Trying to figure out if my back pain is like others. The pain is ...

Hi sseventy:

The situation I went through sounds very similar to yours. I have pasted my previous post & replies from February 15th, 2008. I have been off Lipitor now for about 2.5 months and my situation has improved dramatically. There is still a bit of weakness in the groin area but nothing like I was experiencing.

Posted on 2/15/08
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I'm a 47 year old male and have been on 20Mg Daily Lipitor for about 4 years. Everything was mostly fine until about 1 year ago when I started experiencing severe hip and groin pain. I played hockey regularly up until that time and assumed the problem was a hockey related injury, though never remember any specific incident that may have been directly responsible. I told my doctor I thought it was a sports hernia because the symptoms and suspected cause held a close resemblance. X-Rays, MRI and Bone Scans were all negative. Physical Therapy was a useless waste of money. I was in agony for over a year and barely able to walk some days. Could no longer participate in hockey or other sports. Even coaching youth sports was a challenge due to the pain that greatly limited my mobility. The maddening part of it all was the doctor's had no explanation and just wanted me to continue with Physical Therapy. My wife casually suggested to me that maybe it was the Lipitor as she had heard some recent news on TV related to Lipitor and muscle pain. I told her she was being ridiculous and that's when I started to do some internet research and came across this site. It's all starting to add up. I've been off Lipitor for a week and the pain on my left hip is almost completely gone while the pain on the right side has shown significant improvement. While I am seriously happy that I think I have found the cause of my pain, I am incredibly angry that not a single doctor (I saw a total of 3) even suggested the possibility that the problem might be the Lipitor. They all knew I was taking it. I know the drug has had highly positive affect on most people and saves lives but I feel that I've lost a year of my life to it.
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Here is a reply to my post:
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Reply about 1 month ago on Mar 05, 2008 by spr, #5315
I have had 6 months of similar symptoms, suggestions have included hernia and adductor strain. A couple of weeks ago I was on haliday for a week and i forgot to take my lipitor. And the pain went away for the first time in 6 months. I have been on lipitor for 3 years. I started the medication again last week and the pain came back, so I went back to the physio.
I am now wondering whether to stop the lipitor and see if it gets better.

And my Response:
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Reply about 1 month ago on Mar 11, 2008 by mogorisn, #5467
Hi SPR:

Glad to hear from you. I have now been off of Lipitor for 1 month and about 99% of my problem has disappeared. It's unbelievable after being in pain for over a year. I am now fully convinced that Lipitor was my problem.

It's so funny you mention the adductor strain because that was another one of the doctor's theories in addition to stress fracture's in my hips. These guys almost operated on me!

Not sure if it helped speed the recovery or not but I started taking the following supplements based on research I have been doing on Lipitor problems:
CoQ10 – 300 mg daily (Coenzyme Q-10)
L-Carnitine – 1000 mg daily
Flaxseed Oil – 3000 mg daily

Now for the not so good news. I recently had a cholesterol test and my cholesterol shot up to 259 from the previous level of 170 when I was on Lipitor. My goal now will be to bring it down naturally with better eating habits (oatmeal for breakfast), supplements (flaxseed, fish, cod liver oil) and exercise (I can now run on the treadmill pain free). I have discussed this with my primary care doctor and the plan is to re-check my cholesterol in 6 months to see how things look then. We talked about possibly trying a lower dosage of lipitor (scary) or a different type of statin if necessary.

My advice to you is talk to your doctor about all of this before making a decision on stopping the Lipitor. I don't know your current age or medical background/history so please don't go by my advice. Show the doctor this text and let him help you make a decision.

Have you medically ruled out your problem actually being a sports hernia or adductor sprain? Have you had X-Rays, MRI's and bone scans? I had all of these and they were negative.

I wish you the very best of luck. Please stay in touch with me with any updates and feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. I would be more than happy to share the details of this experience if it can help you.