December 22th
2008
7:12 PM
Hello I'm a 41 year old female, and I took Lipitor 20 mgs for 6 months about two years ago. When I called my doctor's office to complain about side effects they told me it couldn't be the Lipitor because I had been taking it for a month already, and would have had problems before that. I eventually took myself off of the drug 5 months later. Here are some of the side effects I experienced:
Itchy fingertips, increased blood pressure, 30lb weight gain, shaky hand writing, acne, poor driving skills, poor memory, hair loss, "frozen joints", IBS, incontinence, low grade fever, itchy feet, numb toes, numb hands, foggy brain, joint pain, muscle pain, foot pain, plantar pain, dizzy, jaw pain, back and neck pain, week ankles and wrists, nasal allergies, skin rashes, migraines, heartburn, Increase in Astham, heart palpitations, knee pain, difficulty standing up from sitting position, difficulty climbing stairs, water retention alternating in feet, hands, arms and legs, almost constant taste of bile in my mouth.
These are only the ones I can remember. Two years down the road everything but the muscle and joint pain and weakness is gone. even those have improved a lot. I stopped taking the Lipitor and lost all 30lbs I had gained on it, without dieting, in a months time. I still have two toes on each foot that are partially numb. I have trouble climbing stairs, and getting up from a sitting position. I can do both, but I move slowly while doing them. The pain in my muscles and joints drives me crazy, but I'm grateful that the rest of the symptoms have cleared up. My doctor never believed me about my symptoms, and neither does my new doctor really. Went to the emergency room for asthma that was not responding to my inhaler, and they were about to let me go home when I mentioned to the doctor that I had been on Lipitor. Suddenly a huge battery of tests were ordered including a CT scan and a stress test. When I asked the doctor why he said that they just wanted to be sure that it wasn't something other than asthma. Why did they do that after hearing about the Lipitor? Do they know something? Are there doctors who believe that statins are killing and seriously injuring people? I'm so angry. Even as I sit here typing I know when I stand up I will have massive amounts of pain that I will have to "walk off". My quadriceps have not recovered, and remain ridiculously weak.
If I can stop one other person from going through this I will be happy. Thanks everyone for taking the time to list your symptoms. It makes me feel better to know that someone believes me, and knows what I am going through.
March 30th
2008
2:50 PM
I like to live my life with facts, not speculation and drama. My child is on Singulair and doing fantastic. I remember the trips to the ER when I did not know if my child would live or die. Of course when I saw this report, it caused me some concern so I did some research on my own. Did you know that suicide is the leading cause of violent death in New York State, the United States and the world? In 2002 in New York State there were 1,292 suicides which exceeded homicides by 32%. The statistics show that 1 in 10 teenagers plans to commit suicide. The National Center for Health reports a 10% suicide rate in kids 15-24 years of age and 4 male suicides for every female suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those 15-24 years old.
So now we have 1 child in New York that has committed suicide that just happened to be on Singulair, and it is Singulairs fault? Show me the proof. All I see is one distraught mom who is trying to find blame for her son’s tragic death. Is there only half the story being told, a trend I have noticed in journalism these days. Let’s face it, life happens. I am NOT on Singulair and I have had melt downs, thrown things across the room, been depressed over things, cried, and even for the past week have been having some crazy dreams. I remember as a child putting notes on my room door telling my parents how much I hated them. I remember as a teenager thinking my life would be better if I were dead. I remember my child being cranky and fussy before she was on Singulair, gee maybe she was teething. The term “terrible twos” has been around a lot longer that Singulair. Let’s face it, we have turned into a society of people who always want something to blame. I think it is time people start taking responsibility for themselves and accept the fact that sometimes life just happens. Take accountability for your own lives, and stop trying to blame everything and anything.
I also live my life by reading internet blogs with a grain of salt. These blogs are public forums and places where anyone and everyone can post. How do you know that all these posts are real? Remember the day when kids made prank phone calls for fun? Now they have the internet and can post pranks on these blogs. How do you know that a competitor to Singulair is not posting in order to fuel the feeding frenzy? How about a registered sex offender or a felon in prison? There are a lot of “sick” people in the world and yes, they have access to the internet too. If you are hanging on every single one of these posts as being true and real then I feel sorry for you. The internet provides anonymity and it is easy to create a fictitious identity and a fictitious story. That is probably why if you do a search for “internet safety” you get 15,700,000 hits.
Until I see proof, I am not going to take my child off Singulair. The CDC reports that in 2002 there were 1.9 million visits to the ER for asthma and 4,261 asthma deaths. If I did stop my child’s Singulair, and she died in the ER from as asthma attack, whose head does that fall on? The media?
