Need some encouragement.. Please help me...

[kkolk]

Well its been almost 1 year since I stopped taking statins. The revalation that caused me to stop is haunting me still to this day.

I still walk with a cane on a daily basis and am fighting a daily battle with unreal pain. My doctor is now concerned that this condition could be permenant.

I have been following all of advice I can from this site. I am getting very discouraged, for almost a month now I keep talking myself out of just turning the car into oncoming traffic. Jumping it off the bridge into the local river, so much and so scary that I made sure my Life insurance policy included suicide.

I need some help, One year into this unreal pain, daily medication of morphine, daludid and muscle relaxers. This is just to be able to move.

I know that you all have gone through similar problems, I am reaching out to you once again. Save me... Help me find my way back to some kind of reality. Please help convince me there is a light somewhere at the end of the tunnel. I was on the Statin medication for 3 years... how long does this go on...

Please...

[valgators]

Dear Kkolk:

Please don't let hopelessness overtake you. I believe there are many things that might improve your situation. I care, so please take my suggestions seriously: 1. Find a homeopathic physician who can try alternative treatments to help with the pain and emotional side of this insidious condition. I believe you will find hope again if you can find a good health care provider outside of mainstream medicine. 2. Have you had your vitamin D levels checked? It should be around 40-50 at a minimum. I'm guessing that living in Illinois and suffering keeps you inside a lot. I can promise you that if you are vitamin D deficient, you will have pervasive soreness and achiness that will improve once you have adequate vitamin d levels. Go to you MD and get a vitamin D test and if it's low as I suspect, you will likely need a high loading dose to bring levels up. Will this cure your problems. No. But it will definitely improve it. 3. Do you live alone? If so, isolation only adds to the despair. Please seek a mental health professional to help you.

Don't give up. An excellent book to renew your spirit is The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. You can order on Amazon or get it from your public library. It will give you hope again.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you are doing. We all care.
Valgators

[harley2ride]

Been there done that! I'm been where you are, and I'm partially still there. Sometimes when you don't improve, there are reasons. It is possible, that like me, you developed Mitochondrial Myopathy (Muscular Distrophy), or a host of other possible perminent disabling things, due to the statin drug affects. Seeing a good doctor (not homopath), can help, but you have to make sure you find a doctor who is knowledgable with statin injuries.

There are many things that can help. The proper dose of coq10, l-carnatine, nadh, vitamin D, and in my case Lyrica help tremendously.. If I stop my meds for 2 days, it is all I can do to walk.. With my meds, I get around fairly well, and my pain (while it is 24x7), is managable.

But it can take awhile. Finding the right doctor can take time (it took me 3 years and about a dozen doctors). Finding the right doses and combinations of medications takes time. Learning to pace yourself to avoid causing yourself more pain takes time. You just have to push on and find the right doctor, and get started on at least some level of recovery.

[Allen1]

Hi there kkolk,

My heart goes out to you in your times of despair. It has been around 18 months since I stopped taking statins and there has been improvements mainly in the last couple of months, some days I can both physically and mentally achieve things (for a short time) that I could do prior to statin intervention. I know that the problems do get really bad some of the time and then ease off for a few days just to return, but if you look back and remember just how bad things were a year ago, you may then see that there has been an improvement since that time.

As valgators mentioned, get plenty of vitamin D inside you, I use Cod Liver Oil but your doctor as well as doing a test could probably prescribe something more potent. Both harley2ride and valgators like the rest of us have learned from experience and have found by trial and error what works best for ourselves.

Please don't let this take you down the road to ending it all, you are worth so much more than that. Things will improve, maybe slowly and not as much or as fast as we want, but as long as you are around to tell others of your problems and pass on any information that could help them, then you will make a lot of difference to so many peoples lives.

There are literally MILLIONS of folk who either will become victims of statin therapy or who already are victims, they WILL need advice from people like yourself who have experienced the extreme effects of this so called "well tolerated medication", please be there for them and do your best to stop them from getting as ill from this poison as yourself.


Take care kkolk, when you are feeling down think about the help you can offer others, this crap has taken too many lives already don't let it take anymore.

All the very best,

Allen.

[SusieO]

Hang in there...it can get better! It took me 3 long painful years to find the right doctor (chiropractor that practices wellness/holistic) and I am doing great.

It will be one year at the end of August 2008 that I found my "lifesaver" and I can't believe where I was a year ago and where I am today. I have disabled license plates on my van but I rarely park in a disabled spot unless I am having a rough day, I have canes now sitting in the closet that I haven't used in almost a year, I am walking (when it isn't too hot) 4 to 5.5 miles a day and I love life!

I have to be very careful on my supplements and the dosages as any little change throws me back to the weakness and pain as it seems we will never be totally healed or rid of this statin demon yet you can get better!

