Hoping for answers/advice

[ladatines]

Hi. I'm new here and I'm actually posting for my mother who had surgery in Sept. She had a single bypass and aeortic valve replacement (bovine). She came through the surgery wonderfully except for a clot which formed at the site where they removed the vein for the bypass. She was on Coumadin for three months and stopped it in mid-December. That is when the problems started.

She started cardiac rehab around the same time that she stopped the coumadin. One day she came home after using the bike and said that she thought she might have pulled a muscle since her leg was achy. The people at rehab told her to take it easy for a day or two and then she returned to her normal schedule.

Since then she has progressively noticed an increase in body aches and pains, which have now spread to both thighs and both upper arms. She has trouble sleeping through the night due to the aches and eventually wakes up stiff and very slow-moving. She has been taking Tylenol on her doctors orders to get through the day.

Two weeks ago her cardiologist told her to stop the Crestor for two weeks to see if it was a reaction from the statin. She saw no reduction in the pain at all and yesterday her cardio dr. told her to resume the Crestor and recommends that she see a neurologist, which she is doing later this week.

Has anyone heard of any reactions like this? Her cardiologist told us her heart is fine and that he has no idea what is causing this. It is so upsetting to her because she came through this surgery so well and says that now she feels worse than right after the surgery. Up until the holidays you would never have known she had surgery to look at her and now she is moving like she's 100 (she's actually in her late 60's and up until this - very active).

We're so confused - statins and coumadin cause muscle/joint aches but the dr. ruled out the statin and she hasn't been on the coumadin for awhile.

Thanks for reading this long post - any comments/suggestions/ideas are greatly appreciated!!

 

[dick0236]

I have been on coumadin(warfarin) for many years and have never known it to cause muscle ache or pain. I am in my early 70s and I was on statins for a few years and went off them a year or so ago because I began experiencing cramping and muscle ache. Since discontinuing the statin the muscle problems have mostly gone away. However, in my case, it took longer than a couple weeks for the pains to subside after discontinuing the statin.

FWIW, Crestor, and other statin, TV ads all have a warning that these drugs can cause serious muscle problems.

 

[Cris N]

Has she been checked for any chemical imbalances? Anemia? My first suspect would be nutritional - surgery can mess some of that up and sometimes need a boost to restabilize. Maybe DVT - usually in the legs but can affect arms as well. I wonder - is she getting good oxygen saturation - dr can check that easily.

Neurologist is probably good idea too.

One other thought - this surgery has some odd effects on people - not uncommon to go through depression - which can manifest itself in a number of ways.

Hope they find an answer soon.

 

[kfay]

I, too, would have to wonder if 2 weeks off of the statin was enough of a break to see if that was what was causing her problems. There have been more than a few people on here who have had problems with muscle aches while taking statins. If I were in her situation, I would go off of them for at least a couple of months, if not more. I hope you are able to find the cause of these issues and get some resolution.

I'm sure you have been researching Crestor to death, but here is a link I found that shows how serious these problems can become in a very small percentage of people: http://cholesterol.emedtv.com/crestor/crestor-and-muscle-pain.html

 

[Cris N]

I didn't realize that the statin residual effect lasts so long. Good to know.

 

[Adrienne]

I have often heard that it is a good idea to take Co-enzyme Q10 when taking statins (and I think it is because of the potential muscle pain). I think in Japan the doctors even prescribe it. You might do some research on it.

 

[Ross]

Have they done any echoes to check on the clot itself? I'm thinking it may have begun to dissolve, but broke up into smaller pieces and lodge elsewhere. One thing is certain, something is NOT right.

 

[Smiley2000]

Is your mom on any Diuretics?

Reason I am asking: I had some general body aches and muscle pains for a few months last year and eventually my GP tested my "uric acid" levels and the bloodtest showed that my levels were to high (due to the Diuretic that I was on - Lasix) and gave me meds to treat it and whala - gone were my muscle aches and pains!

 

[ladatines]

Thanks so much to all of you who have replied. We really appreciate your thoughts on this. Mom did have a doppler when she first started having the pain in her leg because she already had one clot and they wanted to make sure there wasn't another one. There was no evidence of clots at all and her leg does not show any swelling either. Mom stopped the Lasik quite awhile ago. Really up until the muscle aches her recovery was quite unremarkable.

She is seeing the neurologist tomorrow so hopefully we'll start to get some answers soon. You've given us some questions to pursue in the meantime.

We're really glad we found this site!