My CO-1686: Metformin and Nausea

In my previous CO-1686 post https://celpeggy.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/my-co-1686-metformin-front-and-center/ the Good Doctor, in response to my complaint of feeling like caca, allowed me to get off the 2000mg Metformin, return to 1000mg, and ease back into 2000mg when I started feeling better.

Without defined boundaries, my inner mad scientist has a tendency to meander, especially armed with my knowledge from my private clinical trials and my coziness with buddy Dr. Google. For almost a month and a half, I did not contact the Good Doctor. Instead I monitored my glucose and kept a diary.The fasting numbers were good (100-115) on 1000mg and I was feeling fine until one morning, my fasting glucose shot up to 150. The following day, I raised the Metformin to 1500mg. But the glucose number went up to 175 anyway. It was getting out of control! I went into panic mode. I did not want, but was going to have to return to 2000mg the next day. Wouldn’t you know, the Good Doctor emailed me, that same day! One sentence, in his exact words, “How is the reduced Metformin coming, Celia?”

Busted! I told him the whole monitoring story and that I was going to start the 2000mg that very day. To escape, I took the opportunity to complain about the yucky bitter taste that Metformin left in my throat, as if I had been licking a tin can of sardines all day. He suggested that I ask my UCLA Onc about extended release Metformin, which is easier on the digestive system. Subsequently, my UCLA Onc did prescribe Metformin 2000mg ER (extended release, same as time-release) in the form of four 500mg oval horse pills under strict orders NOT TO CUT THE PILLS, or suffer digestive complications, and to take them all at once. The blue-ribbon Pill Cutter tucked her tail between her legs!

The first day that I took the four Metformin ER pills and three CO-1686 horse pills at the same time at breakfast, I realized that being a self-professed amazing woman is not enough to fight nausea. It is a major challenge. I needed more moxie to tackle it. After four days, I think it’s safe to say I’ve won the battle and write about it in past tense.

If you are looking for medical advice, you came to the wrong blog. I am not a physician. In fact the closest that I came to becoming a health care professional was in senior high school in the Philippines. College was just around the corner and I was deliberating on what course would lead me to what I wanted to be when I grew up. Becoming a Nutritionist made the short list of options.

The science of nutrition has always had a special place in me. The fascination started in “Health” class where we studied the proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals that food provides the human body. Because of my passion for nutrition, I remember being the best student of the subject. No one could touch me when it came to nutrition. I owned the subject. Most of my former classmates would probably dispute my claim but some of them are dead now and those still kicking would rather monitor their blood pressure or marvel at their hip replacements than question my academic recollection.

So there.

How did I fight nausea while 2000mg (4 pills) Metformin and 750mg (3 pills) CO-1686 pills carpet-bombed my system the first few days?

1. I took them with plenty of food. A cracker or a banana did not cut it. I filled my stomach with food to provide enough cushion for the canoe-shaped pills to float around. Imagine seven canoes in a swimming pool and not bumping its walls.

2. I had the Onc prescribe something for my post-nasal drip.

3. I dug deep into my data base of old Oriental tricks for comfort foods my mother fixed for us kids to soothe our upset stomachs. I remembered the boiled rice dish “congee” to the Chinese, “lugaw” to the Filipinos.

My husband and I bought ginger root and scallions for my “lugaw” at Stater Brothers. As we were walking to the car in the parking lot, my husband remembered the nausea cure when he was a little boy.

“My mother used to give me Coca-Cola syrup for nausea. I wonder if the drug stores still sell them?” he asked.

My husband is much older than me. I enjoy saying that. He turned 80 last month. There’s a ton of wisdom and knowledge in an Octogenarian’s brain, if it still works. This one is sharp as a tack. I don’t dare lie to him. His memory is like a steel trap.

“Honey,” I said, “The last man who ordered that product probably died in World War II. I can not imagine Coke syrup still in the market.”

“Some things don’t change. Let’s go to a drug store right now.”

“Let’s do it tomorrow.” I was anxious to cook and eat my “lugaw.”

“We’re up and about and there’s Rite Aid Pharmacy.”

We’re retired. We had nothing else to do. Why not solve the mystery of the missing Coke Syrup there and then?

We posed the Coke syrup availability question to a twenty-something Asian chick working inside the Rite Aid cage.

“OMG,” she exclaimed, “I have so never heard of Coke Syrup.” In search of validation, Miss Diplomacy asked the other twenty-somethings in the cage. They all agreed with her.

Fortunately, Miss Diplomacy thought of looking “coke syrup” up in the pharmacy bible, a thick catalog filled with very fine prints. She found it! But first, she had to know if she was still allowed to order it. Perhaps tired of the two faces on our side of the cage, she sent us home. She’d call us when the Coke syrup is available. After two days, she did.

The cola syrup came in a four-ounce bottle. I read the main ingredients – sucrose (sugar), phosphoric acid, caffeine. It simply said “for nausea” and how to take it. I tried it that evening. Which takes me to number

4. Cola syrup. It works.

That’s my story and I stick to it.