New Page - Lipitor: Transient Global Amnesia

A message board to discuss personal experiences of Lipitor and its effects.

New Page - Lipitor: Transient Global Amnesia

Postby spaceadmin » Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:25 pm

New page just added to the site.

http://www.spacedoc.net/lipitor_tga.htm

A fascinating account of a Transient Global Amnesia episode.
spaceadmin
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Global Amnesia

Postby Cindy54NC » Sun Nov 27, 2005 3:10 pm

Reading your articles made me realize that I wasn't developing Alzheimer's, but had side effects from Lipitor.

I took the med for about 6-8 months, over 2 yrs ago. I have no diabetes or history of cardiac disease, no family history of heart disease, even with rampant diabetes in my family. At the time of the med, I smoked and was about 80# overweight. I carry my weight all over, but especially in the lower body. I have low BP, low bs and had an A1c of 4.5. I was also taking HRT, Motrin (800mg 4X/day), Nexium and occasional Zofran for nausea. I have known spinal problems, including bone spurs in my neck and mild cervical stenosis.

When I was put on Lipitor, I read up on it. I was concerned about the muscle problems associated with statins, since I had frequent muscle aches and pains from my back problems. Just to be on the safe side, my doc decided to check my CPK along with the liver function tests 6 week after starting the meds, again at 6 months. All tests came out within normal limits.

At about 8 months into taking the meds, I noticed I was taking more and more Zofran and getting less and less relief from it. (I have several esophageal issues, including a propensity to stricture formation and a corkscrew spasm of the esophagus.) I started vomiting, and stopped the Lipitor.

During the time on Lipitor, amoung other things, I noticed an increase in memory problems.....I've never been good with names and dates, but I've always been very good at remembering work issues (I do QA on a very complicated medical (CM/UM) program with over 700 interactive screens and several inbound and outbound feeds). I found myself sitting at my desk one day with a notebook in my hands....with notes from a meeting I had no recolection of attending! I also started having more and more trouble keeping our various screens and protocols straight. I started making notes to remind me of things.....something I've never had to do. I also was warned by my supervisor that I had to do something to "fix" my issues with memory. I had one other episode of complete memory loss, at home not at work.

After stopping the statin, and realizing that it was likely the cause of my problems, I started a serious memory enhancing program.....playing memory games, trying to continuously stimulate my brain and memory, and I've improved greatly, but still think that I'm a long way from "normal". I still have to depend on notes and frequently find myself standing in a room and wondering what I'm there for.

I also developed severe depression, which is what my doc "blamed" for my memory problems. I had to start taking an anti-depressant also on Lipitor, but have been off it since I stopped the Lipitor. Unfortunately, my doc has completely discounted any of my symptooms as being related to the Lipitor, despite the fact that stopping it resulted in dramatic improvement. She prescribed an additional med, which I refused and at my last appt again tried to get me to take something. I no longer see this doc, but I'm having trouble finding an acceptable doc to replace her (this in the land of Duke, UNC, Wake Med and Rex hospitals all within a 30-40 min ride of my home).

Currently I am taking coQ10 and plan to add B6&12 and folic acid on payday. I follow a low carb diet with high protein and moderate to high fat (a la Protein Power). Since being on lc, I've lost about 1/2 the weight I plan to loose and I've been able to stop my motrin and HRT as well as cut back on the Nexium and Zofran. My cholesterol is still "too hig", but I'm content with it. My total is around 280, but my HDL has doubled, my LDL has gone down a bit and my Tri's are under 150 (they were off the scale!).

Thank you again for your site! Someday something is going to happen that will bring all of this to light. I just hope it's not something that causes the death or injury to many people.
Cindy54NC
 
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