Metformin and Irritable Bladder

I learned this yesterday.  Now, I've known forever that one of the signs of Diabetes is an overactive bladder and I've had problems with this for years.  Until this spring, my blood sugar was high average so I held off on using Metformin but when I found out that the blood sugar was now way above normal, I decided to accept using a drug to combat it.  My first prescription was for 500 mg twice a day and the only side effect was 3-4 days of diarrhea which is perfectly normal.  When I saw the doctor again this month, the blood sugar count was down to 7.1, just shades higher than someone on Metformin should be.  My doctor increased the dosage to 1000 mg twice a day, I had about 7 days of diarrhea, but then everything settled down and I felt as normal as before.

This past week I realized that I was visiting the bathroom less often and that I didn't seem to be peeing as much when I did.  I described it as about a 75% improvement and that got my interest enough to do some research on the internet.  I wanted to find out if Metformin had an effect on the bladder.  Well, what I saw scared the beejeezus out of me.  One bad side effect of Metformin can cause a urinary failure which can result in death.  Holy crap!!

I immediately called my family doctor (3:04 P.M. and the office closes at 3 P.M.) but had to contact his emergency service.  I explained my concerns and told the answering service person that I had to be out of the house before 5 P.M. and would like a doctor to contact me before then if possible.  Within 10 minutes, the doctor on call phoned me and explained that the Metformin was simply rectifying the over-active bladder symptoms that I'd been experiencing for years.  It had been so long since I'd enjoyed normalcy that I didn't recognize that was what this was now.

Firstly, be careful what you research on the internet in regards to your health.  Secondly, thank you Canada for our government health care system!!!!!