It sucks growing old

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Great story, Estiveo. Glad you’re still with us and your leg too.

I’ve been thinking (NO! Not that!) What if the adage “it beats the alternative is WRONG! What if the other side is truly heavenly??? What if?

Taking bets now.

[bill_g]

Mrs chose door #2 - Life with pain - which is what she begged against for the last year or more. I wailed in grief day before yesterday when I authorized removing care based on our talks, her DNR, and her condition. She woke up and rescinded all that. Two more surgeries since, with more to come. The phrase "debrement of necrotic tissue" plays in my skull on repeat.

Okay. Here we go together hand in hand.

[AndyinPA]

Sometimes it's very hard to choose Door #1 for yourself. My mother did that at one point, and we didn't feel comfortable with it considering what she was going through, but she was enough there that we respected her decision. Later, as time went on and things got worse, she chose Door #1. Things change.

With my husband, there really was no choice. He was really already gone, and just keeping his failing body alive would have been cruel.

With my dad, we were all called into the hospital in the middle of the night because they thought it was about over. He was not on a ventilator. He woke up with all of us around his bed, and wanted to know what we were all doing there. He died two days later.

As the thread title say, it sucks growing old. For everybody involved, not just the one who's aging.

[Resume18]

My statin pain makes it difficult to exercise, do my 500 minutes a week walks, play guitar for longer than 15 minutes, and most importantly, hold my newest grand child. I reminded my physician besides quantity of life, there's also quality; he switched me from atorvastatin to Crestor, but it hasn't helped much. I was up early putting a couple turkey breasts on the smoker, then did my early morning walk of about 45 minutes, and it was tough, tougher than I can remember, in fact. Ditto with the mid-morning walk. I just did a beer, but that's a poor remedy, especially on statins.

Venting doesn't much help either; it indeed sucks getting old.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

My doc recommended I take CoQ10 for the statin pain in my lower legs I sometimes get at night. Apparently the statin drugs leach this from your muscles causing the pain. It does reduce the number of nights per week I experience the pain. I don’t know how you handle constant pain from it.

[sugar magnolia]

My statin pain makes it difficult to exercise, do my 500 minutes a week walks, play guitar for longer than 15 minutes, and most importantly, hold my newest grand child. I reminded my physician besides quantity of life, there's also quality; he switched me from atorvastatin to Crestor, but it hasn't helped much. I was up early putting a couple turkey breasts on the smoker, then did my early morning walk of about 45 minutes, and it was tough, tougher than I can remember, in fact. Ditto with the mid-morning walk. I just did a beer, but that's a poor remedy, especially on statins.

Venting doesn't much help either; it indeed sucks getting old.

4 claratin at night with the statin greatly reduced my pain. My doc has switched my statin twice already to not much effect, but the claritin helps a lot.

[Resume18]

My statin pain makes it difficult to exercise, do my 500 minutes a week walks, play guitar for longer than 15 minutes, and most importantly, hold my newest grand child. I reminded my physician besides quantity of life, there's also quality; he switched me from atorvastatin to Crestor, but it hasn't helped much. I was up early putting a couple turkey breasts on the smoker, then did my early morning walk of about 45 minutes, and it was tough, tougher than I can remember, in fact. Ditto with the mid-morning walk. I just did a beer, but that's a poor remedy, especially on statins.

Venting doesn't much help either; it indeed sucks getting old.

4 claratin at night with the statin greatly reduced my pain. My doc has switched my statin twice already to not much effect, but the claritin helps a lot.

Thanks. I'll try that.

[pipistrelle]

I didn’t know statins cause pain.

[p0rtia]

My statin pain makes it difficult to exercise, do my 500 minutes a week walks, play guitar for longer than 15 minutes, and most importantly, hold my newest grand child. I reminded my physician besides quantity of life, there's also quality; he switched me from atorvastatin to Crestor, but it hasn't helped much. I was up early putting a couple turkey breasts on the smoker, then did my early morning walk of about 45 minutes, and it was tough, tougher than I can remember, in fact. Ditto with the mid-morning walk. I just did a beer, but that's a poor remedy, especially on statins.

Venting doesn't much help either; it indeed sucks getting old.

My 3 cents: switching from Atorvastatin to Rosuvastatin changed my life.

[Resume18]

My statin pain makes it difficult to exercise, do my 500 minutes a week walks, play guitar for longer than 15 minutes, and most importantly, hold my newest grand child. I reminded my physician besides quantity of life, there's also quality; he switched me from atorvastatin to Crestor, but it hasn't helped much. I was up early putting a couple turkey breasts on the smoker, then did my early morning walk of about 45 minutes, and it was tough, tougher than I can remember, in fact. Ditto with the mid-morning walk. I just did a beer, but that's a poor remedy, especially on statins.

