You never know what the motivation of a doctor is, no offense. Often they truly want to protect their patients! Sometimes, they want to sell drugs. Only you and your doctor can ferret all that out.

I think what is also important to keep in mind is that generics don't have to go through all the rigors of clinical studies, etc. They only have to have a facsimile of the original drug, not the exact formulation. So I agree that a generic, and it's possible side effects, should prompt your doctors to follow you very closely with blood tests. There must be other labs, other than the Mayo one, that can do blood tests though!

I just had a generic birth control pill spike my BP up to the 220's just sitting. Once I went off of it, normal BP. And it did permanent electrical damage to my heart. Now I can't do the simplest thing like bringing in groceries without having really bad PVC's (the dangerous ones). Drugs aren't candy and every single one of them, whether the original version or a generic, should not be taken lightly. Just my opinion.

And I know that cost is a factor. But what is the long-term cost of a bad generic?

Dottie, Are you still not doing well or are you better?

Annie