Forty years symptoms and conditions

JILL HERE . THANK TO THOSE WHOM HAVE RESPONDED TO WHAT I TALKED ON WITH LIPITOR AND MY EXPERIENCES. THE PRINCIPLE OF WHICH IME STILL INTERESTED IN WITHOUT BEING DIVERTED.
ONE WEEK ON EATING VEGIES, FRUIT,SALADS, WEIGHED OUT PROTEIN, FISH,CHICKEN. BROWN BREAD, NO MARGARINE OR BUTTER,VERY LITTLE CHEESE, NO LIPITOR, A GOOD QUALITY VITAMIN C. NOT USING ANYTHING ELSE BUT A GOOD FISH OIL AS WELL, NOW TOTALLY BACK ON TRACK. LIPITOR WAS MAKING ME NOT ONLY FEELING ILL BUT ILL IN A WAY I KNEW I WOULD BE IN TROUBLE TAKING IT ANY MORE.
THANK GOD IME NOT. I MAY NOT STAY ON THE VIT.C. BUT THE GOOD QUALITY FISH OIL , YES. IME WORKING HARD ON OTHER THINGS ALSO AS A ALL ROUNDER WITH PERSONAL GROWTH, AND WILL ASK FOR A BLOOD AND URINE TEST IN SIX WEEKS TIME, AND TAKE IT FROM THERE, ON THE RIGHT TRACK NOW, THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT.
HOPE ALL WORKS OUT FOR ALL OF YOU. BY THE WAY THE DR. WILL BE A DIFFERENT ONE TAKING MY BLOOD AND URINE NEXT TIME. IRRETRIEVABLE DAMAGE NIPPED IN THE BUD JUST IN ENOUGH TIME.
REGARDS. JILL.
FOR ME IVE BANNED STATINS. AS A LADY WHOM HAS NOT HAD ANY MOOD ALTERING CHEMICALS FOR OVER FORTY YEARS. IME NOT ABOUT TO MESS MY LIFE UP WITH ANYTHING JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE SAYS ITS OK, AND HAS QUALIFICATIONS.
I QUESTION ALL , AS THERE IS TOO MANY SCIENTIFIC CONS OUT TODAY. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR ONES HEALTH IS A MINE FIELD I ADMIT AND I WILL ALWAYS HAVE THINGS CHECKED THROUGH, IME NO FOOL. BUT ALONG WITH THIS I ALSO MUST KEEP AN EAGLE EYE OUT , AS A INDIVIDUAL I CANNOT TELL ANOTHER WHAT TO DO.
GOODBYE. J.

I quit Lipitor (40mg) five weeks ago. I believe I was on a trajectory to disabilty within a year.
The unbelievable left elbow pain has gone (maybe the cortisone worked!). My left knee feels "normal" again, not perfect but nearly like it used to be. Within a couple of days of quitting I had severe pain in my right thumb along the bone, then in the middle of my right hand, then between the first and second fingers in my right hand. I currently have minor pain in my right wrist (this is new) on the pinkie side and minor pain in my left shoulder where the arm joins (this has been intermittent for a couple of months). I am feeling much better - but would not be at all surprised if pain appears in another part of my body before this is all history! There is also plenty of joint clicking going on.
I believe I first reported pain to the assistant doctor to the heart surgeon two weeks after I had the stent put in and was put on Lipitor. I was also on various other medications. I had tingling on the ends of my fingers and toes at random - hard to describe but it was as if a fairly sharp object (like a ball point pen, say) was being pressed progressively harder from the end of the finger/toe and towards the rest of that finger/toe: and as the pressure increased it would suddenly become painful. It was not a tingling/numb sensation but more a tingling which increased sufficiently that it hurt.
I am only being so specific because when I described these "symptoms" the doctor shrugged. If anyone has had similar - and I have seen tingling mentioned here - please make contact with me as I do want to report my experience back into the medical community but find, an exact description difficult. Things never needed to have got so bad if this was the first warning.
I since asked my family doctor if my knee problem was Lipitor related and she thought not: I was referred to Physical Therapy. I also told the physical therapists (who thought my knee should recover much sooner, and were surprised that I had zero mobility pain) that I also had serious elbow pain.
The orthopedic surgeon I saw did not connect the elbow problem to Lipitor.
The heart surgeon (stent insert) could perhaps be the only person who I did not tell of the pains - I don't remember - but I may be so grateful to be alive - that he may be someone to whom I did not voice a complaint!
On the positive - five weeks later I am feeling significantly better.

"it is your responsibility to ask about potential side effects, interactions with other drugs you are taking, etc. It is also your responsibility to read the detailed informa tion that comes with every prescription from a pharmacy that lists possible side effects"

Excellent advice but with one FATAL flaw. The majority of the information recieved from the physician and/or the pharmacy is wholely inadequate regarding the side effects of these drugs. (the majority of them are not even listed) When asked about the potential side effects the physicians routinely state that these are safe and effective drugs with minimum side effects. Nothing could be further from the truth. The monographs indicate once again that such events are rare and occur at rates approaching 1%. Once again, not true, in reality they rapidly approach 27%. One recent study indicated 65% (Cipro when given for prostatitits) When such events manifest again the medical community denies any and all such assocation stating that they have never heard of such things, even though it has been reported in medical journals for almost forty years. Of the hundreds and hundreds of adrs reported within this forum you will not fnd ONE that is not a known, listed and published adverse event. It has been only through forums such as this that such knowledge is shared. You certainly will not find such information readily available from your physician or from your pharmacist. Herein lies the problem. Nor will you find it within the monographs as such warnings are couched in antiquated descriptions such as uticaria (itching) and other greek and latin terms for common medical conditions. This has been done deliberately to mislead the general public regarding such events. It is not lack of common sense that these victims are lacking, it is the trust that they have placed in their physicians to have an intimate knowledge regarding toxic chemotherapuedic agents that they hand out like Halloween candy. Such ignorance is rampant and to expect a physician who routinely fails to recognize, treat and report such events to be of any value during such a discussion is asking far too much. Patients are routinely handed free samples of these drugs, with no risk vs benefit discussion ever taking place, no monograph or any other information provided by the physician, and then told when such events manifest "..it cannot be the drug.." are instructed to continue taking it. The majority of the medical community has no idea what a fluoroquinolone is and what drugs make up the class let alone what the potential side effects may be. If the lack of common sense is found to be so disturbing then perhaps the lack of common sense regarding the prescribing of these toxic drugs that needs to be addressed. Not the ignorance of the patient who trust the FDA, the manufacturers, the physician and the pharmacist, only to find that thier trust has been grossly misplaced. There are anything BUT a safe and effective antibiotic with minimum side effects. They in fact are not even true antibiotics. They are a toxic and dangerous form of chemotherapuetic agents of last resort. ONLY to be prescribed when nothing else has proven to be effective. They are not and never were intended to be a first line agent. These are one form of such therapy that indeed have the potential to do far more harm than good when carelessly prescribed. Such ignorance cannot possibly be considered the fault of the patient. It is the fault of the prescibing physician. Should one wish to attack the lack of common sense I suggest that they start there. The victims of such scripting abuse have enough problems to deal with without adding such nonsense to thier never ending list.