Process of elimination symptoms and conditions

I'm a 47 male and took Crestor for a year. I experienced muscle tremors, constant fatigue and muscle soreness. Not just a little sore but as if someone had hit me so hard as to leave a muscle bruise in both arms. One night my left arm and leg began to tremor and it was as if they were too heavy to move.

What I noticed was that all of my little aches and pains became severe aches.

I experienced blistering on my hands, a common side-effect of your liver rejecting the medication but my doctor didn't pickup on the symptom. Instead, he gave me a steroid-based topical cream that actually eliminated the blisters but they would return within weeks.

I experienced lapses in my memory and I started to forget words. I would forget the names of things and I found myself substituting the word 'thingy' when I could remember what something was called (like a phone).

I visited the hospital 4 times and my doctor countless time. Each time my doctor treated the current symptom and not the person as a whole.

It became too much to bare when I started having chest pains that felt like something was crushing my chest. At this point I started to do some research and found forums like this one.

During my time of the worse pain, I felt like I was actually dying. I started to get my effects in order and finalized my estate.

I stopped my Crestor about a year ago, after about 3-6 months my muscles began to feel better. After a year, I am finally starting to feel like my old self again (not that I was all that well before).

Statin affect people differently, but there is NO DOUBT that these drugs can have adverse effects on people. Listen to the commercial for Lipitor, "contact your doctor if you have muscle fatigue or weakness"......

I was put on Lipitor 10 mg. last Spring about 8 mos. ago. I have never taken medications/drugs other than aspirin or Motrin or antihistamines. Since that time I have had a strange combination of unexplained symptoms arise throughout the months. These sx's included: Headaches, stiff neck and severe neck pain, acute shoulder pain, hip pains, joint pains, severe knee pain (tendon or Ligament problems?) and loss of movement, hair loss, jaw pain and some memory confusion. Initially, I had severe HA's for several months, but attributed them to stress, however, I had never experienced HA's as a common occurrence. Then we went away to our Maui house to get away from stress, HA's continued, along with leg and shoulder pains. At the same time, I started noticing several strands of hair falling out if lightly touched my hair to move it out of my face. The pains seemed to move around my body at different times, for no apparent reason. I am used to daily exercise, living in CO in the mountains @ high altitude, not usually having muscle soreness. Now, given my leg and knee pains have gotten so bad, I cannot hike and have difficulty climbing my stairs. Skiing is out. Snorkeling caused leg cramps. No explained reason for having muscle tenderness or soreness without my usual exercise at present time. When the pain leaves one area it tends to arise in a different part of my body. At the present time, my hair loss has subsided, as also my jaw pain and headaches. However, my leg pains and knee pains are so acute (for no apparent reason) it is impossible to exercise and difficult to walk that I looked up adverse reactions to Lipitor, finding all my sx's most probably might be attributed to this drug. Partially my fault for not looking up RX information prior, especially being a medical professional for many years. My husband kept throwing away the info when purchasing the RX. Too many unexplained symptoms, I decided to obtain the drug info. myself. I tended to make excuses for months, such as: I am getting older, under stress, must be an old injury, not exercising properly, need PT therapy etc.... I am dc/ing the drug immediately and have an appt. with my MD on 1/5/09 to discuss.

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 am not sure if the Lisinopril is my problem. I have been on it for 3 yrs now. I do not have HBP -never had it. I developed Type II diabetes and am on Metformin. In the last two months, I have developed dizziness and light headedness. Also, last two months, heart palpations - and the itching is driving me crazy. Skin has developed tender sites - like the skin feels like very thin paper. I think I am going to stop it - even reading what's on this page - it may be what's causing these strange things. I did not know it was from viper venom. I also have dry mouth, but no consistent cough. Every now and then.

Wow I am so glad I found this site! I was put on linsinopril 10mg three weeks ago because my insurance wouldnt cover norvasc which I was fine on. But the past couple of weeks Ive been waking up in the middle of the night with this unbearable itch in my throat and coughing like I never had before. I also noticed that my skin was itching relentlessly. I just figured it was winter itch. I also notice that my stomach seem to always be bloated and my mentral cycles were no longer regular. At the same time I started this medicine I started a new vitamin so I was figuring that I was allergic to something in the vitamin, so I stoped taking the vitaman but the coughing and itching didnt stop, so by process of elimination the only other thing that change in my life was this lisinopril so I went on the web and found this site. After everything I read I am conveinced it is the lisinopril causes these reactions. Today is sunday and needless to say I am not taking the lisinopril anymore. After reading this I will call my doctor monday morning and find something else to take. If anyone found a good BP med that is covered by aetna, please let me know. Tamyj1972@yahoo.com

