Mevecor Destruction

[NurseJudy]

I have a great Dad, whom I love dearly. This is what the drug, Mevecor, did for him:

He was started on Mevecor some time prior to 1994. (No records.) At the time of his participation in the UCSD Statin Study he had been on statins for about 10 years.

He was experiencing the following:
His whole body was aching
Leg cramps at night.
Muscle weakness and fatigue.
Headache
GI problems (reflux)
Attention/ concentration problems
Memory problems
Changes in sleep patterns
Fatigue and lack of energy
Dizziness
Loss of Libido - function
Gained and lost 20 #
Shortness of breath when climbing steps or on exertion
Eyes crusting at night
Hair loss
Infrequent mouth ulcers
Tremors -especially when carrying something
Coordination problems - stumbling, falling, losing balance
Sweats
Peripheral neuropathy both feet
He was also complaining of constant chest pain, for which nothing was detected in ER visits
He has had ever increasing urinary retention, frequency, and urgency. He must cath himself 4-6 times a day
In the 10 years his overall health rating and physical activity dropped in half
His thoughts seemed stuck and he couldn't get them out. He would say, "My memory".
All of the above are listed as related to statin side effects by UCSD.

He had gone to his doctor and told him he was sick of taking so many pills. He told the doctor that his daughter, who was a nurse, thought that the statins could be causing his muscle pain and weakness. The Dr. said, "Who are you going to listen to? Your daughter or your doctor?" He threatened to cancel my Dad's insurance (which was a violation of patient's rights to do) if he did not take the drug.

His memroy has improved since stopping the prescription drugs. He also seems happier and more emotionally and mentally present. In addition, the constant chest pain has stopped.

He is now taking 1500 mg of CoQ10 daily. I am praying for an improvement in the health of a great Dad. Yes, they lowered his cholesterol, but he was robbed of the quality of his life.

Judy Johnston RN, BSN

[FiFi LaBoing]

To Judy
I have had no sleep in the last 24 hours. Part of the reason for this is that I've been online reading everything I can possibly read about the statin drugs, specifically Mevacor (Lovastatin) and same leading to rhabdomyolysis. My father is gravely ill as I type.

First I just want to scream at the top of my lungs so the entire universe can hear my agony over all this. Father has made one E.R. trip per wee for four weeks, the last he was admitted and if he hadn't been, I swear to everything Holy I would have gone postal right then and there.

Our frustration has been just unreal. Trying to get ANY doctor to listen to the symptom complex has been impossible. I've seen some very sharp E.R. docs over my 33 years in the medical profession but evidently none of them are on staff at the hospital we go to. They kept sending him back out, back home.

Finally Thursday, my father could no longer make his legs move, he swore he was in England (we live in Arizona), he thought I was staying in a hotel, and then he believed we were in California at my old house. He acted as if he didn't even know my youngest daughter who spends a great deal of time with her Grandfather.

My mother (his wife) just died nine months ago and while we're still reeling over that pretty much, I am once again faced with major crisis. I believe we had spent close to 40 hours in the E.R. in those prior three weeks, with NO DIAGNOSIS, just sent him home as I stated.

So, Thursday morning, the very obvious mentation deterioration and the extreme shortness of breath were too much to deal with. I called 911 and said if they don't admit him this time, I'll raise the roof off that hospital with my voice. Well, with SOB, the mentation status, the pain of his muscles, joints and everything in between, they did admit him. All this time he's been deteriorating at a rapid rate but NO ONE WOULD LISTEN TO US.

After spending the entire night online researching FDA approval or what should have been NON-approval, reading varoius articles concerning the class action lawsuit, contacting an online attorney, and realizing that my dad has had all but ONE of the extreme symptoms listed with rhabdomyolysis, it is blatently obvious and should be a crime, that our medical community, our doctors in particular, are heavily in the back pocket of the pharm companies, or the pharm companies just buy these guys off at the risk of patient death.

Everything I've read about rhabdo, the FDA, the various statin drugs, the various medical problems, neuropathies, myopathies, etc. just about have me ready to go admit myself to the funny farm. Rhabdomyolysis can be and has been and IS fatal for some patients. My father is 81, he has fibromyalgia, he has severe osteoarthritis, he has Grave's disease (thyroid) and any one of these problems should have been a RED FLAG to check what other meds he takes, should have been a RED FLAG to make a different choice in cholesterol lowing drug, specifically NOT the statins in his case.

I am seeing such blatent neglect by the pharmaceutical company here, as well as my dad's own doctor, that I just want to crawl up in a ball and suck my thumb. I am just so upset I know I'm rambling on and on but I am just so upset that my dad's life doesn't mean a plug nickel to these money hungry animals, nor does anyone else's father, brother, mother or whatever relative. They don't care. These drugs should have been a) never approved or b) certainly taken off the market when some 80+ people have died from the various problems these drugs can and have caused.

