Meds

I realized that I very nonchalantly said, "I went off of Symlin and Lisinopril." To continue or terminate meds during pregnancy is such a controversial topic. Are the risks worth it? My stepsister stayed on antidepressants throughout both of her pregnancies, and I believe it was one of the best things she could have ever done for herself and her (very healthy) kids.

But there are known risks with Lisinopril, and I was taking it as a preventive measure for my kidneys, so going off the Lisinopril made a lot of sense. Symlin was another story. Symlin is a class C drug, meaning that there is some evidence in animals that it could cause fetal abnormalities, but no studies in humans have been conducted.

My endo recommended (nay, strongly recommended) that I go off Symlin six months before trying to conceive, and was sort of fanatical about telling me so.

But when I met with Dr. Awesome OB (who's a high risk OB, specializing primarily in diabetes), she recommended (nay, instructed) that I stay on Symlin until I know I'm pregnant. She assumed that we would be actively trying and that I would do early pregnancy tests. That I would then stop the Symlin as soon as I got pregnant, and call her immediately for an appointment. Her sense was that we don't know yet what Symlin does to a fetus (perhaps it's bad, perhaps it's good), but we do know what high blood sugars do to a fetus. That if given the choice between high blood sugars or Symlin, we choose Symlin.

I don't absolutely love my endo, but I do trust him. On the other hand, I love Dr. Awesome OB. And I trust her immensely.

Many women will make this very personal choice (or a similar medication-during-pregnancy choice). I decided to go off of Symlin for two reasons. First, I would hate to do any intentional (albeit unknowing) harm, if it can possibly be avoided. And second, I felt like the pressure of leaning I'm pregnant, going off of Symlin, and needing to be in fabulous control without the help of Symlin might be too much. I figured that I would try to maintain (or improve) my blood sugars off of Symlin before even trying to get pregnant.

This seems to have worked so far, although my insulin needs have skyrocketed and I've gained a bunch of weight. My endo thinks this is a combination of going off of Symlin (on which I lost 15 pounds) and gaining tighter control. He says tighter control = weight gain. He looked me right in the eyes and said, without a twinkle of sarcasm, "You just have to eat less." This is why I do not absolutely love him.

But given the choice between some weight gain and better blood sugars, I'll choose better blood sugars.

Which is all to say that I went off of meds after some serious deliberation. No nonchalance to be found.