Spinal stenosis symptoms and conditions

I to was put on Lipitor 20mg. took it about 1 month and had such pain in my leg muscles I couldn't hardly walk . I went to my doctor he said go off it and I should start Zocor in . A month the pain was worse I couldn't even walk around the mall . I couldn't sleep at night the pain was terrible. Once again I told the doctor he said stop it and we will wait 6 weeks and start Crestor. In six weeks the pain should be gone. It didn't go away I could hardly walk at my job teaching at a Pre School. The pain unreal.I have type 2 diabetes under control for years. Still is.I was told I had arthritis. But now they tell me I have spinal stenosis. I'm on paxil for the depression they said I had and. I feel as bad now as I did 4 years ago when I was on statins. I can hardly walk, my life is pain in my muscles that never leaves and now my back. I was active and watched my weight and walked 3 miles a day. Since taking these meds. I can no longer work, go shopping or go anyplace I have to walk . I have gained a lot of weight . I have something wrong with my knee .I have tried to explain this to 3 doctors and no one listens to me. My health turned for the worse when I started taking Lipitor in 2005. I don't think I'll ever get my life back I am only 58 years old and can't work to support myself.I can't even hold my 1 month old grandson and walk or lift him from his bed. Reading all your messages . I know my health going down like this is from the statin drugs I took . When I sit , I can't walk when I stand Then .I gotta sit in 5 to 10 minutes.And the pain in my knee has progressed. No doctor wants to hear my story and believe me. Thank God I found this web site and read this for my self now I know I'm not crazy. How can I get myself better ? Will I live the rest of my life in pain, and not able to function.Every time I see a doctor they give me another pill to take. I want to just throw them all away .There must to be an answer to this.

Over 6 years ago, the following Petition was submitted to the FDA, I would encourage every patient being treated with statins to read it and bring it to the immediate attention of their physician:

CITIZEN PETITION TO CHANGE THE LABELING FOR
ALL STATIN DRUGS (MEVACOR, LESCOL, PRAVACHOL, ZOCOR, LIPITOR, AND ADVICOR) RECOMMENDING USE OF
100-200mg PER DAY OF SUPPLEMENTAL CO-ENZYME Q10 TO REDUCE THE RISK OF STATIN-INDUCED MYOPATHIES (INCLUDING
CARDIOMYOPATHY AND CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE). http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/dailys/02/May02/052902/02p-0244-cp00001-01-vol1.pdf
May 24, 2002
Petitioner:
Dr. Julian M. Whitaker, M.D.

This Petition is based in part on the clinical findings of Dr Peter H. Langsjoen, MD, which he also reported to the FDA:

Statins kill people - lots of people - and they wound many, many more. All patients taking statins become depleted in Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), eventually - those patients who start with a relatively low CoQ10 levels (the elderly and patients with heart failure) begin to manifest signs/symptoms of CoQ10 deficiency relatively rapidly - in 6 to 12 months. Younger, healthier people who's only "illness" is the non-illness "hypercholesterolemia" can tolerate statins for several years before getting into trouble with fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness (usually with normal muscle enzyme CPK tests) and most ominously - heart failure. In my practice of 17 years in Tyler, Texas, I have seen a frightening increase in heart failure secondary to statin usage, "statin cardiomyopathy". Over the past five years, statins have become more potent, are being prescribed in higher doses, and are being used with reckless abandon in the elderly and in patients with "normal" cholesterol levels. We are in the midst of a CHF epidemic in the US with a dramatic increase over the past decade. Are we causing this epidemic through our zealous use of statins? In large part I think the answer is yes. We are now in a position to witness the unfolding of the greatest medical tragedy of all time - never before in history has the medical establishment knowingly (Merck & Co., Inc. has two 1990 patents combining CoQ10 with statins to prevent CoQ10 depletion and attendant side effects) created a life threatening nutrient deficiency in millions of otherwise healthy people, only to then sit back with arrogance and horrific irresponsibility and watch to see what happens - as I see two to three new statin cardiomyopathies per week in my practice, I cannot help but view my once great profession with a mixture of sorrow and contempt.

I was put on Advair 100/50 about 5 years ago and took it faithfully twice a day. I started having hoarseness and several times felt like I was having a heart attack.
I also noticed a trembling in my right hand which I did not know what to attribute it to. I could not hold anything in my hand before gradually dropping it.
I also started having leg pain which would grow worse at night and I couldn't sleep through the night. I had to get up a nd take some ibuprofen to get some sleep. I blamed it on my spinal stenosis.
For the past two years I have had an eye problem. I am losing sight in my left eye. The doctor sent me to a retinal doctor last year and I went thru all kinds of tests. He thought it was a wrinkle in my retina. I was examined again this year and it is the same.
This year my doctor couldn't figure out what was causing this and had a brain MRI done. This showed nothing.
I have slowly stopped taking the Advair and my leg pain has gone away and I am getting some well needed rest at night. As to my eye problem, there still is a Question. I will not go back on Advair again.

AC
Estero, FL

I was having Kenalog injections into my knee. On the ninth injection within a years time,with a few Aristospan injections in between, my knee to my foot blew up. Tripled in size, and the skin was bright red with purple marks all over the skin from my upper shin to the ankle bone. I had a big depression in the shin too, which I can not figure out because the injection was into my knee.
I went to my GP who sent me to the ER to rule out a blood clot-ultrasound.
NO blood clot. I was given no medication, nothing, and it was very painful.
Actually, I saw three doctors and not one of them seemed to care. One doctor said, "Steroids are Powerful Drugs" I do not know if this reaction was do to an infection, some side effect, I have no idea. The swelling eventually went down within six months=long time. I still get purple round marks on the skin at the shin, and sometimes my ankle swells. The skin gets red and white marks mixed into the already rash looking skin.
I asked many times what the cause was to this all, and it was like no doctor would say anything negative about the doctor that gave me the injection.
I also discovered that Kenalog is used off label for Epidural Steroid Injections and can cause Meningitis, Arachnoiditis, bowel and bladder dysfunction and more adverse events, because neurotoxins are added to the steroid to make the compound that is injected into the epidural space. Asking other people if their doctor ever told them the drug name they were getting injected by their doctor before this procedure and each and all said "NO."
This is also true for the drugs Depomedrol and Celestone Soluspan. All three drugs are used off label for epidural injections. Neurotoxins do not belong in the spine! If one gets a dura puncture-FOR GET IT!