[Tia]

Hello KKolk,
Don't give up! I was on Vytorin for over a year. When I saw a Neorologist (spl.?) he checked my muscles, he said they had deterrated to an 85 year old, I could hardly stand for an hour (I was 45). I took 2000 mg each of CoQ10 and Carnitine a day, that took a ton of the pain away, it cost, but it was worth it. Then a friend told me to do a liver cleansing, I checked into, did it and it hurt while I was doing the 4 day cleansing (the Dr. told me it would, because we were moving the toxins around), but after that, I saw a huge difference...so much so, after a month or so, I started to forget the CoQ10 & Carn. I am back to normal now, I still do the cleansings every couple of months. Stuff comes out of your body, that you don't know is there. I am back in a gym every day and I feel great. Keep going, there are many of us that have gotten through this, the problem is, they forget to get back online to tell people.

[garystil]

kkolk,

You have my sympathy. I'm sure you will improve if you take the advice of our learned friends here and I wish you all the very best.

There is one comment that bothers me though "just turning the car into oncoming traffic." Several years ago a teenager who had just split from his girlfriend elected to end his life by driving into oncoming traffic. A friend of mine became an innocent victim. I understand the teenager's desperation, but I dont understand why he had to take someone else's life as well.

Tia,

Are you able to share details of the 4 day liver cleansing diet?


Power to all of you,

Gary

[Tia]

Hello Gary,
this is the site I go too. I am not trying to push the company, it was just the one a friend found for me. I was very hesitant at first, but also desperate. I used to be the one that said, just give me the pill. Now I will not take anything unnatural.
*http://www.drfostersessentials.com/store/liver_cleanse.php
I wrote the Dr. thinking I would get a response from a staff member and on a sunday I was shocked to get a long letter from the Dr. explaining, first off that all I needed was the liver cleansing, not pushing for anything else and she also explained about the toxins going through my body and be prepared to get some of the pain back. Once off the drug, (Vytorin), I started to fill better but I still needed the CoQ10 every 3 hours to stay out of pain. As mentioned before it took maybe a month before I realized I was not getting the warning signs in my legs and I would forget to take them. I stopped for about 8 months, but I am now building the musles back and I think both Carnitine and Coq10 are good for the body and aging. And aging I did in those two years.
I would recommend when you do/if you do the cleansing, start on a friday, it is not like a laxative, but you do have to go to the bathroom a lot and it is nice to be at home, by the third day you will notice you just have movements right after each meal. You will notice your stomach flattening out, it is wild. You can still take your vit.s during this time.
I was not thrilled on the tea, but others l know like it. It is easy to follow and I even ate meat during the time I was cleansing and I still lost weight. But that is not the most important, the pain returned, but a day or two after, my husband pointed out to me, that I looked more relaxed and I was not massaging my legs all the time.....and slowly, I just stopped hurting all together.
I swear it is what made me get through this, we need to get that poison out of our bodies. I understand the fear, I had my business up for sale, I am Canadian so I was going to move back to Canada (in GA now), because of health insurance (over $2800. a month). This drug can kill people and sadly as you read, make someone do it to themselfs. Good luck!! I hope with all my heart you get the same results.

[twinmom]

To: harley2ride - You mentioned finally finding a doctor qualified to treat statin damage after many different doctors. Do you have any suggestions how to go about finding someone? I've seen 6 different doctors, different specialities, etc., and NOT ONE is willing to say that my problem is from Zocor, let alone offer any form of treatment. The only help I've received has been from this forum. I live outside Philadelphia, PA, and wonder how to find a good doctor in this locale. I'm 18 months off Zocor and still having muscle weakness and extreme fatigue. Appreciate the support.

[twinmom]

Dear Susie0 - You mentioned finding a chiropractor who also uses wellness/holistic methods. Did/do you have weakness and fatigue? This is my main remaining symptom after stopping Zocor 18 months ago. No MDs have admitted my problems are from Zocor, and have therefore offered no help at all with treatment, etc. Have you found help for weakness and/or fatigue from your chiropractor? Someone suggested to me that I try one, but I really have no pain any longer, just the remaining extreme fatigue and weakness. My only help has come from this forum, not from any of the 6 doctors I've already seen!

[harley2ride]

Hey Twinmom. I believe in a few of the posts here are information for contacting Dr. Golomb (think that is correct spelling), or you could try to contact your local MDA for advice. Seems many of the MDA docs are full aware of the dangers of statins, and could be useful for recommending a doctor.. You could also try contacting Dr. Phillips at Scripps Memorial in San Diego.. His web site is impostertrial.com

[twinmom]

Harley2ride - Thanks for the info. I'll give those suggestions a try. Really appreciate the support!

[SusieO]

Twinmom yes I had weakness and fatigue and at times I still have it, but not nearly as severe as what it was. I am walking 5.5 miles a day - have never done that in my life and for 3 years I was lucky to walk the length of my house (in pain).

My wellness doc/chiropractor studies and used the Brimhall method of healing - it involves many aspects i.e. mental, physical, emotional and so forth.

Here is the website for my doctor - *http://www.advanced-wellness.com/ give him a call and he can help you locate someone in your area.