Heart damage symptoms and conditions

I am so glad for everyone's post. I have read so many of your posts and had a lot of a ha moments. I was prescribed Avelox 400 in July 2009. After I took my last dose (10 days), I experienced severe joint pain in my knees, hips, neck, back, shoulders and elbow. Then it went to my fingers. I hurt so bad I couldn't open the door for my dog to go outside. The pain is not so bad anymore, but it is still there. When I get up from writing this I will have a hard time walking. I started loosing brushfuls of hair daily. I now have shortness of breathe. I cry at the weirdest times. I get upset, mad at the littlest things. I have a patch of skin on my back that is constantly irritated, like your shirt tag is rubbing against it but it is not near where my shirt tag is. My husband thinks I am crazy, he says there is nothing there. I started getting stabbing pains in my chest and back, for no reason at all. My mind is like Swiss cheese. I am tired a lot, I want to take several naps a day.
I took all of these things as a sign of getting older...before taking Avelox I felt and acted like a 30 something person now I feel and act like my dad and he is 75.....
I hope we all get to feeling the way we felt before Avelox!!!

I'm a 54 year old female prescribed 10 mg zocor(simvastatin) for slightly elevated cholesterol. Took it for 7 months before I clued in to the cause of my many symptoms. Muscle and joint pain, head fog, blurry vision, weight gain, stomach upset, fatigue, etc... The muscle and joint pain were excruciating at times --especially in my left hip...which had gotten so bad I needed a walking stick for support. I felt so darn old wondering if I would even feel normal again.
After reading many postings I decided to stop my zocor(simvastatin) 6 weeks ago and am very happy to report an improvement in many of my complaints...although far from where I want to be.
I am curious as to the withdrawal effects others may have experienced. The first week coming off I had stomach aches and I had awful headaches which thankfully did stop. The stomach aches and touchy digestive system still plague me though. Am I the only one experiencing this?....

When taking YAZ there is only one question to ask yourself, do you feel lucky? Well do you? I am the fiance of the daughter of y_oung_a_american_z_ombie who was laid to rest on Aug 4, 2008. (See posting) She was misdiagnosed with pleurisy by what we thought was a trusted doctor, and passed away from a pulmonary embolism. I want all who are planning to take this drug or currently taking this drug to know that YAZ is a silent killer. Be aware that although you may tell your doctor that you are on YAZ your doctor should look at ALL the possibilities when making a diagnosis. God bless and watch over those that have perished at the hand of this crap and also to the survivors who are telling the true story of this "Wonder drug"

I am a 60 yr old woman, and have been on statins for several years, most recently 40 mg. I have been getting more and more side affects over the years that I kept attributing to age, overweight, lack of exercise. After reading so many of these postings, I stopped the statin in March. Some of the side affects i.e. the aches in my arms, hands went away fairly quickly. But my legs still ache so much and the muscles in them seem to be weak, I have a hard time standing up from a sitting position. Do any of you know if it sometimes takes this long for symptoms to go away or is it possible that they won't???

Just started Welchol after trying Lipitor & others. Have now developed severe vertigo & my right upper arm is killing me. I can't drink ANY alcohol because it makes me violently ill, almost to the point of throwing up, My doc says this drug is non-systemic & says I should have a brain scan...I stopped taking it 3 days ago-arm pain is gone but not the vertigo yet...I'll have to weigh my options of going back on it again.
Has anyone else had dizziness & lightheadedness from this?

I have been on NuvaRing for a little less than a year. My OBGYN prescribed it. It was my first time using birth control. I noticed 2 things right away - I was a lot more calm/non-chalant and I had lessened sex drive. I thought the latter was due to my nervousness about my boyfriend pushing it up too far for me to fish it out again and maybe at first that was part of it. But it's gone from overactive to almost non-existent (little physical desire, mostly emotional & love desire). I think normally there such be a balance. Also it is difficult to have an orgasm now - I have to really concentrate. My calmness was great in that it balanced out my highs and lows, but now it's to the point that I mostly don't really care about anything one way or the other. Too non-chalant. I also am experiencing depression for no or irrelevant reasons - so bad that it's kept me out of work and even - yes - even the shopping mall! I have no desire to go outside and do anything - grocery shopping, shopping, shopping, walking around or anything - which I thought at first was a good thing for the shopping, shopping. Like most of the posters I could just lay around and sleep and eat all day. With the sleep - I can sleep, but I am NEVER tired. I can stay up until the wee hours of the morning without a yawn like it's the afternoon and I still wake up very early. With the food - I can eat multiple times in a row - full meals. I'm always hungry and never full/satisfied. I am constipated with hard stools. This was an issue until I got off of partially hydrogenated oils (about 2-3 years ago), however even with my altered diet I've still been having issues. My thighs have been falling asleep - weird. Also I can't remember anything from one moment to the next - which I blamed on stress and age. I discontinued NuvaRing as of today (the day I found these posts). Thank you for being so honest & for sharing your experiences. Hopefully these posts will help others in search of answers.