I'm not sure how this class action lawsuit works but I have contacted one of the attorneys listed. I also have had the unfortunate need to sue in the past after someone left a lap sponge in my belly cavity. I have my own med malpractice attorney and I intend to reach him on Monday here in Phoenix.

I urge all of you to get on this band wagon. Who do these pharm companies think they are? They aren't God, the doctors think they're God but they aren't, only greedy little animals. These drugs need to be taken off the market and NOW. How many more people do they intend to kill before enough is enough? How much other proof do they need to remove these toxic drugs?

I don't even know right now if my father is going to survive. While they are planning to do kidney studies to see about the muscle damage, they already have found that the heart muscles are damaged and I can only assume the diagnosis I'll be next hearing is cardiomyopathy. Damn, I'm so angry.

I apologize for this rambling and lengthy post. I am so upset and frustrated that I just do not know where to turn. If any of you have any advice or anything at all you can say to help me through this mess, I believe my email is posted.

I'm sure half of this doesn't even make sense. I do apologize, I'm tired beyond words, exhausted in fact, frustrated, angry, hurt, worried, emotionally a wreck to think that I might lose my dad only 9 months after losing my mom. Maybe I just need to put a call into my shrink.

*crie* HELP!

[/i][/url][/list][/list][/code]

[tex62]

FiFi,

How well I understand your frustration. My husband and I had done all the right things to get to an early retirement and statin drugs almost robbed us of everything that we had worked a lifetime to achieve. I saw my husband decline in a matter of weeks from excellent health to one of pain and near inability to walk. Doctors misdiagnosed his problems and he continued to get worse. Finally, we found this site, and our family doctor finally agreed that he should stop the drugs. It’s been five months and two surgeries’s since stopping the drugs, but he has made a 90-plus percent recovery and is able to do all the things he once did. Dealing with doctors who fail to recognize the side effects of these drugs along with the greed of the pharmaceutical companies is beyond frustrating.

In addition to my husband, I was also taking Zocor 10mg for less than two years. The first night I took Zocor, I experienced difficulty breathing. I read every word on the product information sheet along with my pharmacist. There was no mention at that time about difficulty breathing as being a side effect. At the advice of my pharmacist and doctor I continued to take Zocor as they said it couldn’t be the cause of my breathing difficulty. Within the year, I spent several hours in the ER with extreme difficulty breathing and extreme chest pain. A chest x-ray revealed fluid on my lungs although there was no explanation as to why I would have this condition. I continued to take the Zocor until I researched my husband’s problems and found that Merck had added the shortness of breath and difficulty breathing to the list of warnings on the Zocor product information sheet. I stopped taking Zocor and haven’t had a problem with shortness of breath since then. I hope your father’s breathing difficulty will improve since discontinuing statins. Mine improved immediately. Unfortunately, the other problems might take longer to improve. You’ve probably read other posts on this site about the benefits of CoQ10 and more recently L-Carnitine in helping to hasten recovery. If not, click on the search button on this site for these subjects.

I’m sorry about the difficulty and frustration you’ve had to endure and wish you and your father the very best.

[FiFi LaBoing]

[color=black][/color]
My father was transferred to an extended care facility beginning of the week and tomorrow will be transferred home. I'm having a lot of new concerns and I have this dreadful insecure feeling that my dad is nearing the end of his life. I just feel all "wrong" inside. His confusion cleared after a couple of days in the hospital but he's not back to normal and I somehow feel like he never will be again. I am profoundly sad.

They're sending home on Hospice care. I was always under the impression Hospice was strictly for terminally ill patients so I'm freaked out about that. Unless he has round the clock care I really still don't know how he'll be able to stay at his house. They're bringing in a hospital bed also and I'm not sure for the reasons of this and it seems like no one ever calls me back about anything so my frustrations just grow and never get any smaller.

I did speak to his primary care physician the other day who was completely PRO the statin drugs and he halfway chewed me out when he said "your dad knew the risks of the statin drugs..." but somehow I got the picture he didn't even know which one my dad was taking. I came back at him with NO HE DID NOT KNOW THESE RISKS.

I think when patients are explained about the risks, they (whoever supposedly explains it) minimize the "possibilities" of rhabdo and CHF and whatever other problems the drugs can cause. I don't think any patient with a brain would continue on these drugs if they were really given percentages, clinical trial info, etc. But doctors think most of their patients are idiots and don't understand these things.

