Lovastatin side effects

[wife of]

My husband was, unknown to him, verbally aggressive toward me. I could do nothing right and he didn't spend time with me. He either went to his shop or visited neighbors. He totally withdrew from me after 40 years of marriage.
I tried for months to get him to quit the Lovastatin. All I heard was that the doctor had lots of schooling and degrees. He said that he paid the doctor to look after him, not me.
He had pain in his neck and shoulder.
He has numbness in 2 toes on his right foot, this has not gone away.
He had severe pain in the end of his right index finger.
I asked him to talk to his doctor about problems that I saw in his memory. He'd do something and within 2 months told me that he had never done it. He quit his herbal arthritis medicine (Boswellia) and went back to Celebrex. When I asked him, he told me that he had never taken that herbal pill and didn't know what it was for.

The doctor poo pood his having memory problems and doubled his Lovastatin dose from 20 mg to 40 mg. I came UNGLUED! and convinced him to cut the pills in half. He promised that he would just to shut me up. He was cutting the pills in half and then thought that he would take a whole one every once in a while. That turned into him taking a whole pill all the time. I discoved this when his one month prescription was gone in 6 weeks. He told me that he forgot to cut them in half.

Coming home from work last December, he stopped at a stop sign, looked, and pulled out. A pick up took off the front of the car doing 55 MPH. He said that he never saw her. This is a man that had not had an accident in over 30 yrs. He has driven over a million miles without an accident or a ticket. Had he been one foot further out into the lane, he would have been killed. Unfortunately, we only had liability on that car. There was no salvage. Lovastatin cost us that car and almost his life! The day before he finally quit the Lovastatin, I had decided that I could take his rudness and vebal agression no more. I was going to leave him.
Lovastatin almost cost us 4 decades of, for the most part, a happy marriage.

It is now 5 weeks since my husband stopped the Lovastatin.
Three weeks after he stopped, the severe pain in his finger stopped and a giant callus of dead skin appeared on that finger. He did not injure that finger in any way. I've since read about Toxic Epidermal Necrosis . Within days his neck pain eased up. His toes are still numb. He is back to being the happy guy he was. He spends time with me again and is showing that he cares.

I wanted to post this for others to find. There was almost no reference on the net to the skin poisoning.

[Dee]

Wife of,

Thanks for telling your story. You will have total understanding here on this forum.

Statins do cause skin problems, I have Dyshydrotic eczema on my feet which developed the last 5-6 months I was on Pravachol. I was on Pravachol from Aug. of 2001 to April of 2004.

I have permanent muscle and nerve damage, and a host of other problems.

Thanks again for being here, and I am so happy your husband survived that awful car accident.

[SusieO]

Wife of what an awful time for you and your husband. I sincerely hope that your husband can see how much better he is now that he has stopped taking that poison drug.

You have to be a very strong person to have stayed with him when he was treating you so rudely.

I pray he continues to see and feel improvement.

[wife of]

My husband went int to the doctor's and explained why he had stopped his Lovastatin. Oddly enough, the doctor didn't even bat an eye, just said that he believed my husband was having problems. My husband did not tell him about the car accident, but about all the other things.
Now is cholesterol is 283, his triglscerides 320.
He's not one for diet changes. So I'm trying some herbal things to try and bring the readings down to a more normal level.
By the way...........his PSA had started to climb. He was still in normal readings, but climbing. The doctor had said that we shouldn't worry, after all, they can cure that cancer if it occured. Since stopping the Lovastatin, his PSA dropped and to quote the doctor, it dropped "dramaticly".

[SusieO]

Wife of that is good news! Is your hubby able to walk or does he have muscle problems (I know I should go back and read your first post)? If he is able to walk have him start a walking program as that will bring down his cholesterol and triglycerides - it sure did for me.

I was unable to walk for exercise until this past August. I now walk 5.5 miles a day 7 days a week and in less than a year my triglycerides went from 419 to 148!

I did adjust my eating habits, too, but it isn't so bad. I cut way back on carbs i.e. white breads and desserts. I now eat whole grain bread and use whole wheat flour to bake - you can't even tell the difference in my opinion as things still taste very good.

[pgrimm]

Dear Wife Of...

Thank you so much for your post. My Bill is suffering from the toxic effects of lovastatin as well (my diagnosis, not thte doctors, but they aren't disagreeing with me)! Only I thought the damaging effects were limited to his neck/head pain and body aches. Now you tell me it can effect mood and disposition? Wow. How many fights, breakups have we had, all this time! He started on Lovastatin just a few months after I met him, so I chalked up his irritability to his Irish temper. He's off the horid stuff now a week tomorrow, so I am hopeful that along with taking care of his muscle pain, his bad moods will vanish, too! One can only hope! I hope you and your hubby are enjoying some wonderful making up time!

