How Long For Kidneys to Get Back to Normal?(SUPPORT NEEDED!)

[ChupaRosa]

Dear Friends, I am so grateful for this forum because it means we are not alone. My husband was on Crestor (only 10 mg) for 6 months and recently the doctor found blood in his urine. The doc called last night and said it could be caused by kidney, prostate, or bladder cancer. This scared me to no end!!! He says that Crestor doesn't cause this, but quickly sent him to a urologist for more tests. My husband, however, is convinced it's the Crestor. He has a constant bad taste in his mouth, malaise, sometimes dizzyness, and overall feeling of unwellness, but no visible blood in his urine or muscle pain (although he suffers from a back problem, so it would be hard to tell). My question: How long after he stops the Crestor when the kidney functions go back to normal? He is already feeling better. I tapered him off it, along with a baby aspirin, for 2 weeks, and he's only been off of the 2.5 dose for 7 days.
Also, I've read that the kidney abnormalities can be transient? Can anyone offer any advice or similar experience. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[sos_group_owner]

Hi ChupaRosa & Welcome to the Forum.

This is info from the FDA website. You might want to print the info below and take to your doctor. Also, there are anecdotal reposts of statins causing sciatica (low back pain).
[http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/advisory/crestor_3_2005.htm]

Healthcare professionals are reminded of the following key safety messages from the Crestor label:

* Start doses and maintenance doses of drug should be based on individual cholesterol goals and apparent risks for side-effects
* All patients should be informed that statins can cause muscle injury, which in rare, severe cases, can cause kidney damage and organ failure that are potentially life-threatening
* Patients should be told to promptly report to their healthcare provider signs or symptoms of muscle pain and weakness, malaise, fever, dark urine, nausea or vomiting

Kidney
Various forms of kidney failure have been reported in patients taking Crestor, as well as with other statins. Renal failure due to other factors is known to occur at a higher rate in patients who are candidates for statin therapy (e.g., patients with diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, heart failure). No consistent pattern of clinical presentation or of renal injury (i.e., pathology) is evident among the cases of renal failure reported to date that clearly indicate causation by Crestor or other statins.

Mild, transient proteinuria (or protein in the urine, usually from the tubules), with and without microscopic hematuria (minute amounts of blood in the urine), occurred with Crestor, as it has with other statins, in Crestor’s pre-approval trials. The frequency of occurrence of proteinuria appeared dose-related. In clinical trials with doses from 5 to 40 mg daily, this effect was not associated with renal impairment or renal failure (i.e., damage to the kidneys). It is recommended, nevertheless, that a dose reduction and an investigation into other potential causes be considered if a patient on Crestor develops unexplained, persistent proteinuria.

Fran