For the last two months I have been on 5mg of Lisinopril. I have always felt that I was a person with anxiety/depression symptoms. I have experienced some different feelings since I began taking this med about 2 months ago. My biggest concern is heart palpitations or irregular heart beat. I also have had skipped heart beats with loss of breath. I also seem to have more chest discomfort. I recently had a angiogram with installation of one stint. No heart damage or heart attack diagnosed. I can not blame all these symptoms on the drug but the skipped heart beats and chest discomfort were non-existent prior to taking the med and they continue even after my procedures. With my PCD's permission I have removed myself of this drug. Any thoughts on this?

I feel like so awful. I was prescribed Avelox for sinus. I took it last night at 7:00pm for the fifth day. I won't ever take it another day again. I have dizziness, headache (which I first thought was sinus) My legs are hurting bad now and I have a itchy thick red rash on my armpits that started last night. I put calamine lotion on and it seems fine.Now it returned. Weird. I am very clean and don't use old razors. What scares me is that I read that most side effects are permanent and I feel like a lab rat and it makes me very angry. I also feel la tightness in my chest. Am I going to have heart damage from this like some of those people that took Fen fen. That too was suppose safe!!!!

After by-pass heart surgery in 2002, my cardilogist put me on 40mg of zocor.
I was in good health with no physical limitations. I had no heart damage. The restriction of heart arteries were found due to my stress test that was performed each year as a part of my annual Physical. After surgery I was on zocor for three years, during that time I experienced a little tiredness, little weakness, a little muscle aches. some tingling in my right arm and shoulder. I went to my heart doctor Jan. 2006 and he changed me to vytorin (10mg zetia and 40mg zocor). about 6 months all of the about symptoms got worse.
By Jan. 2007, my muscles became so stiff, I could not walk, had balance problems, severe muscle aches and cramps, numbness and tingling in both arms and hands, also stifness and pain in my hands, stiffness and pain in both feet, stifness and pain in my back and weird nerve sensations over my entire body. During Jan. and Feb 2007, I was seen by my family doctor, a neurologist, and a muscle doctor. Thanks to the internet, I found info on zocor and zetia, which is the drug vytorin. Warnings described the same symptoms I am experiencing. I stopped vytorin, I am not taking any statins drugs now. My doctor order a blood test to check for muscle damage, It indicated severe damage, a Creatine level of 770. This level should not be over 200. After being off the drugs for 30 days the creatine level dropped to 645. My condition has improved by 25%. I am walking a little better, but I still having muscle problems, there is improvement. I think there will be a very long recovery. There seems to be some evidence that these Statins affect people of age much more than the young. I am 70 years old. PLEASE PEOPLE, IF YOU ARE TAKING STATINS DRUGS, STOPPED NOW! SLOVE YOUR CHOLESTROL PROBLEMS BY OTHER MEANS. Since I stopped my cholestrol has gone from 157 to 280, but I am not going back taking these drugs. I am trying the natural way now. I have read post after post on many web-sites of people with the same symptoms that were using these drugs. The drug companies and the FDA are responsible for the the degradation of people's health taking these statin drugs.

I am so glad I found this site!!! I started Yasmin last month and had some weird side effects that at first I blew off. Right leg muscles cramping, severe indegestion, and shortness of breath. Along with a heaviness in my chest and breast area. The leg pain and cramping was the worst---although I did lose over 20 lbs. the first month. I started having pain in my left arm and went to the ER afraid I was having a heart attack! Everything checked out, no clot in the leg and my breathing eased. Then my cycle came(lots of bleeding and clotting) and the migraines started.....my gyn said all was ok.
So I restarted the pill and felt a lot better(thought it was just the first month sdjustment). Turns out I realized I'd started the pack wrong side up and been taking the placebos pills...feeling like an idiot I started the pack right last night and within hours the cramping returned and the heaviness in my chest returned! I was afraid I was having a heart attack! I am done with these pills and am seeing my doctor on Monday to check for any heart damage! Has anyone ever filed claims against this pill? All these forums with women and their horrible similiar side effects seem like a reason to recall the pill.....?

