Ageing symptoms and conditions

My mother is 74 and has been on Lipitor 5 mg for about 6 weeks now and has experienced her 1st TGA. She called me today to tell me that someone had come into her house and cooked a platter of bacon and moved a basket around. She couldn't find her purse and went outside and sure enough it was in her car, but the door was standing wide open and the purse was sitting on the seat. She remembers nothing! This evening she swore that our second child was born in a different house. This from a woman who can remember the tiniest minutia. This Lipitor is terrible stuff! She is now officially off of it. R.

About eight years ago I felt heaviness in my chest along with some pain/discomfort when doing hard physical labor and occasionally in the hot-tub. Following my doctor’s advice and an angiogram, a stint was placed and medication administered – Lipitor and plavix I also went through a 6-month program for cardiac recovery including dietary changes and a proper exercise program. About six month following that I gradually just stopped taking my Lipitor and plavix and returned to my old eating routine and other life-style. I don’t smoke (never did) and don’t drink or otherwise indulge in any recreational drugs. I’ve never been hypertensive with blood pressures typically at 115/68. I maintain a trim and healthy appearing body just naturally or genetically. I eat lots of red meat, not a lot of vegetables, drink gallons of orange juice, and eat much more junk-food than I should. About six years after that (near heart attack) event I was given a “stress test” by my physician… I was then 61 and tested at the level of a 38 year old! Two years after that I had a significant heart attack out in the middle of nowhere! It took almost 6 hours to get me to an emergency room in Spokane, Washington (that’s a story of its own). That was on a Thursday – I was back to work full-time the following Monday (four days later). This time around with more drugs than I could swallow in one gulp! Lipitor, Plavix, Coumadin, aspirin, and carvedilol. The combination or amount was more than I could tolerate and I was weaned off all but the Lipitor and aspirin within a year. My heart has returned to nearly full-function and I have no physician imposed restrictions. All that said, I’ve been gradually developing muscle soreness (pain, actually) in my fore-arms and legs. I’ve been growing more lethargic and tired with each passing month. I’m now 65 and feel that the Lipitor is inhibiting my health… I want to get off it and be “normal” again. Or is it just being sixty five? Can I just quit taking the drug? Leaving only aspirin for blood thinning and the hope of a better diet for cholesterol control.

Advair affected my heartbeat, made me feel every heartbeat as if something was wrong. I also had muscle cramps, even after hydrating before bike riding or weight lifting. the unusual heartbeat went away two weeks after stopping use of advair.
I also went through a peeriod of lower back pain, maybe from sore kidneys, although I tapered off of the advair slowly.
I feel better after getting off of this drug, I thought ageing was catching up with me I am 62 but after stopping use of the drug i feel 40% better than while on the drug.

This may offer some hope to those who have received Kenalog injections that resulted in dents in the tissue. About 15 years ago, when I was a graduate student, I developed a mild case of cystic acne. By "mild," I mean that I would develop deep, painful cysts after eating or drinking certain foods, like red wine or chocolate (so my acne was somewhat controlable, depending on my diet). I received a few steroid injections (which I believe where Kenalog shots) that worked almost immediately. However, when I switched to a very expensive doctor in Princeton, NJ and asked him to zap a huge cyst, he gave me too much kenalog and I was left with a nice indentation right smack in the middle of my forehead! It was very upsetting, to say the least. When I called him, he assured me that the dent would fill in on its own. And guess what? It did - but it took a while. After a year, it was not as noticeable and as more time passed it was not noticeable *at all*. However, I will say that 15 years later, I can still put my finger on where the dent used to be and I can feel a slight indentation. Also, the skin over the indentation recently seems to be a bit more wrinkled than the rest of my forehead which is quite smooth (I'm 46 so it may just be normal ageing). Anyway, after my lovely kenalog experience, I stayed away from these injections. And after I swore off all chocolate, tea, and red wine, my cystic acne disappeared on its own.