-- By chris555 | Reply | (15) replies | Private Message me
February 29th
2008
12:34 AM
Are there people that have not experienced any side effects of Singulair I saw a question, and the answer is that they are the ones that are not going to post here. Millions of people and especially kids are fine with this medication and have no reason to look for this site. Will some people get side effects from Singulair, yes, but unfortunately there is not a drug out there that will cause no side effects.
People saying this could cause all kids to suicide is a bit disturbing. If you want to take a look the most popular allergy medication, Zyrtec has had suicide listed in their information for awhile. The reason these allergy medications have to have them listed is because they are heavily prescribed because of the great amount of allergy sufferers and any time some one passes in a car crash, accidental death, or unfortunately even suicide they have to list all medicines they are on. Obviously with popular medications more people from these cases will exist than the less popular ones. Drug companies are protecting themselves because of the litigious society we live in and have to place all kinds of occurrences there and not to say in this case, but a lot of people are always looking to blame others for something instead of taking responsibility for themselves.
I don't think doctors are prescribing these medicines because they do not want what is best for each of their patients. There is no conspiracy, and I would trust their view and years of studying and practice to someone's inexperienced diagnosis on this forum when I have no idea what their background and job is on here. I do not look to consult my son's teacher to fix a leak in my roof, so I go to my doctor for advice on medicine and not consult someone not in the field.
Sorry about this harshness, but someone showed me this board and as a parent who has their son on Singulair with great results and even trusted my doctor when they suggested to try it in my one year old son I will continue to listen to their advice. I have heard numerous people in the medical community tell me Singulair is one of the cleanest drugs out there, but again there isn't a drug with no side effects. I am sorry that not all parents have achieved the great effects my kids have had with this drug, but I think most have and thus not had the need to find this board.
-- By itdoeswork | Reply | (3) replies | Private Message me
October 26th
2005
12:05 PM
I took my last active Yasmin pill on the 8th. Since quitting, I've started to feel more depressed than ever before...I feel like there is something horribly wrong with me. I don't want to blame it all on the pill, because I feel like I'm not taking responsibility for my problems...I just don't know what to do or how to help myself. My brain is so scrambled right now, I can't think straight.
-- By mandy6 | Reply | Private Message me
January 22th
2009
12:46 AM
JILL HERE . THANK TO THOSE WHOM HAVE RESPONDED TO WHAT I TALKED ON WITH LIPITOR AND MY EXPERIENCES. THE PRINCIPLE OF WHICH IME STILL INTERESTED IN WITHOUT BEING DIVERTED.
-- By tisi | Reply | Private Message meONE WEEK ON EATING VEGIES, FRUIT,SALADS, WEIGHED OUT PROTEIN, FISH,CHICKEN. BROWN BREAD, NO MARGARINE OR BUTTER,VERY LITTLE CHEESE, NO LIPITOR, A GOOD QUALITY VITAMIN C. NOT USING ANYTHING ELSE BUT A GOOD FISH OIL AS WELL, NOW TOTALLY BACK ON TRACK. LIPITOR WAS MAKING ME NOT ONLY FEELING ILL BUT ILL IN A WAY I KNEW I WOULD BE IN TROUBLE TAKING IT ANY MORE.
THANK GOD IME NOT. I MAY NOT STAY ON THE VIT.C. BUT THE GOOD QUALITY FISH OIL , YES. IME WORKING HARD ON OTHER THINGS ALSO AS A ALL ROUNDER WITH PERSONAL GROWTH, AND WILL ASK FOR A BLOOD AND URINE TEST IN SIX WEEKS TIME, AND TAKE IT FROM THERE, ON THE RIGHT TRACK NOW, THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT.
HOPE ALL WORKS OUT FOR ALL OF YOU. BY THE WAY THE DR. WILL BE A DIFFERENT ONE TAKING MY BLOOD AND URINE NEXT TIME. IRRETRIEVABLE DAMAGE NIPPED IN THE BUD JUST IN ENOUGH TIME.
REGARDS. JILL.
FOR ME IVE BANNED STATINS. AS A LADY WHOM HAS NOT HAD ANY MOOD ALTERING CHEMICALS FOR OVER FORTY YEARS. IME NOT ABOUT TO MESS MY LIFE UP WITH ANYTHING JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE SAYS ITS OK, AND HAS QUALIFICATIONS.
I QUESTION ALL , AS THERE IS TOO MANY SCIENTIFIC CONS OUT TODAY. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR ONES HEALTH IS A MINE FIELD I ADMIT AND I WILL ALWAYS HAVE THINGS CHECKED THROUGH, IME NO FOOL. BUT ALONG WITH THIS I ALSO MUST KEEP AN EAGLE EYE OUT , AS A INDIVIDUAL I CANNOT TELL ANOTHER WHAT TO DO.
GOODBYE. J.