Beds symptoms and conditions

My girlfriend is 36 she had a kidney infection and got Levaquin IV in the hospital. Her legs were going numb and she could hardly get up to go to the bathroom in the hospital. She thought it was her infection. They sent her home two days later with 5 pill containers. One of them was Levaquin. She called me today and said she is having terrible pains in her hands, wrists, hips, and knees. She says she cant make a fist or hold a bag of groceries and her hands have swollen up so that she cant get her rings off. I told her I would do a search on the net to see if it might be one of the drugs she was taking. Slowly but surely I made it to the Levaquin. The drug maker fairly non chalantly refers to tendon rupture as a side effect effecting mostly people over 60 years old. I dug a little further and found this web site and was amazed at how many people are being poisoned by this drug. I am praying if she stops taking it the pain and debilitating effects will go away quickly. She has two disabled boys she has to take care of, including lifting them into wheel chairs and into beds. This is no joke! I am so angry at this drug maker and these doctors who often times do more harm than good.

I also have experienced the numbness in my hands, feet, and face; but I also have experienced blue lips and fingernail beds. Has anyone else experienced that particular symptom?

Extreme FEAR! I totally forgot to mention this side effect in my original post on Lipitor: EXTREME FEAR,paranoia, auditory hallucinations, Coincidentally, my friend (female) in Calif. also had the exact same paranoia: Man in closet wanting to kill us. We could not sleep in our own beds. We had to sleep in living room on couch. Extreme fear. Coincidentally, my neighbor had the same reaction AND the woman who sold me my new condo could not sleep in her bed and she was also taking Lipitor. She sat in a chair in her living room all night. Now this is a total of 4 women. I do not know if men experience these same fears. My Calif. friend and I used to take a mop handle and slam it into the walls of our Master closet looking for the guy who wanted to kill us. Even after we knew he wasn't there, we still couldn't sleep in that room. I quit Lipitor and my fear of this fictitious guy disappeared! Yayyy!

Oh my god, I am freaking out now that I am reading all of these!! I had mirena put in 11 months ago because I am in the U.S army and I am deploying to Iraq in April 2009, and I wanted to have lighter periods. I also thought that it would be easier than remembering to take a pill and getting prescriptions constantly refilled. I HAVE NOT HAD A SINGLE PERIOD IN ALMOST 11 MONTHS! Thats not normal!! On top of that I am experiencing pain while having sex. So bad that I can't walk. that is the same pain that I felt when I had it put in. When I went to get this thing in, my doctor told me that I would be able to go back to work after my appointment. That was not the case!! they released me no more than ten mins later, and I walked in a daze to my car. I felt so sick, I had to turn around and go back into the office. I was dizzy. I remember a woman asking me if i was okay. I said NO and they told me I could lay down on one of the beds, and I no sooner made it back there when I vomited in the sink. Iwas in so much pain that I could not stand up! they had to call my husband after getting the number off my phone and then he came to get me. He had to carry me to my car. They wrote me a prescription for 2 Vicodin!! It didn't even touch the surface of my pain! I took both of those and 3 Tylenol and I still could not walk! I had to take the next day off from work as well. It was horrible. I do like the convenience of Mirena, but the side effects are not pleasant!! I do not want to have kids, I want to try to find a doctor that will preform a hysterectomy on me.
~Cat

