Statin Medications

***This post contains information on my own personal experience. Please consult your physician for any medical issues you might encounter***


Several years ago, while on vacation, I began to experience more weakness in my legs than usual. I decided to go to the emergency room to get checked out. They did blood work and found nothing. I finished out my vacation with mild yet tolerable symptoms. Once I got home I went to see my family doctor who did more blood work. He discovered that I had a build up of my cholesterol medication in my system. He said it would take a couple of months for the medication to exit my system, but the aftereffects could last longer.

Within a month of this diagnosis, I was crawling around on the floor, or using a walker to get around. Also, my hands were locked in a fist position, this made it very hard to do certain tasks. My roommate had to help me with many tasks. I did however continue to do as much as I could by myself. During this time, I was going to physical therapy to try to maintain what strength I had. After a month, I was still not able to curl even a 2lb weight. This was very frustrating. I struggled with the possibility that this might be what I would have to deal with for the rest of my life. I began to get depressed. After about 8-9 months, I started to feel a little stronger, so I resumed physical therapy. Over time, I was able to my strength and began to regain use of my legs and hands. I am now 99% back to where I was prior to this experience.

This experience was a living nightmare for me. During this experience, I saw a television commercial that warned that statin medication can cause muscle weakness. I began thinking that I could have had a worst case scenario reaction to the medication due to having muscle weakness from my Spina Bifida. When I would relay my experience to others, I found that people with "normal" feeling and muscle strength, that when they were on a statin med they experienced mild muscle weakness and went to their Drs who discontinue their medications. Again, I cannot prove that statin meds were the only cause for what happened to me, but I am sure it played a part. PLEASE make sure you monitor your levels when you take this type of medication.

Coming to terms with using a wheelchair

Last May/early June, I had foot surgery for a recurring ulcer. I had been dealing with this issue for years. My Dr informed me that I would have to start using a wheelchair part time for distances to alleviate some of the pressure I was putting on my foot as I walked. I had been able to walk my entire life, and I took this as a step backward where my mobility was concerned. I became very upset over this. I would complain to anyone who would listen. When I would complain to my siblings, a couple of them basically told me to get over myself. This was easier said than done.

While coming to terms with this reality, I went to a rehab facility for 3 months while my foot healed. While there, I had OT, PT, and wound care at rehab. I was taught how to handle things like getting things out of a cabinet, cooking, cleaning,  from a seated position. I didn't want to do any of this because I didn't think I needed any of this, I was in denial. I would argue with the therapists all the time about how difficult it was. I would say/ask but why cant I do it this way or that way?

When I wasn't in therapy, I would research wheelchair, crutches, walkers on the computer. This just depressed me even more. One day, something told me to look up wheelchair sports. I saw something on wheelchair 5ks. I thought, hmmmmmm, I might be able to do something like that. I asked the therapists if that would be an attainable goal for the Fall providing I kept up with therapies. They said yes. I began "training" at the facility. I would do laps of all of the nursing stations. I figure out that if I did 22 laps from the therapy room, all the way around all three nursing stations, it equaled the distance of a 5k. I have completed two 5k, one in September, and one in October of last year, both in one of the cheap clunky Medicare chairs. I am looking forward to entering more this year in a racing chair I am planning on getting in the near future.

My question is, have any of you gone through any situation that you had a hard time handling and if so, how did you deal with it?

Here are a couple pictures from my first 5k.

Ideas

Hi Everyone,

I would like to take a moment to add my first official post and to let you know what I hope to accomplish with this blog. I am in the process of finding links on a variety of subjects to encourage "respectful" conversations about things that concern us as people with disabilities.

 Some of the topics I would like to talk about are health and wellness, diet and exercise, education, job training, transportation issues. I realize that all of you will be from different parts of the country, but my hope is that through talking to one another we can create a place where all feel welcome and we can work together to provide information and support to each other. I am in the process of adding links to different sites to provide information on certain subjects of interest. If any of you have any suggestions as to topics you would like information on, or that you would just like to talk (rant) about, please feel free to post it here and I will do my best to find information on the subjects you are interested in.

Under Construction

Thanks for visiting. Please come back and check my progress - I'm looking forward to helping you.