Guinea Pig - Metformin Trial

[rhondalea]

I can't put it in my sig yet, because I'm not formally enrolled, but a very kind woman moved heaven and earth to help me fulfill the necessary requirements, so I have an appointment to see the doctor tomorrow. Then on Friday, I have labs and a chest x-ray (and, ha ha, a pregnancy test).

If all continues to go smoothly, I should have a bottle of unmarked pills in hand by the middle of next week.

I almost didn't make it. I wrote to the Canadian doctor who is overseeing the study in April, but then I procrastinated about contacting a local coordinator. I had a couple of reasons for that. The first is that I was waffling about just asking my endo to write me a prescription (no doubt he'd do it), without any worry about ending up in the placebo arm. The second is that I came into a few more factoids about my genetic profile (new studies), and I did some additional reading with respect to supplements I'm already taking, and I got a little scared that maybe metformin is not quite right for me. (Also, even though my A1c is high right now because of anemia and hypothyroidism, I'm actually a natural hypoglycemic. When my whole body went a'wonk before my diagnosis, my endo thought it was possible I had an insulinoma--he knew I had cancer, but he couldn't figure out where it was--so he put me on the Dexcom for a week, and my blood glucose was dropping into the 40s overnight and staying pretty low throughout the day.)

In between, I decided to do something about my genetically-induced brain fog (who knew?), and after a couple of weeks of methylfolate, I woke up yesterday and realized I was being a total wing-ding. Besides which, if I really shouldn't be getting metformin, the powers-that-be (what I call the "universe" and what most of you probably call "G-d" or some facsimilie thereof) will see to it that I end up in the control arm anyway.

So, yesterday, I called the Mount Holly site (because I just don't want to go to Livingston, even if it is fewer miles to drive), and because the one-year anniversary of my formal diagnosis is coming up on May 17 (enrollment must be within one year of diagnosis), we had to move quickly.

Just call me "Speed Racer."

Now I'm sitting here on the porch drinking a cup of tea and hoping the adrenaline will dissipate sooner rather than later, so I figured I'd tell y'all about it.

I'm not convinced my cancer won't return, and I'm not convinced that metformin will make a difference in whether it does return, but I really like the idea of being a small part of something that might make a life-changing difference in another woman's life down the road.