Presenting Coca-Cola’s darkest secrets

[Rawhide]

texas I developed diabetes after taking some meds for my heart. Its seems there is a process that happens till death. Feet swelling is a sign of a weak heart. At night the fluid would rush up as my body corrected itself and strangle me while I slept. If you can do without the meds, you may be better off. Im surprised they havent gave you beta blockers to get your rythms right. I cant take em, makes me sick.

 

[Red James Cash]

Heres a funny thing,since my brother has been going to the VA for his back and cluster headaches,he's been getting worse and worse.

 

[Rawhide]

I started seeing the VA four years ago. I am now totally disabled as they treat the symptom but dont cure you. The treatment will kill you slowly.

 

[Chadeaux]

texas I developed diabetes after taking some meds for my heart. Its seems there is a process that happens till death. Feet swelling is a sign of a weak heart. At night the fluid would rush up as my body corrected itself and strangle me while I slept. If you can do without the meds, you may be better off. Im surprised they havent gave you beta blockers to get your rythms right. I cant take em, makes me sick.

Well, the beta blocker are usually the CAUSE of feet swelling. They WEAKEN your heart. Metoporol is actually known to cause an ENLARGED HEART ... and if you're diabetic, you can probably thank the heart med, as that is one of the warnings ... it will raise blood sugar readings. Some docs like to start you on the various lopressor (metoprolol) versions and once you start showing signs of type II diabetes they put you on glyburide (or another form of diabeta) which is known to affect the effectiveness of the lopressor. They raise the dose of lopressor which raises blood sugar, so they have to increase your diabetes meds in a vicious cycle like a dog chasing its tail.

Went to a new doctor about 1 1/2 years ago. He explained it to me, we weaned me off the lopressor and my goodness --- the ankle and leg swelling went away.

 

[texasred777]

Several things: First I want to thank all of you for your concern and thoughts. My swelling seems to be caused by the new chair that I use at my desk!! It is just a bit higher than the old one and is hurting my circulation to my feet. I started putting a pillow under my butt yesterday evening to raise my legs a little off of the front of the chair. This morning I notices a great improvement in the swelling. Still some; but no where near as much. If it decreases as much by tomorrow as it did since yesterday, I'll be almost certain that it's the chair causing the problem.
Yes, Metoporol is what I'm taking. I was taking 100 mg, then cut to 50. After about 4 days, the pulse rate settled out nicely; but about 2 weeks ago, it started again and worse. Although the doc says she's afraid to cut it in half again, I may try it anyway. She said it might make the irregularity worse. Hey, I don't see how it can get much worse unless heart just stops! I cut it a couple of nights in half but went back to what the doc recommended.
I just got back from having the monitor 'hooked up'. Now for the next three days, I have to write down what I'm doing along with the time so they can try to determine why what is happening. I don't know what it's going to tell them unless I have some problems that I am unaware of. I don't have dizzy spells, chest pains, etc.
I got up this morning, went to the bathroom, washed up, combed what hair I have left, sat down, and started my nebulizer meds. I checked my pulse rate and it was 39. About 2 minutes later it was 76. I quit checking at that point. It's crazy! When I got to the hospital for the heart monitor hook-up, I checked and found the rate was 73. For the hour or so that I was there, I never saw it fluctuate. I've got a little monitor that clamps on the finger to show the pulse rate and the % of oxygen in the blood.
Again I appreciate everyone's concern.

 

[JunkShopFiddler]

so far, so good

I seriously don't know how I have lived for six decades. My Folks raised us on nothing but hot dogs, baloney, processed cheese, white bread, sugary cereals, diet rite cola, snickers bars, and reese cups... if they had had neutella back then my family would have probably bathed in it.

I remember the asbestos falling of the exposed ductwork which was an afterthought to the old school bldg we attended, we used to pick pieces off it and throw it at one another during class, it would burst into particulate clouds on our desks! Red dyed M&Ms, no bicycle helments, PCBs, DDT...and all the "authorities" had to say was Rock and Roll was gonna' kill us all.