Venting doesn't much help either; it indeed sucks getting old.

My 3 cents: switching from Atorvastatin to Rosuvastatin changed my life.

Gonna asked about that in my January appt. Thanks!

[sugar magnolia]

My statin pain makes it difficult to exercise, do my 500 minutes a week walks, play guitar for longer than 15 minutes, and most importantly, hold my newest grand child. I reminded my physician besides quantity of life, there's also quality; he switched me from atorvastatin to Crestor, but it hasn't helped much. I was up early putting a couple turkey breasts on the smoker, then did my early morning walk of about 45 minutes, and it was tough, tougher than I can remember, in fact. Ditto with the mid-morning walk. I just did a beer, but that's a poor remedy, especially on statins.

Venting doesn't much help either; it indeed sucks getting old.

My 3 cents: switching from Atorvastatin to Rosuvastatin changed my life.

Gonna asked about that in my January appt. Thanks!

FYI.....insurance has some weird rules about statins, according to my doc. I don't understand it all, but mine only approves them being prescribed in a certain order. I had to take the Atorvastatin for a month (I quit taking them before that because of the pain) before she could switch me to something else. If you don't get any relief from the pain, make sure you report it to the doc so they can document why they're changing it. They did the same thing to my husband (different insurance) but fortunately, he did fine on his second one.

[p0rtia]

My statin pain makes it difficult to exercise, do my 500 minutes a week walks, play guitar for longer than 15 minutes, and most importantly, hold my newest grand child. I reminded my physician besides quantity of life, there's also quality; he switched me from atorvastatin to Crestor, but it hasn't helped much. I was up early putting a couple turkey breasts on the smoker, then did my early morning walk of about 45 minutes, and it was tough, tougher than I can remember, in fact. Ditto with the mid-morning walk. I just did a beer, but that's a poor remedy, especially on statins.

Venting doesn't much help either; it indeed sucks getting old.

My 3 cents: switching from Atorvastatin to Rosuvastatin changed my life.

Gonna asked about that in my January appt. Thanks!

Specifics: I was on Atorvastatin for a number of years--maybe eight? About three years ago I started having odd leg pain; I described it as feeling like I had gone hiking the previous day over rough terrain. But it never went away, and massage therapy and exercises did not help. Woke up tired and sore every day. Then I was told to go off of ibuprofen, which is when I realized how bad the dull muscle pain was. I talked with various doctors about it, and I tried going off a couple of meds for a while, but it did not help. Then, in Feb 2022, reading up on the odd muscle pain at the top of my thighs, I ran across the statin issue. I asked my cardio dude (I take a statin for blood pressure, not for cholestorol) if I could go off it as a test, and he said okay. Within four days the aching had lessened; within a week it was largely gone; within two weeks it was completely gone and I was starting to _build_ muscle. My doc switched me to 5 mb of Rotuvastatin, and I have not had a problem with that.

[Resume18]

I didn’t know statins cause pain.

It's odd; some people get it, and some don't. When I went on lisinopril for high blood pressure, I developed "the cough," which I was led to understand might occur. But to me, it seemed so extreme I worried it was something worse because I had smoked so long. After a type II diabetes diagnosis, I commenced upon a number of lifestyle, dietary and exercise regimes that resulted in significant weight loss, blood sugar and blood pressure amelioration, and after six months I was off medication for each. It was at this time my wife started taking lisinopril for her HBP, and she in turn developed "the cough." I feel so bad for her.

But because these side effects are soo obvious now a year off my meds that I would dearly love to abandon my statins since my LDL cholesterol is at 46 mg/dl.

We'll see.

[keith]

Yeah, I've been on Rovustatin for years and I do get pain in my legs that won't go away. Doc recommended magnesium, but I'm not convinced it is doing any good, of course I'm not all that consistent with it.

But Ibuprofen, (Neurofen brand) on the other hand, seems to work well. I take one tablet maybe before bed occaisionally and usually 3 or 4 pretty good days in a row after that.

But my last blood workup showed a really good cholesterol result - well within normal. Maybe, just maybe, I can get off it - but the Doc wants more info before getting drastic.

[bill_g]

Thanks for the anecdotal info about Atorvastatin. I was put on it a year ago (40mg/day). I have not noticed any leg pain. OTOH, I have experienced the "long hike muscle ache" several times, and pushed through it by drinking more water. One thing that I have noticed are leg cramps during my sleep. Another is as I'm falling asleep I get an occasional feeling in my left toes like someone is folding them down, or the cat is walking on my foot. I haven't quite figured it out if it's associated with hydration, how I'm lying, or my activity that day.

