Nut case symptoms and conditions

I am a 54 year old male who started taking Lipitor about 4 years ago. It seemed OK at first, but over the next several years I began to have increasing amounts of joint pain after exercise. Nor muscle pain, joint pain. And it seemed to be a result of exercise. By the time I stopped it, I was hurting after everything, not just exercise. I felt better within the first two weeks, but it took about 4 months for me to be able to exercise vigorously again. Over the years I seemed to have forgotten how much vitality I used to have. I am a physician, and because of the long lag time until I felt better, I wondered whether improvement might have related to other factors, so after about 5 months I decided to restart Lipitor. It surprised me that after just one dose, I got back all of the joint pain and fatigue when I was at my worst on Lipitor. I was really hurting. Needless to say, I didn't take any more.

Coincidentally, a physician friend of mine who had statin induced polyneuropathy had a similar experience. After his symptoms went away he found that after only one dose the entire polyneuropathy came back.

Stopping and restarting the drug is a way to test the correlation between the drug and the side effect. For such a large spectrum of side effects to recur after only a single dose, it argues that the problems that my friend and I had was due to some sort of immune memory response. I have not seen this in the medical literature.

I am off it now for about 8 months and am able to comfortably play singles tennis and jog - much more energy (and I took 200 mg of CoQ10 a day with the Lipitor).

Thank goodness for this sight. If you are thinking you're crazy and can't figure out what's wrong while you're on Nuva, scroll down, you will feel like you're getting a big hug!

I am 27 and have been on the NuvaRing for coming on 8 months and everything has changed. At first I had severe migraines with nausea, a day after starting, that kept going and still occur. They will last all day long and I can take 8 of my migraine medicine and nothing will help. The headaches ruin days, make work difficult, and ruin weekends.

Second: I gained weight around my middle, so perceptibly, I thought I was pregnant. The bloat and gas is constant, I'm always popping Gas-X extra strength but the gas doesn't quit. It was funny at first (yes, I'm immature) but now I'm so uncomfortable, and my pants are tight around the middle but nowhere else. Boo!

Third: ANXIETY. I've been the most relaxed, calm person until I started on NuvaRing, and now I have a prescription for Valium just to keep me from having nervous butterflies all day. The anxiety goes hand in hand with depression, which sucks because I got engaged literally 2 weeks after starting NuvaRing and am always nervous, anxious and sad, and I'm so in love with my fiance but our home life is strained! I sometimes wonder if it's cold feet, but I know it's not. Which leads me to:

Fourth: NO SEX DRIVE. Gone. Dead. Zilch. Zero. I have been the horniest person I know my whole life. I love sex. But I am almost scared of it now. I have no desire to have sex, recoil when my fiance touches me, and get butterflies when I think he's going to try to have sex with me. I sleep as far away as possible, never masturbate anymore, never feel sexy and the idea of sex just doesn't even pop into my head. So unlike me. This causes anxiety, too.

Fifth: Yeast infections and pain during sex. I've never had either of these before. I'm extremely hygienic, and my underwear are constantly filled with discharge. So gross and painful.

I'm going off of it in 5 days and I cannot wait!

I really felt the need to post my story about Advair. I started having seizures 2 years ago. I have been seeing a neurologist since then. In the mean time, I have been working with a lung specialist for asthma/COPD. I was placed on Advair. Over several months I started experiencing vision changes, muscle pain, muscle cramps, headaches, weight gain, confusion, trouble speaking, constantly clearing my throat, severe pain near my left armpit, with sever muscle tightening. The muscle tightening was so severe that my arms and legs started moving and twisting by themselves. This is called agentatious movements. The neurologist has been putting me through a battery of tests because these symptoms can be from a severe neurological disease. As of now, I have been passing them with flying colors.The neurologist thinks I am faking, or these symptoms are a figment of my imagination because he cannot find a reason for them. That's when I decided to start checking the side affects of all my medications, and found this site. I have printed off all the stories that match my symptoms and will take them to the neurologist to prove I am not a nut case, and them I will see my lung specialist and take care of getting off the Advair. It does work, but there has to be something else in the medical world than can help us breathe without feeling like we are dying other wise. I want to thank everyone for putting their story out there is is a great help to know you are not alone. Good luck!