 

[Peyton Manning]

yep and never heard of a seat belt till the law came

 

[texasred777]

Good old DDT! I used to use it in a water pistol 'shooting' bugs; this is until the plastic melted! Asbestos was everywhere. Couldn't count the number of asbestos brake shoes I've changed on cars! Don't remember eating wheat bread until long after I married. Used to eat a 3 Musketeers bar with an RC Cola for breakfast after I was old enough to have the money to do so. At home, we have normal meals that were considered 'healthy' back then. Mom used Mrs. Tucker's Lard and homemade hog lard for cooking. I used to love to eat syrup with bacon grease in it instead of butter. Mom used to get riled at Dad for drinking the 'cream' from the milk before she could get enough to churn for butter and buttermilk. I've seen him down a whole pint of almost pure cream. I wonder why he had heart trouble? I also wonder how we older people have lived as long as we have!

One more thing to add. I checked this morning just before I got out of bed and found my pulse down to 36 bpm. Lowest so far. Don't know how low they go before it's 'over'!!!

 

[Chadeaux]

Yeah, my current doctor said a resting pulse under 60 bpm for anyone but an extremely fit athlete is not healthy, and is actually dangerous.

You could try going to downtown Detroit to do your morning stroll ... I bet your pulse will go up a few beats then.

If you can't do that, go taunt a Grizzly. I guarantee he'll get your heart to speed up.

 

[JunkShopFiddler]

One more thing to add. I checked this morning just before I got out of bed and found my pulse down to 36 bpm. Lowest so far. Don't know how low they go before it's 'over'!!!

Wow, really?...A few years ago Wifey and me went hiking in the Weminuche Wilderness in Colorado. She decided she didn't want to remove all her gear just for a pee in the woods so she limited her water intake accordingly. It was a hot day...Needless to say, she passed out with dehydration after we got back to the trailhead...She was taken by ambulance to the hospital in Durango. Because, they said, her BPM was 33, they had the ER cardiac team readied to meet us.

They kept her all night on fluids and EKG meters. She recovered 100% but only after a 20,000$ bill for heart tests, blood tests, chest x-ray. and ER fees...Insurance paid all but around 2000 because we were out of our plan area...We are both experienced hikers and I am still furious about that event...I push the water down her throat now!

 

[texasred777]

Well, here's the primary report from the cardiologist. She said that the PVC, pre-beats were just weaker beats that the monitor couldn't register. That when it was showing only 40 bps, it was probably closer to 75 to 80. Just that the smaller beats were missed by the counter. She told me that she, in fact, had episodes of these pre-beats occasionally; and that they had been occurring for several years. I had another EKG, the 72 hours on the heart monitor, and then she did a sonogram of my heart. Of course I was a very happy old man to hear this (and from one of the most beautiful doctors that I've ever seen!). She appeared to be in her mid 30s to maybe 40, blond, great long slim legs, and very nice. If I had been about 30 years younger, I'd have asked her for a date!!

Anyway, she called me about 5:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon and told me that the sonogram looked great for a man my age. She said that it might be sometime next week before all of the results were in on the monitor readings, EKG, and closer examination of the sonogram, but not to worry much, because everything that she was looking at seemed to indicate that my heart was in great shape. Also, said that she would suggest to my doctor that my amlodipine be cut in half to stop some of the swelling of the feet. She said that it was ok to cut the Metoprolol down to 25 mg for a while to see if it helped any of my problems. Also that because my heart condition seemed so well, that I could cut the low dose aspirin down to every other day to stop some of the bruising that occurs so easily.

To say the very least, I'm a happy old man! Gee, guys, I may be writing a bunch of my usual garbage for several years on here!!! (I mixed two fairly stiff drinks last night to celebrate; but now I need to cut it way back and start doing a lot of exercising.)

I want to thank all of you for the support and suggestions that you have given my during this time. It's really appreciated.

 

[texasred777]

JunkShopFiddler, I'm sorry about your wife's experience! Gee, I bet that was scary! Of course, now I know that mine wasn't really down as low as the monitors showed it to be. Yeah, I'll be you don't have much trouble getting her to drink a lot now after an experience like that.