Can Statins Cause Chronic Low-Grade Myopathy?
Statins (hydroxymethyl glutaryl coenzyme A reductase
inhibitors) are highly effective drugs for reducing serum
cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.
Clinical trials have shown that they also reduce risk for
coronary heart disease events, coronary procedures, and
stroke by about one third (1). Millions of people in the
United States and worldwide are being treated with statins.
In clinical trials and in clinical practice, statins have proved
to be remarkably safe.
The one notable side effect of statin therapy is myopathy.
A small fraction of patients who are treated with
statins will develop severe myopathy (2). In the worst cases,
severe myoglobinuria, acute renal failure, and even death
can occur. The incidence of severe myopathy is low, perhaps
1 in 1000 patients (2). Predisposing factors for severe
myopathy appear to include advanced age, relatively low
body weight, female sex, certain medications, use of multiple
medications, multisystem disease, and acute illnesses
or major surgery (3). If statins were avoided or used in low
doses in these circumstances, it is likely that the incidence
of severe myopathy could be greatly reduced.
Less severe forms of myopathy undoubtedly occur. In
some patients, fatigue and muscle pain and weakness develop
with moderately high serum creatine kinase levels
but not acute renal failure. In these cases, the myopathy
resolves when statin therapy is discontinued.
Still more patients report various muscle symptoms—
fatigue, pain, and muscle weakness—but have normal creatine
kinase levels. These symptoms probably are unrelated
to statin therapy in many patients. In middle-aged and
older people, muscle, joint, and tendon symptoms are very
common. Naturally, if a patient takes a medication that is
believed to produce muscle problems, symptoms are often
attributed to the medication. On the other hand, the major
controlled clinical trials have not detected a higher prevalence
of muscle symptoms during statin therapy versus placebo
(1). This failure of detection has generally led clinical
trialists to conclude that statin-associated myopathy with
normal creatine kinase levels essentially does not exist or
that, if it does exist, it cannot be detected above the “background
noise” of muscle symptoms in the general clinicaltrial
population.
Many physicians in clinical practice nonetheless believe
that they can identify a subset of statin-treated patients
who have a unique set of statin-related muscle symptoms.
Some patients clearly relate the onset of muscle
symptoms to initiation of statin therapy. These symptoms
may abate after discontinuation of therapy, only to reappear
when statin therapy is restarted. The number of such
patients is not large, and thus it may have been impossible
to identify them in large clinical trials.
In this issue, Phillips and colleagues (4) report on a set
of studies in four patients who had muscle symptoms during
statin therapy that resolved during placebo use. Quantitatively
measured muscle weakness also resolved during
placebo use. Muscle biopsies were performed in three patients
during statin therapy and then during placebo use.
Several pathologic changes were seen on biopsy specimens
obtained during statin therapy: increased lipid content of
mitochondria, fibers that did not stain for cytochrome oxidase
activity, and ragged red fibers. The authors suggest
that these patients had statin-associated myopathy with
normal serum creatine kinase levels.
Despite the study’s small size, we cannot dismiss these
observations as random variation in muscle structure.
However, these highly suggestive results are clearly preliminary.
The number of patients was small, and all appropriate
controls were not used. Nonetheless, this study is novel
because it used quantitative measures of muscle strength
and muscle biopsy to address the question of myopathy
with normal creatine kinase levels during statin therapy.
To be confirmed, the current data would have to be
extended to many more patients in whom muscle symptoms
are closely correlated with statin use. Reproducibility
of symptoms during therapy and symptom resolution after
discontinuation of statin therapy would be necessary. A
definitive study would have to be carefully designed and
executed. It would need to be double-blinded and placebocontrolled
and include sufficient numbers of patients to
provide a valid statistical comparison. In addition, investigators
would have to carefully consider the appropriate
selection of patients. The development of a registry of candidate
patients at multiple sites could facilitate a multicenter
study.
Is a carefully controlled, sizable study of this type
worth the investment of time and effort? To date, no evidence
indicates that prolonged statin therapy leads to permanent
muscle damage or progressive myopathy in patients
with normal creatine kinase levels. Controlled
clinical trials attest to the general safety of statins, and
symptomatic side effects appear to be limited to a relatively
small proportion of treated patients. In addition, no therapy
prevents or treats statin-induced myopathy, short of
withholding the drug. On the other hand, statins are being
prescribed to millions of people, and are usually continued
throughout the patient’s lifetime. It is certain that statins
cause myopathy in some patients. For these reasons, a valid
argument can be made for a more extensive study of lowgrade
myopathy in patients treated with statins.
In the meantime, physicians should recognize the great
benefit of statin therapy in high-risk patients and their
documented safety for most patients. For high-risk persons,
the proven efficacy for preventing cardiovascular disease
outweighs the unlikely possibility of permanent muscle
damage. Phillips and colleagues’ preliminary results
certainly do not provide adequate information on the spec-
Editorial
www.annals.org 1 October 2002 Annals of Internal Medicine Volume 137 • Number 7 617
trum, scope, or prognosis of myopathy with normal creatine
kinase levels during statin therapy. For these reasons,
prescription of statins for eligible patients should continue
despite the current results. Moreover, before discontinuing
therapy, physicians should carefully evaluate any patient
receiving statins who reports muscle symptoms. In most
cases, the symptoms will be found not to be consistent
with chronic myopathy, and often they will not be related
temporally to statin treatment. High-risk patients in particular
should not be deprived of major cardiovascular risk
reduction just because they display symptoms not clearly
documented to be closely related to statin therapy.
Despite these comments, the actions of statin on muscle
metabolism and structure deserve further investigation
to clarify the confusing area of low-grade myopathy apparently
associated with statin use in a few patients.
Scott M. Grundy, MD, PhD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Dallas, TX 75390-9052
Current Author Address: Scott M. Grundy, MD, PhD, Center for
Human Nutrition and the Departments of Clinical Nutrition and Internal
Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas,
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Y3.206, Dallas, TX 75390-9052.
Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest: Honoraria (from Merck &
Co.; Pfizer, Inc.; Bristol-Myers Squibb; and Bayer); Grants (from Merck
& Co. and Pfizer, Inc.)
Ann Intern Med. 2002;137:617-618.
References
1. Executive Summary of The Third Report of The National Cholesterol Education
Program (NCEP) Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, And Treatment
of High Blood Cholesterol In Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III). JAMA. 2001;
285:2486-97.
2. Staffa JA, Chang J, Green L. Cerivastatin and reports of fatal rhabdomyolysis
. N Engl J Med. 2002;346:539-40.
3. Pasternak RC, Smith SC, Bairey-Merz CN, Grundy SM, Cleeman JI, Lenfant
C. ACC/AHA/NHLBI clinical advisory on the use and safety of statins (1)
(2). J Am Coll Cardiol. 2002;40:567-72.
4. Phillips PS, Haas RH, Bannykh S, Hathaway S, Gray NL, Kimura BJ, et al.
Statin-associated myopathy with normal creatine kinase levels. The Scripps Mercy
Clinical Research Center. Ann Intern Med. 2002;137:581-5.
© 2002 American College of Physicians–American Society of Internal
Medicine
Editorial Statins and Low-Grade Myopathy
618 1 October 2002 Annals of Internal Medicine Volume 137 • Number 7 www.annals.org

