Lipitor and flexibility

I started taking Lipitor 12 years ( 1997 ) ago as my Cholesterol was at 315. I was always athletic but had a crappy diet. My Cholesterol dropped to 200 within a year. However, in 2001 I ruptured my left Achilles playing tennis. Thought nothing much and that I hadn't stretched enough. Recovered from that and started playing tennis again in 2002. Within three weeks of playing again, I ruptured my RIGHT achilles! At that point I started to question the effect of Lipitor on muscles/tendons with various medical "professionals". ALL said it was nothing to do with medication. I quickly developed a tingling/numbness in both feet that doctors said could not be happening but it WAS!

I've had MRI's, nerve conduction tests, wondered if it was diabetic, alcohol, etc. Finally found sites such as this where real life experiences validated my concerns over this statin. I told my Dr. I was quitting Lipitor last Monday, she had no problem with that. This is Saturday night and I'm sitting here with a NOTICEABLE decrease in my numbness/tingling in both feet that I've had for the past TWELVE YEARS!!

I hope that the statin did cause my "mild sensory polyneuropathy" as was diagnosed in 2002. As of right now, it seems to be getting better in less than one week! I can flex my toes with NO pain and my feet don't feel like dead weights.

I WILL NEVER USE A STATIN AGAIN!

I am a very active 54 years old. I work out with weights and also do a little yoga to keep flexible. On May of 2007 my Dr. started me on Simvastatin to lower my cholesterol and the liver enzyme test one month later showed everything to be fine. I had noticed that my left shoulder and upper arm was sore and sometimes would hurt so bad that I would wake at night. I figured I had worked out to much or slept wrong. After a few week of pain that didn’t seem to go away I started taking Advil 3 times a day. I couldn’t lift my left arm up over my head or scratch my back, I also found that I was forgetting things and work was hard to keep up with. I took the month of July off from work and only did the necessary stuff I had to do (self-employed) In the end of August my family and I took a week’s vacation and by the end of the week I was aching all over my body. My feet was in so much pain, I needed to massage them before getting out of bed in the morning, my arm and even my thigh muscles hurt. I couldn’t understand WHY, the only thing could be the medication… I stopped and saw the DR. when I got back. He sent me for x-rays of my feet, but everything was fine. So he put me on 40 mg of Lipitor instead. I did tell him, that when my body felt less sore I would start the Lipitor medication. Well it wasn’t until late November that I thought I better start, but only after 7 days of taking the Lipitor I felt excruciating pain all over. I was hurting in my arms (triceps) had feet cramps and could hardly walk. I called the DR. and told him I will not take this medication any more. It’s been 3 months since I stopped (almost 6 if not counting the one week in November) I’m slowly getting better with my normal work out, but I still do not have flexibility of my left arm and I occasionally have cramps in my feet. I have no doubt that the STATINS medication is very bad for you.

After stopping Lipitor AND Fosamax, Ihave regained the ability to walk down the stairs without holding on to the hand rail.I have also regained the flexibility in my knee joint which had been very painful when I squatted down.I was previously unable to get up from the squat position without holding on to some support.
I have noticed people remarking on legs turning and feet tripping over things if feet are not picked up sufficiently. I too have these symptoms but was not noticing them as separate side effects.
My general mental fog has been remarked on by people with whom I play Mahjong and Bridge . I seem unable to remember things for very long.I have also had one episode of the room spinning round while I was seated. Is this another side effect or just the result of hot weather and dehydration????
PG
Australia

To dkc (8083)
I have problems with my feet. I do not know if the problem is due to Lipitor or Fosamax or both.First I had numbness at the end of my big toe. Over a couple of years the strange feet sensations moved up my feet to above the ankle on both legs till I did not have any flexibility in the ankle. I cannot walk down stairs without holding on to a rail. My feet feel flat on the ground and do not grip the ground. I have stopped Lipitor and I think the sensation is slowly coming back to normal. I have heard that improvments have been noticed in people even two years after stopping Lipitor.