Lipitor and AML

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

Lipitor and AML

Postby daisey » Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:21 pm

Our doctor put my husband on lipitor in August 2001. Within days he began to have bad chest pains and body aches, especially in his hip area. The pains in his chest were almost dibilating. I called the doctor's office and told his nurse how bad he was feeling. She talked to the doctor and called me back to say the doctor wanted him to keep taking it for a few weeks: he did not think the lipitor had anything to do with the pains and if they continued he would refer us to a heart doctor. He felt that heart problems would be the culprit due to my husband's age.

After about a week, my husband could not stand the pain and he quit taking the lipitor. The pain eased up, but within a month he was having trouble with fatigue. He kept having to take longer and longer rest breaks while working. He went back to the doctor in November and was refered to a heart specialist. This doctor set him up with the treadmill test and his heart passed with flying colors. Less than a week later he started running a fever on Saturday. Monday morning I took him to the doctor and the bloodwork showed AML in the final stages.

We went from the office to the hospital and spent the next two years fighting the cancer. When we met the oncologist, he said that my husband's blood had myleodysplasia which would cause a problem. It did as it kept retriggering the cancer every time he went into remission. After 9 rounds of chemo, he eventually had a bone marrow transplant. God blessed us with a donor and he is over 2 years post transplant and still cancer free.

The doctors all assured us that his AML was a triggered cancer, not genetic. None of them could tell us what had triggered it. AML is a quick killer that causes death in 4 to 6 months if unchecked. At my husband's age, his bone marrow is produced in the sternum, pelvic bones, and skull bones. The chest and hips were where the pain started when he took the lipitor and I wonder if it could have been the trigger that caused his blood to mutate and become leukemic.

I have searched the net for side effects of lipitor and all I could find on American sites were veiled wornings. the medical and drug sites warn people not to take it if they have blood disorders, but my husband had never had his blood checked for disorders. I read on the lipitor manufacturer's web site that there are other rare serious reactions, but they do not say what they are.

I am posting this in the hopes that others who have similar stories will share them. If this drug is this dangerous, perhaps we can shine some light on it and save others from the hell that we have gone through.
daisey
 
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Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2005 8:50 pm

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