Medical background symptoms and conditions

I am 39 years old. I have been taking Lisinopril for nine months now, for my High BP. For the first 7 months I had not really had any annoying side-effects other than a mild dry cough. But for about the last 2 months I am having a really odd sensation in my heart. It seems like a flutter and it goes across my upper chest area and into my throat. At times they are mild and other times, during a lot of moving around, I have more aggressive sensations. One night while in bed. My wife got her stethoscope out, (she has a medical background) and listened to my heart. She told me not to tell her when I get the sensation, but to let her try and determine when I have the feeling. this nailed it as soon as I had one. She said that it seems that my heart if pumping too quickly. Meaning that I may have a Premature Ventricular Contraction. This has really scared me. I am scheduled to see my Doctor tomorrow. In my last visit which was about 3 weeks ago, I had brought this up to him. He didn't really try to hear my heart on his own. He just listened to what me and wife were explaining about the sensation. I had hurt my leg about the same time this started happening, and I was taking large amounts of Ibuprofen. So he partly chalked up to Ibuprofen and maybe a drug interaction and stated that I lay off the Ibu and see if they go away in 2 weeks. And if not, he wants to do a Holter Monitor on me to see what may be happening. Well they haven't stopped! I am thinking maybe I should ask for a different BP med. I still want to do the Holter to make sure, but I think it may be time for a change. I have only heard of this fluttering feeling happening to one other person. Has anyone else out there had this same scary sensation? if so please let me know what you have done or have found out. Thank you!

As a Doctor myself I think drugs are NEVER the answer except in EMERGENT issues in Heroic life saving... YOU however and all individuals are and should be MORE accountable for your own health and STOP DEMANDING the Drugs and look to LIFESTYLE changes in DIET and EXERCISE to achieve the GOALS so necessary for quality and quantity of life.... The tools are at your fingertips ... The almighty internet ... And your OWN imaginative mentation is your TRUE limitation... So TAKE control of yourself and BE accountable .... Sorry so blunt but MORE tough love and Educating people is whats needed.... NOT more drugs....

MDG

My 54-year-old fit, social, successful husband was put on Singulair in January for newly diagnosed asthma. He developed a depression with anxiety, irrational fears, avoidance, mood swings and even one episode of suicidal thoughts out of nowhere. He saw a psychiatrist and a therapist, tried medications, yoga, a vacation, meditation, breathing exercises - everything! But he kept getting worse.

The day he was throwing patio furniture then sobbing uncontrollably was the day he realized he couldn't work in his condition. He negotiated a 60-day leave without pay. Even that didn't help. It was crazy. How could a man who managed hundreds of employees and a major health service system for 20 years suddenly be so paralyzed with fear that he couldn't walk down a beach or go into a Walgreen’s?

We found this site May 26th. He stopped the Singulair immediately. It has been 10 days and he is already 80-90% back to normal. Thank God.

Partly I am writing because it is so hard to read of parents' guilt that they "should have known" etc. Look, unlike a child, my husband is mature and very verbal; he is also a psychiatrist (!) with a capacity for self-examination and a language to describe his inner experience. And me, I'm a psychologist (!) trained in understanding people and I know him very well. And yet with all that training and skill and consultation and treatment, WE STILL COULDN’T FIGURE THIS OUT! So please, don't make yourself feel any worse with guilt. This is awful and tragic enough already.

I would add that the onset of mood and behavioral problems is so insidious that it is hard to connect the problems to the Singulair. Also, I suspect that children and adolescents are at greater risk because of their immature emotional developmental level. An adult l suspect may need some genetic or personal predisposition to mood disturbance, or stress, or both, to trigger these side effects. My husband had a depression episode 30 years ago and had recent traumas that certainly could have triggered the depression. But how treatment resistant that depression was, and those strange paralyzing fears and extreme anxiety – all that I blame squarely on the Singulair.

I have made a report to the FDA. I urge you to do the same.

I'm a 47 year old male and have been on 20Mg Daily Lipitor for about 4 years. Everything was mostly fine until about 1 year ago when I started experiencing severe hip and groin pain. I played hockey regularly up until that time and assumed the problem was a hockey related injury, though never remember any specific incident that may have been directly responsible. I told my doctor I thought it was a sports hernia because the symptoms and suspected cause held a close resemblance. X-Rays, MRI and Bone Scans were all negative. Physical Therapy was a useless waste of money. I was in agony for over a year and barely able to walk some days. Could no longer participate in hockey or other sports. Even coaching youth sports was a challenge due to the pain that greatly limited my mobility. The maddening part of it all was the doctor's had no explanation and just wanted me to continue with Physical Therapy. My wife casually suggested to me that maybe it was the Lipitor as she had heard some recent news on TV related to Lipitor and muscle pain. I told her she was being ridiculous and that's when I started to do some internet research and came across this site. It's all starting to add up. I've been off Lipitor for a week and the pain on my left hip is almost completely gone while the pain on the right side has shown significant improvement. While I am seriously happy that I think I have found the cause of my pain, I am incredibly angry that not a single doctor (I saw a total of 3) even suggested the possibility that the problem might be the Lipitor. They all new I was taking it. I know the drug has had highly positive affect on most people and saves lives but I feel that I've lost a year of my life to it.

Flowerbabies,

Thank you for the thoughtful response with regards to the chest pains. How long have you had them? Did you have them while taking Yasmin? While not taking them? Was it always the week prior to your menstrual cycle? You had an ECG done as well as an EKG? I found the pain (like a very deep ache) almost unbearable the last two evenings. And of course help but wonder if its a heart attack, stroke, a pulmonary embolism like several of the other women on this site have posted actually happened to them. How long have you been off of it now? Do you have a medical background? I am really wishing there were some definitive answers/places to go for this besides another Doc who may just discount it again...and charge more costly medical bills. Is there anything that you have found that helped it?