Sidebar: Sugar in Disguise

It is well known that there are often conflicts in drug maintenance.  I found this out all too well  in the past year as I experienced my father going through failing health, hospice, and finally, in September, myocardial infarction (heart attack) from which he could not be revived.  He was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes (controlled with pills) in 1995; found to have a blood clot in his leg in late 2009 for which he was treated with Cumadin, a blood thinner (which in turn so adversely affected his blood that he quickly went to a Type 1 Diabetic--daily injections).  The prolonged treatments caused him to develop HIT--Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia, or extremely low blood platelet count, which could not be reversed.   His arms had to be bandaged up from his hands almost to his armpits because the blood pooled under his skin there so severely, which is a typical symptom of leukemia (also stemming from the HIT), for which he was diagnosed in the last two weeks of his life.   Drugs have *contra-indications*--negative side effects, and to be blunt, the Heparin basically slowly killed him.  A friend of mine who does health advocacy told me not long after his death, that he could have been treated with daily aspirin and chelation therapy, which would not have caused thrombocytopenia.  That's what I get for not staying in touch with her, but I don't know if I could have gotten that changed for him.