accepted. I've gotten too many spammers that way. If you would like to comment directly my profile provides a way to do that.