Muscle pains worsened by muscle relaxants?

[BSGfan]

Hello. My statin injury is a burning cramping sensation along the right side of my face and jaw from a lopid-mevacor-niacin interaction about 21 months ago. Supplementing with coenzyme Q-10 and magnesium helps a great deal.

Has anyone heard of any cases of statin damaged muscles becoming more
uncomfortable following use of commonly prescribed muscle relaxants?

I have a bad back; 17 days ago I tossed it out. I self treated with Acetaminophen (Tylenol) and Cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril) but within 24 hours the pain was so extreme I feared I had herniated a disc, which was not the case, thank heaven.

I went down to the emergency room, where I received two injections of Ketorolac (Toradol)
and two injections of Methocarbamol (Robaxin). I did note the injections did seem to briefly aggravate my statin discomfort--the sensation was similar to a slightly achey prickly flush--but it did enormously improve my back discomfort. Five hours later I was discharged after receiving instructions to take oral Methocarbamol (Robaxin) and Ibuprofen (Motrin) as needed. I did note my "flushing discomfort" did continue while I was taking the oral medication but it appeared quite mild. After taking the oral medications for about four days I was tolerably back to normal with my back.

In recent days I have noted more of a tendency towards a tingly discomfort in my statin damaged jaw and facial muscles, including discomfort on the opposite side of my face and jaw, which has never happened before. My theory is that I experienced some strain, what with the medication induced relaxation-contraction-relaxation that must have occurred.
Experimentally I took some Ibuprofen and Cyclobenzaprine yesterday and found that my facial symptoms did seem to worsen a bit before the analgesic properties kicked in.

Is this a plausible theory? Has anyone experienced any similar?

According to wikipedia.org Toradol in rare cases I believe can produce tingling or other altered sensations called parathesias. Flexeril in rare cases at extreme dosages, on the order of 10 to 12 times what I was taking, can produce muscle damage. Motrin can produce flushing symptoms, if I recall correctly.

[pnisthepits]

I have facial tingling but mine is from statin damaged nervous system...rather than muscles.....Have you notice any nerve problems other than your face....when it is a tingly, bug crawling under the skin sensation it is usually nerves....muscle problems cause a deep ache..almost like when one has the flu....that has been my experience....

[BSGfan]

Well, I did have a lot of lower back strain following an auto accident I had in December '07.

The period of January to April '08 I did have some transient tingling sensations in my legs, lower back, shoulders, and face, gradually becoming less intense and less frequent. I thought it might have been a reaction to coenzyme q-10 supplementation....I had been supplementing 100-180 mg daily for a period of about 15 weeks or so...found it helped greatly with my facial discomfort but tended to give me minor muscle cramps in my arms and a lot of stomach issues, so I suspended use.

On the other hand, my neurologist felt the tingling sensations were more likely a delayed reaction to the trauma of the auto accident.

Regarding my new discomfort on the opposite side of my face, I find that acupuncture has been effective in moderating the symptoms.

[BSGfan]

Update.

Did a little research on Toradol side effects. Evidently the stuff is known to produce nerve and joint damage with prolonged use, which is why it is never prescribed for more than five days at a time.

Evidently my two Toradol injections aggavated the myopathies in my statin
damaged cheeks. Am feeling considerably better since my last posting, so hopefully this will continue to resolve itself.

[Allen1]

Hi there BSGfan,

its good to know you are feeling a little bit better and have found the trigger to the worsening of your symptoms. This statin damage is really scary stuff as no-one seems to know what effect or reaction taking another medication will have until it has happened in all too many cases.

All the very best,

Allen :)

[Brian C.]

If medicine was truly science-based patients would be carefully screened for vulnerability before any powerful drug is prescribed for a chronic condition.

Unfortunately it is essentially marketing-based and the patient has become viewed simply as a consumer of patent medicines.

Globalization has strengthened the corporatist hand hugely and it's choking us to death.


Brian.

[pgrimm]

Yes, exactly. I find it interesting that not much is posted here about side effects. Bill went along taking lovastatin for six years. One week into taking an antidepressant (he never asked for or wanted), he suffered a severe headache 24-7. With no answers from the doctors, I googled all his drugs all night until I finally found a list of drugs that interacted with lovastatin, five of which they had him on, of course. There may be little way of knowing in advance, but hey, these five I found on a list warning they have the potential to interact, making the statin exponentially more effective, and therefore dangerously powerful in wiping out coenzyme q10. Side effects aren't that myterious, drugs are classified in groups, noting which pathways they travel and therefore compete or enhance specific drugs. I doubt that doctors think at all about this once they're out of school. It's fast food medicine, and we the public believe they actually think about what they're doing!!! A big ole facetious LOL here!

[pgrimm]

Correction to above: not much is posted here about DRUG INTERACTIONS (obviously MUCH is posted about side effects).

[catspajamas]

If a dr orders something new for me..the first question I ask...on the drug interaction list does it mention nerve problems or muscle aches.....If it does I won't accept the prescription...For my back aches I will stick with my old heating pad or ice bag whichever feels the best....I think the less drugs we take after being damaged by statins, the safer we are...We have to stop this drug philosophy. The Dr. pops in the little room, listens 2 1/2 min to your complaints, hands you a prescription and he is gone....we have to stop that....Make them explain what the drug is, what it will do, and is there any reactions we should look for...then when we go to get it filled...ask the pharmacist..He knows even rare side effects we should be aware of...And is there a drug free alternative to our problem...The dermatologist I go to has a little hand held computer and if he is going to order something for me..he looks it up first....why don't other dr's do that...Saw a article on Medscape site today about reporting of adverse side effects and the different institutions/dr's that are studying them..has web sites, phone no's you can report to....Maybe its a start...but sad to say, too late for us, ....take care all and may your days be pain free.....