Muscle breakdown symptoms and conditions

I am a 37 year old man who weighed approximately 188lbs when I prescribed 20mg of Lipitor and fish oil to combat my high triglycerides(437) and my high total cholesterol(212) in August of 2009. I have a high stress job and was experiencing occasional chest pain and heart palpitations. In addition, I have psoriasis and psoriasis arthritis and take Enbrel injections weekly. Prior to taking Lipitor, I had normal liver function tests.

At the same time that I began the fish oil and Lipitor, I began to change my eating habits and began a regular exercise routine. I began to feel better and lose weight. I was enthused about my progress. I took my Lipitor at night, however, I found it difficult to get up in the mornings and I was a little more tired than normal.

Roughly 3 months after beginning Lipitor, I developed a condition of EXTREME thirst. Blood tests from my doctor revealed elevated Liver Levels. His first inclination was that it was Lipitor so I stopped taking it ASAP. A subsequent test a week later indicated little improvement in my liver tests. My doctor suggested we give it two more weeks to test it. I just got my tests back and they actually increased!(ALT 197, AST 90, ALP 571).

My cardiologist does not have anything to suggest other than the possibility of a fatty liver, gall stones, or liver disease. His recommendation was that I get an ultrasound next week of my liver and meet with a GI doctor.

My excessive thirst and fatigue continues. I am not jaundiced but I do frequently experience dark urine. I weigh myself every morning and my weight is now down to 174. I seem to be losing very gradual weight now though my eating habits have returned to my old routine. This worries me. I am now worried that this drug triggered something terrible in my system. Does anyone have any advice?

Prescribed Bactrim for MRSA skin infection on my arm that I picked up at my local gym. Day 1 OK, Day 2 severe headache at the base of my skull. Day 3 continued headache, general nausea, gas. Day 4 I began to develop a low grade fever and dizziness. Almost passed out after walking just a half mile. Still a severe headache, weakness. Day 5 Headache, consistent fever of 103, chills and muscle aches, light hives visible, weakness, unable to sleep. Day 6 early am, couldn't sleep all night, went to the ER with the worst muscle aches and fever I have ever had. Hives now very clear and pronounced all over my torso. I was tested for the flu. Said it was not, but was a viral infection that was attacking my muscles. Muscle breakdown found in both blood and urine samples. ER physician changed medication to Clindamycin HCL. Told to stop Bactrim, but thought what I had was viral, not a reaction to the Bactrim. I continues to feel bad for a couple more days, but hives started to reduce, fever diminished and started to feel halfway human after being off Bactrim for a couple of days. Still not 100%. New med has it's issues too (have to take every 6 hours, can't lay down after taking it) and a nasty taste in mouth and stomach upset, loose stool. After 5 days of new med went back to my doctor. A secondary infection had set up in the Staph area. The fungal infection needed a different med. Now is 4 weeks later, after finishing all meds, still have an infection. Blood cultures taken to see if the infection is the staph or fungal. I have lost 8lb, have no taste buds, loose stool, severe stomach cramps/burning (now taking Activia to put back good bacteria in my stomach...no one told me to do this before!!). If Staph not gone, need IV antibiotic for a month. I am 50 year old female, but note I had taken this in my 30's without any problems. You can develop an allergic reaction to medicines previously OK for you. Beware of Bactrim. It kicked my behind!

On Doxycycline 100mg twice a day for 12 days then 200mg twice a day for 12 days for very-likely Lyme Dz (fever, hip rash) apparently diagnosed in the first month of infection. First few days on Doxy I had a lot of esophageal spasms (kind of a cramping in the middle of the chest), but those subsided.

About the time I was finishing the 24 day course of Doxy, got red-violet itchy rash of both hands just over the lower knuckles (where the fingers meet the hands) after a long drive - unsure of sun exposure. Just walking in the sun for a few minutes sets it off. Little improved now 6 days off the Doxy. I'm a doc and first wondered if it was a sign of dermatologists - a pretty bad disease that includes a knuckle rash and muscle breakdown and is sometimes related to Lyme or cancers! It was very reassuring to read all the patient prior reports here of very similar problems on Doxycycline. This is a great site and glad to contribute to it with my story.