Flowerbabies-

Posted to the site you created as well to see if others would like to weigh in on this:

lowerbabies-

so heres is what I wonder. If the chest pain we are both experiencing is in fact due to the loss of magnesium as part of taking this pill, than how many other women that are experiencing that are having direct heart damage and being told that instead, to cover it up, that it is anxiety and stress? I mean seriously? Afterall, if magnesium prevents the heart muscles from spasming-and Yasmin causes a deficiency in magnesium ......then what, I am wondering is the link to the week before our menstrual cycles that this chest pain shows up?

There is an article in Health magazine I read called A Woman's Heart. Basically cites/talks about the fact that the public nor most doctors are taking the time to understand the single largest killer of women in America-Betsy Berne was the example they provided and that often women do not take themselves and doctors do not take women seriously enough. She ignores her chest pain for a week. Then is encouraged to see an internist who detects a murmur. This is true in my case as well...., then they did an electrocardiogram, and a chest Xray to discover that her heart was enlarged. An transeophageal echocardiogram (a more invasive test) that required she undergo open heart immediately.

This article goes on to state how many women are often not taken seriously who complain of chest pain and are often misdiagnosed with panic attacks while what's actually occuring is a misfunctioning valve between the left ventricle and atrium-with severe leakage and improper blood flow. Ordinary MVP is nothing to worrry about . They say it effects between 5 and 20 percent of population-mostly women.

In this article she also mentions that classic symptoms for women are: chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, abdominal pain, dizziness, and swollen feet. Also advises that for women, who have smaller arteries than men, when they have a heart attack there is usually no plaque in their arteries-a heart attack is when one of the vessels occludes-and they're more prone to artery spasms.

Other symptoms/warning signs: uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, or pain in the chest that last more than a few minutes, or pain that spreads to the shoulders, neck and arms. Chest discomfort with lightheadedness, fainting, sweating or nausea. Unexplained anxiety or weakness, palpitations, cold sweat, paleness. Shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, jaw pain. Isn't this alot of what many women are describing experiencing?

my insurance agent told me that advair eventually causes severe heart damage???
is this true????
or is she just trying to sell me a high plan...
I am scared now.
I would rather have asthma than a damaged heart.

Hi Chris!!

Don't worry!! I just can beg you, to read through all of the posts here in this forum!! It helps so much, I swear!! This was the only thing that helped me go through this torture the past year!! I even don't know if I still would be alive if I hadn't found this forum and all those women, suffering the same way as me and telling me, that I WILL get better some day!!

And one more thing: It's really normal, that after 3 months not everything brought on by Yasmin is back to normal!! I've been off this stuff for 8 months now and am still not back to normal, as though many many symptoms have gone away or lessened! I even don't get my period normally, the last one I had was on easter this year!! You should know, that everything in connection with hormones can (I don't say MUST but it CAN!) take a VERY long time to recover!! And that is what my doctor says and not only my opinion!!

So please be patient and don't worry, I swear you will get better some day, and if not tomorrow than in a few weeks or months! And you won't die of the symptoms you're still having, because you have been checked at the hospital and everything (well, FOR THEM!!) was "normal". So be sure that there's no heart damage or something else wrong in your body you would have to worry about, but only those (sometimes really unbearable!!) "Off-Yasmin-Symptoms".

And PLEASE read through all of the posts here, there are so many women telling their stories and especially how LONG it took many of them, including me, to feel fine again!!

A big hug to you and every woman out there still in Yasmin recovery!! God bless you!!

Silke

Why oh why (oh why) are so many people here taking Lisinopril for high blood pressure?

I thought ACE inhibitors were mainly for heart damage. That's why I'm taking it. Why not take something like Atenolol for high blood pressure? It's generic, has minimal side effects, and really lowers the bp; there are a range of beta-blockers you can choose from for your own chemistry; plus a small dosage works wonders; really drops it.

It seems you're all taking massive amounts of Lisinopril for something it's not meant for when a little Atenolol or other drug would do much more.

Really curious about this. I know Lisinopril lowers bp but... it's not what it's really for. I think the lowering is a side-effect mostly. Anyone ever looked into this, thought about it, asked their doctors?

I experienced,severe stomach pain,irregular breathing,rapid heartbeat,small fever,ringing in ears,headach;after six days of use and within fifteen minutes after taking levaquin.The ER sent me home.Two days later,they found posible heart damage.What happened? I was 43 years old and I thought healthy.Side effect?