He told me that anyone getting on the band wagon with this lawsuit was only out for money. I explained to him that that was the LEAST of what I wanted if I decided to "get on the band wagon..." with the lawsuit. I told him I was more interested in saving other patient's lives than any financial gain of my own or on behalf of my father. I got the picture he didn't buy that and frankly, I don't care about his opinion one way or another since he is obviously minimizing these risks and doesn't think they are a big deal. He told me he thought these were "wonderful" drugs and achieved lowering cholesterol very well.

Obviously we disagree and rather than argue with the man, I listened to him but I didn't agree with anything he had to say.

I have just such an uneasy feeling with my dad's condition. He is a little stronger and his mind has cleared but really, he's not that much better than when he went into the hospital and I don't somehow anticipate him getting better. I have strong intuitions about things and while I hate this feeling, it is very strong.

I'd like to know why Hospice is going to care for him and I'd like to know if anyone here has found out anymore about this lawsuit. I have written two groups of attorneys and have heard nothing. I may get connected with someone local in Phoenix and see what they might know. I just feel like the public continues to be deceived concerning the statin drugs.

I'm >< close to being distraught. I'm quite depressed at the moment with all of this.

[FiFi LaBoing]

My dad passed away on July 31st from end stage heart failure resulting from rhabdomyolysis, due to the lovastatin use. I am still working through the business end of death, trying to sell my parents' home, trying to get answers about equity, etc. and I have not yet had a chance to begin to fulfill a promise I made to my dad but I have turned all this over to my attorney to handle and I will soon be freed up to begin my quest to go after a drug company or two.

I realize my fight will probably end up futile but I promised him. It's never been a monetary thing, it has always been (when my dad was alive and we discussed this at length on so many occasions), about putting the drug companies in their place, and stop them from putting out drugs with unclear contraindications or potentially harmful contraindications.

Going up against the drug companies is about the same thing as going up against the government itself, but I'll fulfill a promise I made to an extremely honorable, upstanding, man among men, my father. I've barely even had the time to mourn.

I want to be able to continue this quest but without holding anger and hostility in my heart. That will only slow me down from negative baggage. If any of you know of any new suits, etc., please PLEASE mail me at *javarangerette@msn.com

I tried getting into a couple of other "class action" suits and just got a huge run around or was told some bunk about how "Mevacor" had more clear contraindication descriptions. I don't think for someone in their 70s (probably when he was started on this), who takes numerous other meds, who HAS fibromyalgia and wouldn't be able to distinguish the pain between fibro and statin caused complications, it's even possible to understand any of this, and I really have to doubt HIGHLY if any of his doctors actually went over any of this, NOR did they ever for once think, mmmmmm guy has every classic symptom of statin problem. Nope, they just let him slowly get sicker and sicker and sicker until he got the rhabdo, the end stage CHF, and he passed away.

God help us all.

Rochelle McGowan

[rogerac]

Attempts to send email to Dr. Graveline ("spacedoc") have been rejected which is annoying to say the least. The address on the web site, *spacedoc@cfl.rr.com, doesn't work, it's "failed" or "unavailable". Any valid address would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

(I was trying to send email about Mevacor).
Roger Williams, Boulder, Colo., <rogerac@ix.netcom.com>

[NurseJudy]

Dear friend, I just got a response from this email address in March. Perhaps you should check your spelling? God bless!

[SMackley]

Last year my husband was in 2 different Psychiatric Hospitals. They could never clearly diagnose him. Pseudo dementia was the final word.
He had been on Zocor and had the muscle weakness, then on several different Statins through the years. Each year the levels at which his cholesterol should be, were lowered. At 155 his Lovastatin was increased to a 60mg long-acting dose, which our pharmacy had difficulty finding.
After being on it for a year he started having panic attacks, which went to severe depression. He was hospitalized the night he became catatonic.
Every day new symptoms would arise that the psych doctors couldn't explain.
On his 3rd admission his cholesterol was so low the doctor stopped the Lovastatin. In 2 weeks he was a totally different person. He remembers some of that 6 wks., but not much.
After a year he is able to drive without getting lost, but his concentration and memory are not back to previous levels.
His Cardiologist still insists he needs a Statin... go figure

[pgrimm]

This message is to all, but especially to Rochelle. I'm brand new here, found this site two nights ago. Like you, I was driven almost into a rage by the doctors, and decided I would turn to the internet for answers.

I have edited this message three times, in a rush to connect, I finally and sadly read to the end to learn about your loss of your father, Rochelle. You have my deepest sympathy. How absolutely tragic. When I read about how his doctor spoke to you, I am furious, and I just cannot understand. How does a man take a hippocratic oath to do no harm then take the drug companies side? What a travesty. And I must also say, your outcome really frightens me.

