I had a dream that went something like this:
We had a guest a few days ago who made an impression on us. Her name was Helen, and she was from New York. Probably about 50 years old. She was warm, funny and smart…everybody liked her. The sad thing about Helen was that she could hardly get around. She said she had congestive heart failure, and she believed that a diabetes medicine named Avandia had contributed to it. She could only walk about 30 seconds, then she had to sit down and rest.
Helen said that she had started taking Avandia about a year ago, and at the time her heart was fine. But within a few weeks she noticed herself getting winded, and her doctor diagnosed congestive heart failure. She immediately quit taking Avandia in order to prevent the heart disease from getting worse. She said there was so much fluid overload and edema, she had to sit up while sleeping. She said her doctor diagnosed hypertension (high blood pressure) in the blood vessels of the lungs.
She said that Avandia has been implicated in heart problems (congestive heart failure, heart attacks) in other people, and she is hoping to get in a class action lawsuit against Glaxo, the manufacturer.
She told us that a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine had found that Avandia increased the risk of heart attack by over 40 per cent.
She believes the Food and Drug Administration, under the Bush administration, has leaned too far toward helping the drug companies and not enough toward safety.
Of course, she may win the class action lawsuit, but is it worth it if she loses her life due to heart attack?
Then I woke up, and realized it had all been a dream.