Advice re coronary ct scan

[mystic]

I first found this forum last May searching for the cause of increasing aches and pains in my neck & left shoulder and in my right leg from hip to ankle ongoing since Sep 2005. The pain was so bad by May it felt like I was sawing off my own head when turning it to the left! My leg & ankle so sore, could barely walk three blocks. I'm a 71yo female - put on Lipitor-10mg in 2001. My average test results had been TC-258/HDL-90/LDL-157/TriG-101 over the period from 1992 to 2001. While on Lipitor my avg stats were reduced to TC-190/HDL-103/LDL-72/TriG-87 from 2001-2005.
After reading similar symptoms here, I suspected Lipitor might be the cause and weaned myself off from Jun-Sep. Also visited a chiropractor for adjustments which have helped enormously. I feel at least 50% better.
At my annual physical this week, I had the "conversation" with my doctor. In fact, after reviewing the above stats, he mused that he probably wouldn't have prescribed the Lipitor after all - Oy!
My first post-Lipitor lab results were TC-284/HDL-111/LDL-157/TriG-81 - which alarmed me at first, but figuring the ratios, seem to be OK.
Doc says to consider Lovastatin but wants me to have a coronary CT scan first to see the amount of deposits in my arteries before deciding what to do.
Has anyone here ever had this procedure and what do you advise?

[mystic]

NO! DON"T DO IT!! - to answer my own question. Buoyed with confidence from the info gleaned here and curious to see what effect six years of Lipitor had wrought before quitting in Oct, I decided to have the Cardiac CT scan for a calcium score.. Cheap, simple test - frightening, depressing result: 706, 90 percentile! - yikes! When I opined that Liptor appeared to have done diddley-squat for me, the doc countered that the calcium buildup could have been going on for decades from my youth and the Lipitor could have kept it from being even worse! However he did say this CT test is considered very controversial with possibly false findings - thank a lot, doc, especially two weeks before Christmas. Anyway, he's putting me on Lovastatin 40mg, stamped my records with a big CAD, and referred me "upstairs" to a cardiologist. I have no counter argument as they have the pictures to "prove" theirs, and I haven't a leg to stand on (literally - he says my leg pain is from a pinched nerve from my L5) and no support from the 150+ viewers in this forum who passed by without a comment or even a welcome. Happy New Year... not.

[Darrell]

"Has anyone here ever had this procedure and what do you advise?"

Speaking for myself, I have never had the procedure nor even heard of it and thus could not address your November question.

Generally speaking, we don't "welcome" people here unless we have something additional to offer them in the post. Otherwise, we would all spend lots of time sorting through welcoming posts and would probably not continue to monitor the board daily.

Also, I see you have a total of three posts, so you're not exactly commenting or welcoming much either, are you?