Being a scientist, I am reluctant to say my symptoms are completely due to the statin (Crestor) that I've been on for 2.5 yrs. Started with a bulging/herniated disk in my lumbar region 4 months ago. Then increasing leg pain and major leg/foot cramping at night. Had my blood checked for electrolytes and CPK. Electrolytes were ok but elevated CPK (muscle breakdown enzyme). Doc took me off Crestor and now a month later, no cramping and much reduced leg pain. Am going in for a cholesterol check next week to see what the levels are. I wonder how much the Crestor played in my herniated disk. Certainly it has played a role in the leg pain and cramping as I no longer have it to the same degree. The FDA and surgeon general talk about putting everyone on statins. BIG MISTAKE!!!! Maybe CoQ helps, but I am done with statins.

I have muscle pain, weakness, and chronic lower back pain. Started statin drug, Simvastatin, on 11/21/07. I take no other drugs. Within two weeks, I could not sit without severe lower back pain. Reported problem to family medical doctor on 1/11/08. M.D. sent me to physical therapy for 8 sessions. No relief from physical therapy so I requested an X-ray on 3/20/08. X-ray shows very mild degeneration at one lower vertebrae. M.D. sent me to an orthopaedics doctor who recommended continued physical therapy. Went to a Chiropractor instead. After six chiropractic sessions with little relief, I made an appointment with an Osteopathic doctor. My M.D. sent me to a rheumatologist who prescribed high dose naproxen for two weeks. The rheumatologist ordered and X-ray of my lower back area. The lower back X-ray produced no negatives. The rheumatologist's next step will be to order and MRI of my lower back area. The D.O. suspects statin induced myopathy and because of hyper reflexes he ordered an MRI of my brain and cervical spine. I am now recommended to a neurologist who specializes in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Am I getting the run around? Only one doctor said I might have statin induced myopathy. The rest will not even mention the statin drug theory. I just pray for ache and pain relief. I have some improvement after four months off of the statin which I believe is quite a strong point that it was the statin drug and not some unknown condition. I don't think arthritis or MS conditions improve. All I know is that I had no health issues before taking the simvastatin. Good luck to everyone who has or is taking a statin drug. BEWARE!!!

Took 1 dose. Within hours, I awoke with a very dry mouth and severe heartburn. Went to the kitchen for water and nearly passed out. Nausea, so I made it to the bathroom. Cold sweats, then chills. Felt like I had the flu. Every time I stood up, I nearly passed out and kept having same symptoms most of the night. Next day, at work, I had to be taken to the nurse, who figured out that my already low blood pressure was dropping dramatically when I stood up (as well as my pulse rate increasing). I threw up all over the doctor's bathroom. Still feel awful 3 days later. Dr. pretty much indicated that blood pressure drop couldn't have been from the Crestor, although my father has had same thing happen with EVERY statin they've put him on. Now, my leg aches and my urine is dark

blurred vision, interaction with erythromycin, muscle breakdown,

A good friend of mine (82) was recently rushed to the hospital because he woke up and could not get out of bed. After a week,he is now in rehab using a walker and going through leg exercises to build back his leg strength. The doctors are suspecting the Lipitor he has been taking (10 mg 2 times a week for about 3 years.) to be the cause of the muscle "atrophy". After reading these stories on this web site I am shocked to hear about all the problems Lipitor has seemingly caused people. I tried Lipitor for about 6 months, and had leg cramps in the tops of my legs (where they meet the body) and the Dr. promptly took me off of it and now I'm on Zocor, with no apparent side effects-but I'm reading up more on that.

Now in reading about Rhabdomyolysis (a severe side effect with muscle breakdown and kidney failure), I'm asking the doctors to check for that as my friend has had some symptoms-weight gain, weakness and now not being able to walk. You know, these men don't complain about aches and pains and many may be walking around with a time bomb going off inside them with these symptoms.

If anyone has experienced something similar, I'd love to hear from you, especially how long the recovery of muscle use can be.
Thank you.