Pam
or, Girlfriend OF...Bill

[rockingrammy]

He has been on lipitor for several years. His disposition changed to the point even the smallest thing would set off his anger. He also cried at the slightest sad scene in a tv show or movie. This is something that never bothered him before. He developed severe pain and stiffness in his knees and shoulders and neck. Cramps developed in his feet and calves. He developed undetermined colitis. He would also fall asleep all the time. He lost all desire to do anything but lay on the couch and sleep in front of the tv.

I finally convinced him it was the lipitor. I got him to agree to stop it just for a day. He stopped for two days and noticed the changes. He has now been off the lipitor for a little over a week. He is noticing the changes. He has an appointment with his GP this Friday. I would love to be a fly on the wall for that appointment. His GP is likely to hit the roof.

On a good note, the gastroenterologist recommended that he come off the lipitor. That may help with the visit to the GP. We'll see.

I hope your husband continues to improve.

[pgrimm]

After contacting everyone I could think of and threatening action from my congressman and attorneys who specialize in suing the VA, we got several calls yesterday. The local VA Dr. Woo begged Bill to come in to see him. Of couse, Bill said he declined to allow him to touch him again ever. A surgeon who has been assigned to handle complaints called several times, saying that he will personally do all he can to get to the bottom of the problem. One slight problem, he wants him to be admitted to the VA hospital in L.A., says he will make sure that he sees all the best specialists and given all the tests that can assess his condition. Bill would rather go to a non-VA hospital, so will request that he be admitted to UCLA. I'll keep you posted.

Also, each time I talk to one of these doctors, I put in a word for not only Bill, but the damage they are doing to ALL their unsuspecting patients. They probably hate me, but I couldn't care less. I actually hear just a bit of shame in their voice. Probably more fear of litigation.

[wife of]

I asked my husband to go for walks with me. At first he said no. I really need it! I gained a lot of weight after a botched heart cath a few years ago. Then last year, I quit smoking and gained more.
Last week, he came to me and asked to go walking after dinner. It does give us lots of time to talk. Hadn't realized how out of shape I am in.

He's beginning to see, as he starts feeling better, just how much the Lovastatin was hurting him. His 2 toes are still numb and I suspect that they always will be. Sometimes I'll say something about where we were or what we were doing and he has no memory of it. He now accepts that I'm not making this up where before he thought I was trying to drive him crazy. He thought I was making things up to get him to stop the Lovastatin and then he'd have a heart attack and die. He now admits that he had gotten so withdrawn that he wanted nothing to do with me. We are not at honeymoon time yet, but after 40 yrs I don't expect it.

He also now admits that another Lovastatin problem is loss of labito. That part wasn't just that he didn't want me, he didn't want, period.

Pgrimm, I wish you well. When I talk about this to others, they think that I am crazy. After all, how could a pill cause a car accident. As they say, his record was so good that it could only be that his number was up. Only, I know better!!

[pgrimm]

Wife of...
My former husband seldom ever had any desire for me and I always wondered what was wrong with me. I finally learned that it was not me, and it wasn't a pill either, but either way, it's a very painful thing for a woman to experience. My heart goes out to you. Bill is in so much pain that he knows he can't get romantic, he pays a heavy price! This drug is so cruel, makes you wonder what kind of human beings could produce and market it, doesn't it. I'm sure they weren't really aware of what it would do in the beginning, but after they became aware, and still pushed it on the people, shame on them. And shame on the doctors, who fail to warn people what they are getting into! I'm sorry for your husband, I'm sorry for you, and Bill and me, too. Noe of us deserved this! But someone just had to get rich off our misery, right? I'm wishing your husband a full recovery, Bill, too, but the truth is, even if these guys get that lucky, we'll never get this time back. Bill asked me today if I thought his mood has changed in the past week he's been off lovastatin, and you know, I thought about it, and it certainly has, the irritability is pretty much gone. He's just worried and depressed, delaing with this damned VA system! Not sure where we're going with this, the VA neurologist was supposed to call us tonight, quelle surprise, no call, Bill was supposed to be admitted by tomorrow, that's not going to happen! He says he'll insist they admit him to UCLA, not the VA, and I'm in support of that.

His friend John checked himiself out of the L.A. VA today. He had his leg amputataed on Friday, diabetes had led to gangrene. He said he wasn't able to ambulate himself to the bathroom, they never came to help, laid there for hours, you get the picture, pain and humiliation. I'm taking his case to the congressman, as well. He said he'd rather come home and takes his chances, what a shame, huh?

Pam

[wife of]

My husband has now been off of Lovastatin for one year.

The toes on his right foot are still numb.

His finger has returned to looking normal, but he says that if it gets cold, it hurts. He works in the office of a commercial freezer and sometimes has to do things in the freezer.

He is still having trouble in the bedroom. He wants and he tries, but things are not working like they used to. At least he's trying. I've started him on Ginseng, so we'll see how that goes.

He still can't remember a lot of things that happened while he was on Lovastatin. I'll mention something and he doesn't remember.

Merry Christmas to all and God bless,
Linda