Lipitor and meds

I am a 51 year old male. November 2007 jaw pain sent me to the hospital where they found a 99% block in my right coronary artery, yep 4 stent's. Three month late the same this time 2 stent's and two weeks later 2 more. I now have 8 stent's. My DR. put me on several meds including Zocor. The zocor made me very tired and headaches. He change it to Lipitor 10mg. I have been on it for 7 months and a few day's ago I have notice pain in both knee's and hip. I once again find it hard to concentrate, feel sluggish and have headache's. I NEVER have headache's. Stopped taken the Lipitor, hope the pain goes away. It a shame that the medical field is so quick to put us ALL on drug's, how about herb's instead. I'm going to look into a natural way to lower my cholesterol.

This is an update from my first posting earlier this year. I still have localized pain in my neck and shoulder area sometimes extending down my arms to my fingertips. I am 58 years old and stopped taking Lipitor 5 months ago. I am always in discomfort but the very severe pain comes in waves at least 3-4 times a month and lasts for about 1-2 days. I have noticed an improvement since stopping Lipitor but my cholesterol count is on its way up so I am trying to control that. Not an easy task but at least I am not totally debilitated as I was in January and February. I am totally off all meds and vitamins as of this writing. I am trying to cleanse myself and start over with diet and exercise. Hang tough ... this is definitely the battle of your life!!! KooKoo

My doctor started me on Lipitor over a year ago. I started having muscle pain in my shoulders but didn't equate it to the meds until I was watching television one day and a Lipitor commercial came on. It said that some people experience muscle pain.....I thought HALLELUEH THAT'S WHAT IT IS.....I stopped talking the meds and went to see my doctor who immediately changed my meds to Zocor.....guess what? The same thing happened. Went to see her again and she switched to Crestor.....same thing happened....so I started doing my own research and was amazed at what I learned and bewildered as to why my doctor was acting like I was some whining baby.

No problem, I say to myself and stopped the meds. That was last November, in January I had my yearly physical and blood tests were ordered for me in December......guess what.....my triglycerides were still high so my doctor orders Antara. It didn't say "cor" anything so I'm thinking it's not the same stuff. No, it wasn't the same stuff it was WORSE!! Within three weeks I was crying I was in so much pain. I called her and got her nurse practitioner who says that my doctor said to stop taking the pills and the pain will go away. I call back and say, "you don't understand, I can't sleep, I can't move, I can't function the pain is so bad." After several calls back and forth, and let me tell you I NEVER call my doctor unless something is incredibly wrong and that is less than rarely. Well, my doctors partner tells the nurse practioner that they will not prescribe narcotics for me. WHAT? Who asked for narcotics? I needed relief from this pain.....I would have gone for amputation!!!

So I change docs...more blood work.....high triglycerides, I refuse to take any statins. She says she has something for me that will not cause muscle pain and hands me samples of Welchol.....this one took less than a week for increased muscle pain...again I wanted to trust, but guess what i learned when I went to the Welchol site? The first side effect listed? Muscle pain.

Called the new doctors office to let them know that I was experiencing pain again and was told to stop the Welchol (which I had already done) and take Red Yeast Rice and have bloodwork done in 3 to 6 months and come back to see her. Oh no! Not without research and guess what? A side effect of Red Yeast Rice? Muscle pain.

It has been 4 months since I stopped taking the Antara and took Welchol for a week in that 4 months. Sometimes my shoulders/neck and arms don't hurt too much. Unfortunately most times they do. Both doctors insist that the pain cannot be from the drugs because the drugs have left my body. The new doctor said I probably have myolgia just because I'm 52 and that it's just a coincidence that it happened while taken the drugs but then goes on to agree that I must be "sensitive" to statins. Both doctors treat me like I'm stupid and nuts all balled up in one. I am frustrated and in pain most of the time. I have been trying to find out how long to expect this pain and am dismayed to learn that it can be years or never go away.

Yes I have high triglycerides (so does my mother and she experiences the same kind of pain so refused to take statins) and I've been warned that not taking statins could cause pancreatitis and/or heart problems. My question to that is - "then my choice is chance the heart stuff or live an incredibly painful life?"

I'll take my chances and pray for the best because right now my quality of life stinks!!