Silke
Hi, BitterRN again. I dont believe your gyn either. What you are coming to realize is what all of us in the medical field already know, and its scary, but all doctors do not have the same knowledge in all fields of medicine. That is why experts always push second opinions all the time in hopes that the second time you will run into someone who has more knowledge and experience in your particular problem. I know this because I see it everyday, please believe me, and EVERY WOMAN ON THIS SITE PLEASE KNOW THIS: A doctor is only as good as he continues to strive to be. As far as hormones go a gyn has limited knowledge about them exept that the normal ranges fall between here and here as printed on the lab report, if your labs fall in the normal even if normal is 0.3 to 4.4 if your lab comes back 0.3 well thats normal right? BUT IT IS NOT NORMAL, normal for an 80 year old maybe, but not a young woman. So only if that gyn has taken a particular interest in hormones, gone to many seminars, read many books about them, interacted with experts on hormones, will they even know to flag this as abnormal and further investigate it. They will tell you everything is fine and by process of elimination its all in your head. ITS NOT. Even being a nurse I was told this and it infuriated me. Thats why I seeked Dr after Dr until I found one who could help me. Rarely do you find a Dr. who will say hey Silke, Im just not sure about these labs or Im not really an expert on hormones so maybe you should seek out another opinion or sometimes they really think they are right because thats what they have always told patients for the 20yrs they have been practicing and so your just depressed or crazy, but we all know that medicine changes rapidly, year to year, so if they dont keep up, they just keep treating with "old methods", because thats the way its always been done.
Sorry to get on my soapbox Silke I just get so frustrated! That is why I gave you the name of that Dr. in Spain because I knew that he was an expert on hormones. I know Spain is far!:( I even tried to google Dr's in Europe who are experts in hormones with no results.
So yes when you call your doctors office ask for copies of this lab report (You have a right to your medical records) they may make you sign a release for them and go to the office to get them that how they do it in the U.S. Anyway tell them you want a copy of ALL of your lab reports from this visit AND the visits where you had the labs done a long time ago. This way we can compare what they were last time. I would even be willing to ask my doctor here if she thinks your levels are too low and maybe you should get another opinion. She may even have some leads of Dr.s there who can really help, as she attends many seminars where experts gather worldwide.
OK Silke, Ill let you go, sorry for the long post....again:)
BitterRN

I have been praying for God to reveal to me what exactly is wrong with my son. He has been on Singulair every day for about a year and a half. He used to be a happy, energetic boy with a great sense of humor. For about a year, he has been lethargic, depressed, unmotivated, and grumpy. He doesn't want friends over, doesn't want to go anywhere, has no energy for anything. I thought it may be his sinuses or his ears, since he has had severe allergies, asthma, and ear infections in the past. I even had his sinuses cat-scanned. Nothing. He has commented that he has really weird dreams, and I had NO idea that may correlate to Singulair. He has also indicated pain in his upper right side, as some others have. My son has never been a behavior problem, even on singulair, but I thought maybe his personality was changing for the worse, or that maybe he just needs more sleep than other kids. After a process of elimination, I thought, let's try eliminating Singulair. Within 2 days, my son was joking, playing basketball with his dad, and back to his normal silly self. I am SOO relieved. Even though I just refilled Singulair, it's going in the garbage. Weird how a "harmless" drug could cause so many problems.

I have been taking Lipitor 40mg for over 10years after a triple bypass. I experienced no noticeable side effects until about 5 years ago my feet were burning, stabbing nerve pains sharp enough to draw a sharp breath, unable to sleep properly. My doctor did not suspect Lipitor so I had to find the source of the problem by a process of elimination. This deteriorated further in the past year, with numbness and severe muscle cramps in feet and hands. I stopped taking the Lipitor recently and the pains and discomfort have all but disappeared.

My mother-in-law was recently hospitalized for a kidney infection. She is 79 years old. She has had allergic reactions to a number of antibiotics in the past few years, including Cipro which is in the same "family" as Levaquin. Since her infection was severe (temperature went to 104.7), the doctors decided to try a half-dose of Levaquin because she had had an allergic reaction at least one in every "type" of antibiotic. The first 3 days, she had mild leg spasms resembling restless leg syndrome. Since that is common in elderly people, especially those who have been very ill with little movement, we were not concerned about it. On the 4th day, after she had come home from the hospital, she began to have leg pain. At first, it was more of a burning sensation under the skin, but, as the days went by, it became unbearable pain. What had been helped by 2 mg of Valium and some tylenol, became barely tolerable with Darvon every 4 hours, Valium every 6 hours and 600 mg of Ibuprofen every 4-6 hours. The pain became so severe that she could not walk, and within a week, she was hospitalized for 9 more days with pain so bad that she could not sleep or walk. They finally put her on Vicodin for pain, which made it tolerable. They tested for everything but, by process of elimination, the Doctor decided that it must have been the Levaquin. It took over a week after they discontinued the Levaquin for the pain to lessen enough to leave off the Vicodin at night. Even after she came home, she had to take the pain medication round the clock to be able to bear it. She is now learning to walk again and still taking Vicodin at night for pain (2 weeks after she stopped taking the Levaquin).