I went to my doctor this past Thursday because I was experiencing ringing in my ears for about a month. No other symptoms other than the ringing - and it was just quite annoying. Doc put me on Avelox and Prednisone for a sinus infection. Took the first dose Thursday and the second Friday morning. Within and hour, the back of my head and neck were so full of intense pressure and pain. I felt dizzy, unsteady, sweaty and panicky. Called the doc who said that I wouldn't react that fast, and it was probably just part of the sinus infection. Continued to take both drugs all weekend, but still felt the intense pain and pressure after taking the Avelox. Last night, woke up around midnight with severe panic attack, disorientation, pain and pressure in the back of my head and neck - Scary! I called my doc and I told him I'm not taking it anymore. I had NO symptoms when I went to see him and left with more "stuff" going on in my head now! I'm going to see an ENT now.

I've had symptoms for about two months now without knowing they were coming from taking doxy. First, I couldn't sleep at night b/c my feet felt like they were on fire! and my hands had the same tingly feeling esp. after a change in temperature. Then my toes became red and swolen around the nail. After about a month, the feelings never really went away but always got worse when I was in the sun. A rash began to develop on the tops of my toes. Each bump looked like a tiny water blister. After more sunlight, the rash spread to my hands and arms. More fire. I also got the terrible feeling in my thumbs and index fingers that felt like I banged them with a hammer. Now that the rash is going away (still bad on my toes), my fingernails are terribly brittle, discolored, and are coming off the nail bed on a few fingers. I've also gotten a fever blister and terrible sunburn on my nose, ugh. I was presecribed this medicine for acne, but that seems as though it hasn't even been treated. I've also noticed blurred vision and back pain, but I think that is just b/c I hate my job. LOL.