53 y old male,took lipitor in april 2007 20mg i have had problem in past with disc in neck and tendinitis in elbow but nothing for 10 years by aug i had very bad wrist and thunp pain even holding a pizza box so off to Dr said tendinitis use a thumb brace and phy therapy nothing after 2 months so i am going to different orthopaedic dr.Than 4 weeks ago woke op oct 3 pain in lower back i said ok use some ice went to work and it would be gone in 3 days by oct20 could not take pain in back and siatic nerve server pain down to foot gave pain pills and nothing went to spine specialist said hernaited disk L-4 L-5 and spinal stenosis from disc touching nerves in channel so he wants to operate i ask can lipitor cause this he said nojust look at the MRI but what causes the iflamantion to cause problems in wrist and servere pain in lower back and leg was it lipitor.The pain was so servere the best pain meds could not take the pain awayseep fir 2 hrs than walk around house for 1hrs at o330 in morning caused it hurt so much.@ weeks wastes so i went to chiro dr and after 2weeks i am more liveable and can sleep better .I will go to pain mangerment ti get a shot or operate,its called Discectomy,hope all theres dr know they might be fighting affects of lipitor.We all must get educated and give this info out to ithers

Took my first Ultracet about 2 hrs ago - I have spinal stenosis - the Ultracet made me feel really "spacy" - very weird and also nauseated - don't think I will be taking any more of this!

Please tell me where I can go for help. My mother is having terrible side effects from taking Lipitor a couple years ago. She will need a wheelchair soon. I can't believe so many of her problems are linked to this drug! Her doctors won't even consider the problem being Lipitor. Even though she is off it now, her problems seem to be progressing. Her feet are numb with the numbness moving up her legs. Muscle tone is gone and her left foot hangs. She was diagnosed with dropped foot last year. She also had a pace maker put in after she recovered from pneumonia. She has been told she has spinal stenosis and needs back surgery she probably is too weak to survive. Now she is being treated for neuropathy with no success. Her doctor has done a spinal tap and a nerve biopsy. She has seen a neurologist who sent her to a doctor in Houston. She has had gamma globulin IV's and an IV treatment in the hospital. I don't remember what it was called. Next step is a blood cleansing treatment done in Houston for 2 weeks to remove antibodies attacking the myelin sheath. Her eyes have occasionally hemorrhaged and she faints due to low blood pressure. My mother was very healthy except for slightly elevated cholesterol 3 years ago. What can we do? She is dying.

Hair loss, which didn't occur to me until I read the postings - my hair is everywhere in the house but on my head! Muscle pain, weakness, and atrophy, itchy skin and eyes, joint pain (from muscle weakness??) is excruciating - after months on physical therapy was pronounced a failure and referred to a pain specialist and another surgeon. Could not raise my arms w/o terrible pain, hurt to drive my car. Nausea, dark urine, alternate constipation and diarrhea, dizziness.

I don't know whether to be excited or terrified after finding this site and reading the postings. At first reading, the only symptom I have NOT had while on Lipitor is the numbness and tingling in legs and feet. I've been concerned I have some terrible, undiagnosed and terminal disease.

Have had surgery on one shoulder and am awaiting surgery on the other, plus a re-do of a scoped knee which is now unbearably painful. Also have had multiple steroid injections at different sites, and am scheduled for another next week - this time in my lower back. Was put on Paxil for pain, but have weaned myself off that. Was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and fibromyalgia. Wouldn't take the meds for the fibromyalgia because of the side effect mentioned in the literature - HAIR LOSS! I was already losing my hair! Finally found a surgeon who told me to GET OFF THE LIPITOR!

Problem is, I had also been on Bextra at least four years, I think, for long term mild lower back pain, and knee pain, so am wondering if arthritis could have set in and been masked by the Bextra, which I came off of at the same surgeon's insistence. One week later it was taken off the market.

Am now off all anti-inflammatory drugs while awaiting my latest steroid injection, and yes, I do fear the side effects of THAT! My pain is back to the "rocking and swaying" stage, and I'm awake in the middle of the night researching Lipitor! Does it ever stop??

I was prescribed Demerol 50mg. by my physician for extreme pain due to spinal stenosis. My prarmacist instead sold me Mepergan Fortis and told me it is exactly the same thing as Demerol only it has medication to prevent nausea in it. Does anyone out there know if this is true?

I share the story of many others on this site...

Severe fall allergies, despite years of ineffective perscription allery pills and steroid nasal sprays. Nothing seemed to work. A doctor at my University health clinic suggested the shot (actually Triamcinelone). I've been getting the shot (now Kenalog) every September for 10 years, and absolutely love it. In fact, my wife and kids can't wait for me to get it, because allergies turn me into a grumpy, tired monster! Over the counter pills make me extremely sluggish and irratable.

10 years, no dents or headaches! Just pure relief... if you can't find a doctor who will give it to you, keep searching. I've also been able to convince a doctor or two by suggesting that I will only need 1 low dose shot. Many are hesitant (in my opinion) because they're afraid you'll keep coming back to ask for more. Just 1 a year does it for me. Hope this helps.