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I too was taking LIPITOR. After 3 months I became short of breath...

Posted at 5:51 AM on Dec 12, 2007 by liesbethcerasuolo, #25596
I too was taking LIPITOR. After 3 months I became short of breath. At first I put it down to the weight that I had regained.I had lost 18kg.the year before. I had muscle pain, nausea, headaches.The Lipitor reduced the LDL alright,but the shortness of breath became worse and worse. If I was sitting on a chair and dropped a piece of paper on the floor I would be completely out of breath from bending over and picking it up! If I was walking for more than a few minutes I would be out of breath and had to stop. I quickly regained my breath; but the moment I started to walk again I would become breathless again!! My heart specialist decide to do an angiogram, that was o.k. He told me it was my weight that made me short of breath, I disagreed with him. My G.P. did not know what caused it either. I had had problems with Pravachol, severe muscles stiffness and pain. I could not straighten a bend leg or bend a straight leg.It was only after I studied the enclosed leaflet in the box of Lipitor that I noticed the RARE BUT SERIOUS SIDE EFFECT: Shortness of breath, if you suffer from this stop straight away and see your Dr. it said. It turned out that the ALVEOLI are affected. I had a lung function test done which showed my lung capacity was down by 20%.After cortisone treatment it has improved a bit but it is still 10% down and it effects me every day. I tire quickly and get out of breath walking uphill or against the wind.If there is a class action going let me know please! I am so fed up . I am only 63 but feel like an old woman.I will not take anymore cholesterol lowering medication; I rather live 5 years less, if that is the consequence.
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Reply about 1 year ago on Dec 14, 2007 by bettycarpenter4457, #3449

I AM SOOOO RELIEVED THAT I' M NOT ALONE!!! I thought I was going crazy or something. I started taking Lipitor 10mg in Oct '06, then in January 2007 my "a.r.n.p" not an MD, increased my dosage to 40mg.....(the lab tests indicated that my cholesterol had not gone down any), which she didn't bother to check up on after prescribing such a huge dose. You know, like within 2-3 mos. Now comes my appointment with her Dec 4 2007, they do labs and low and behold I have inflammation of my liver!!! She called me in a panic and told me to immediately stop taking the lipitor. Now my body feels like it's going to break. (a couple of wks before I went to the doctor I started feeling like crap.....lethargic, can't raise my arms above my head without crying, etc) It's even worse now.....now I can't hardly go to sleep at night, my arms just below my shoulders ache to the point of agony, I had arthitis in my knees - but now I can hardly walk without holding onto something - which is very hard to do when your arms won't function properly. I HATE THIS !!! There was absolutely nothing wrong with my liver prior to this medicine. Now I'm worried that I'll have irrepairable damage, not the mention all this pain in my arms, wrists, thumbs, knees and hips. I am 50 yrs old and feeling much older.
Thanks so much for listening and letting me share with you; someone who really understands my pain!! I dread the night coming (pain is almost intolerable then) B. Carpenter

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