Pleural Effusion with Vytorin?

[greens4christ]

Hey There,
My husband has been on Vitorin for a couple of weeks and started having major chest pains. Being a paramedic he knew it was not the heart. Well today he drove himself to the ER and found that he has plerual effusion and I have been suspecting Vytorin for the entire time.
Does anyone have any info. on this?
He is off of it starting today but is in HORRIBLE pain.
Thanks for your help.
Missy

[greens4christ]

Just found out, he has actually been on the Vytorin for 3 months.
Missy

[tex62]

Yes, I had this same reaction while taking Zocor (10 mg). The first night I took it, I started having difficulty breathing. It seemed that I couldn’t expand my lungs enough to get the oxygen that I needed. I read every word on the Zocor product information sheet. At that time, there was no mention of difficulty breathing. I allowed myself to be convinced that it couldn’t be the statin drug. I continued to take if for almost two years. I ended up in the emergency room having extreme pain with every breath I took – pleural effusion. I had not had a bad cold for more than six months, so the fluid on the lungs couldn’t be explained. I had every kind of test that my doctor could think of for both my heart and lungs. Everything was normal. In the process of researching problems my husband had with statin drugs, I found that Zocor had added the warning about difficulty breathing, which was not there when I started taking the drugs. My doctor filed an adverse reaction report with Merck, the makers of Zocor. I don’t know how they use that information, but it made me feel better that it was at least reported. I haven’t taken any statin drug in a year and haven’t had any reoccurrence of the problem.

[greens4christ]

Thank you so much for your reply! What did they do for you for the pleural effusion to go away? They have him on anti-inflammitories and pain killers. How soon did you start getting better from it?
Thanks,
Missy

[tex62]

I don't remember what I got other than something for the pain. I was better in a couple of days, but it took about a week to completely get over the pain.

[spacedoc]

Missy, I have another statin lung problem for you. This was the diagnois of "respiratory difficulties" associated with the use of Lipitor, first reported as such by unspecified European doctors, later confirmed by the Mayo guys. No mention of effusion, merely breathing problems that were so convincing as to provoke their consideration of Lipitor and finally their agreement that Lipitor was the culprit. Although it was not mentioned, I suspect effusion was the cause and believe the mechanism was excessive CoQ10 inhibition, cell energy loss and subtle cogestive heart failure. Spacedoc

[greens4christ]

This is Missy,
I am stopping by the house to drop off the girls to my niece and get Brett some things. He is ICU now.
He is in a CatScan right now. They said he will either have a huge chest tube or actual lung surgery.
My heart is just so broken for him. I know he is in so much pain. This I am scared but leaing on The Everlasting Arms.
The girls can't see their daddy at all now until he leaves ICU. They are taking it okay because they watched him suffer all weekend long. They are just glad daddy is being taken care of since mommy is not a doctor.
He was not able to lay down at all because he would not be able to breathe and was in so much pain.
This is so hard to have your strong hubby down so far.
Missy

[tex62]

Missy,

Please continue to post updates on your husband. I can certainly relate to the horrible pain he is in. I did not have any type of tube inserted into my lung, but had numerous other tests. In the end, all the test results came back "normal". Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[greens4christ]

This is Brett, Missy's Husband. We apologize for not updating this earlier. After Missy's last post I stayed in ICU overnight and then to the PCU, they placed small chest tube that drained about 1600cc of fluid out in 4 days and then it quit working - it was pulled on 7/7 and I went into surgery on 7/10. The surgeon was expecting to do a VATS and break up the remaining fluid and any solid material and liquify it with Urokinaise. Unfortunately, he discovered that the fluid had gelled and I also had a 1/2" thick layer that had adhered itself to the back of my left lung - So I had a Thorocotamy so he could remove the material and scrape the stuff off of my lung. I was placed in ICU for four days with a much larger chest tube and an epidural due to the Thorocatomy. On 7/13, I returned to the PCU and they placed the Urokinaise through the chest tube from 7/13 through 7/15 and let it sit for 4 hours and then would restart the draining of fluid from my chest. Praise the Lord I was discharged on 7/17 and have been recovering since - with each day getting better and better than the day before. The doctors told me that I will be out of work for 4-6 weeks and I go to see the Pulmonolgist on 8/11. Our prayer is that he will allow me to return to work on 8/16 or 8/19 as I will run out of sick leave/annual leave on 8/16 (only enough to cover 10 hours of a 24 hour shift). We are trusting our Lord to provide for all our needs as He has continued to meet everyone of them.

[tex62]

Brett.

I am so glad that you are doing better. Do the doctors have any explanation for what caused this?