[Mrich]

My dad had a heart attack in 2018, when he was 88. He walked into the ER mid-attack. He had a stent put in and was home in a couple days.

About 3 weeks after he got home my mom called me to come over. My dad was ashen with pain, and could hardly stand. We got him to the ER but we had to practically carry him to the car; we wheeled him into the ER. They checked - no heart attack. They gave him some steroids and a Percocet for the pain.

Then the ER doctor asked about his meds. When he found out he was taking Lipitor, he said "stop taking it!" He said he would check with the cardiologist but this was not uncommon; the doctor said he himself could not take any statins. Dad's cholesterol wasn't actually too bad, so they recommended "red yeast rice" which is over the counter and is supposed to help control cholesterol.

Bottom line: the pain from the statins was worse than the heart attack. I'm taking red yeast rice myself now.

[Reddog]

Thanks for the anecdotal info about Atorvastatin. I was put on it a year ago (40mg/day). I have not noticed any leg pain. OTOH, I have experienced the "long hike muscle ache" several times, and pushed through it by drinking more water. One thing that I have noticed are leg cramps during my sleep. Another is as I'm falling asleep I get an occasional feeling in my left toes like someone is folding them down, or the cat is walking on my foot. I haven't quite figured it out if it's associated with hydration, how I'm lying laying , or my activity that day.

[Reddog]

Sorry I don’t usually nitpick, but I thought it would make a clever joke.
Interesting discussion, actually. I was prescribed 20 mg/day this summer. I haven’t started taking it yet though, I guess I’m planning on trying to get it under control with diet & exercise. And by being truthful.

[Reddog]

Too, also. I’m a little leery of because several years ago our daughter’s pediatric dentist had severe complications and nearly died. He was the best children’s dentist around. He was a professor also at UMKC.
I don’t know exactly what he was prescribed for cholesterol, but I believe it was a statin. He eventually came back to practice, but it affected him dramatically.

[bill_g]

Sorry I don’t usually nitpick, but I thought it would make a clever joke.
Interesting discussion, actually. I was prescribed 20 mg/day this summer. I haven’t started taking it yet though, I guess I’m planning on trying to get it under control with diet & exercise. And by being truthful.

Good morning, and no worries. Correction or gentle jab appreciated. I thought I posted a Thank You last night, but apparently didn't actually post it. Two great moments in Doh! in the same post.

[MsDaisy 2]

I was just looking through the junk mail and found an ad for Costco Pharmacy, not that I take anything other than the occasional OTC allergy pill and my primary drug of choice for just about everything is Advil Liquid Gels. Shoulder pain, knee pain, headache, you name it.

When I was still working in Family Practice I use to recommend all my patients go to a Costco Pharmacy for all their prescription needs. You don't need a Costco membership to use the pharmacy (or at least you didn't back then) and they have consistently had the cheapest price on most prescription meds by far.

For all who have prescription medications and a Costco anywhere nearby I highly recommend you call and check out the difference in pricing you may be paying.

https://www.costco.com/pharmacy/home-delivery

[AndyinPA]

How I Spent My Sunday Afternoon

In the ER. Saturday night about 8:30, I suddenly got hit by a severe, painful nausea attack, and a vice-like feeling in my chest. Once the nausea ended, the pain still came and went, and I didn't get much sleep. About 6:30 AM, it occurred to me that it might be a heart attack. At 8:30, I looked it up on the internet, and it looked like it could be. I hemmed and hawed over the next several hours, and at noon finally decided to talk to the doctor. The answering service wouldn't even put me through to the doctor. They said, call an ambulance.

I finally did (better safe than sorry, as they say), and got taken to the hospital. They gave me aspirin to chew while I was still at home, and gave me nitroglycerin in the ambulance, which helped quickly. The pressure eased. After blood work (LOTS of it), they decided not my heart. Did chest X-ray and a CT scan. Turns out I have gastritis of the stomach and colon, which is at least an acute diagnosis, not a chronic one. It also explained why I have not felt well for a couple of weeks and the nausea, vomiting, and pain I've been dealing with, so I'm glad I ended up in the ER. I could have stayed the night in the hospital, but opted to go home. Had the symptoms not started mimicking a heart attack, no telling how much longer I would have put up with the pain. So I am on three drugs for the next few weeks, which should cure the infection and inflammation. My white blood count is really high, but it usually runs on the high side anyway. It wasn't a fun way to spend an afternoon, but at least I got a diagnosis, and it's not chronic (likely).

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

OUCH!!!!!

Gastrointestinal and colon pain can be the WORST!!!!

[Foggy]

Yikes.

[jemcanada2]

I’m so happy it’s not a chronic heart problem! I hope you’re feeling better soon,