Bill's Story:
My boyfriend Bill is a 64 year old vet who has only VA medical insurance. He had been on lovistatin since 2002 when he had a stroke. In December, his doctor put him on remerol, and antidepressant, and shortly after he developed a horrific headache that was literally 24-7. I was worried about another stroke, he was worried it was an anneurism or cancer, it was that severe. Two doctor visits concluding with their guesses that it was stress, prescribed naproxen for pain and amitriptylene for sleep (the latter of which he has had almost NONE in six weeks). Also prescribed a muscle relaxer. A trip to the (non-VA) ER produced a negative CT scan, sent him home with naproxen for pain. The VA in Los Angeles (2 hr drive) did an MRI and an ultrasound, back where we started, negative, must be stress. Now he started developing the pain in the shoulders, quickly spreading to the rest of his body. Last week he was still able to walk without support, now he walks with a cane, and sometimes can't get out of bed at all.

Bill is 64, and he works as a handyman, even puts in sprinklers, a very strong guy. He's not been able to work for 6 weeks. Now, he can't lift a glass of water to his mouth. So two nights ago when he quietly said to me, "Pam, I think I'm going to die", I began my quest to figure this out. It came to me at midnight, all those damn drugs, there must be something they're causing. He had asked his VA nurse practitioner what about his lovistatin; she said no, you've been on them so long, you'd already know. They were only looking at possible liver damage routinely. So when this one constant headache began, the same week his doctor prescribed the remeron, no one thought to look at drug interation. Until I did, two nights ago.

Low and behold, those wicked VA doctors prescribed THREE of the drugs that are listed as causing a serious increased effect that can lead to all kinds of serious side effects, mostly muscle damage. And I'm thinking what about the VA pharmacist? Aren't they supposed to put it all together and figure out that these four drugs should not be taken together? No, it takes a simple lay person like me to figure it out! So I call the VA helpline at 5am saying AHA, I know what's going on and I want to get Bill some help, from a competent doctor! She agrees, and tells me to call the patient advocate. She says they should provide him with an outside doctor for a second opinion, and give him a CK test. She herself took a statin drug and immediately felt it in her muscles, so she understood. So I call and I am told that he will have to come back to the LA VA to the ER. I said I don't want another VA doctor and Bill can't make that 5 hr round trip again, he's in too much pain. He is a brick wall. I'm still dealing with them.

I wrote two congressmen, no response. I emailed a VA attorney in another state, got one email back. Their webpage reads that it's not so difficult to sue the US Federal government. The VA Medical System is a disgrace.

Is this not malpractice? We are actually going to get married so that I can get him on my health insurance plan. We never planned to do that at our age, Social Security is better if we don't, but he can't go back to that Va, they're killing him! I can't stand to see him in so much pain. This man worked in the oilfields for 22 years, even after getting his hand cut off and sewn back on, he's tough, but he says this pain is unbearable. He is afraid to think that he will not recover, and if he doesn't, he can't go back to work! All in six weeks.

Whew, I see that we all write our very long stories, but it's so comforting to find other people who know what we're going through.

Now, how to we get involved in this class action lawsuit? Count me in!

I'm also asking others, what are the best nutrition supplements, and do the brands make a difference? I bought some coenzyme Q10 at the drug store last night, could use some direction about what really works, what and where to buy.

Thanks for listening.

Pam in Bakersfield, California

By the way, here is the webpage where I found my answers for the drugs that interact badly:
*http://www.edhayes.com/CYP450-4.html

[adec]

Hi pgrimm, and welcome to the forum. Vitacost.com is probably the best on-line source for encapsulated supplements. Their NSI housebrand is an extremely good value and of good quality. A far cheaper alternative is Beyondacenturyonline.com for bulk powders... of which you either can cap yourself, or mix into water or fruit juice.

For overall statin recovery, I might recommend: CoQ10 (150-300mg,) multi-B-vitamin, vitamin C, acetyl-L-carnitine (500-1000mg,) alpha GPC, magnesium, milk thistle, pregnenolone, and nattokinase. During my mom's own bout with statin poisoning, these are supplements I have found to be the most safe and effective. This synergistic blend should cover the most bases, and might increase your boyfriends' chances for a more speedy and complete recovery. Trying to find a receptive doctor is actually the hardest part, even if recovery itself is no picnic.

If you choose to discontinue his statins, it's important to slowly taper the dosage over a period of a week or two. During this time, an enteric coated asprin daily or some grape seed extract perhaps would be recommeneded. I wish there was more time for me to type a response. Feel free to send an e-mail my way if you have any questions. And certainly this forum is a wealth of knowledge... so continue reading.

Good luck.