Since I’ve started taking the Lovastatin, I have been experiencing an uncomfortable side effect. I did not know this would be a side effect of this medication. The bad thing is the Metformin I’m on can also cause the same side effect. Between that and the fact that I don’t have a gallbladder, I’m pretty much doomed. (And spending more time than I really want to in the bathroom.)

Twice last week I ended up in the bathroom in the middle of the night… awakened out of a dead sleep to take care of things. The second time it happened was the night Jack was working. I was sleeping on the couch waiting for him to come home. When things settled down, I decided to look up the side effects on the good ole’ internet since I was wondering what was causing this. I came across a site that pretty much said I was going to die a painful death if I continued taking the medication. Since it was 4 AM and my brain was only 1/4 awake, it freaked me out. I went back to bed (couch) and drifted back to sleep thinking I’d never take that medication again.

What I read was, the most troubling potential Lovastatin side effects include extreme muscle pain and serious liver problems.

“Lovastatin occasionally causes myopathy (muscle disease) manifested as muscle pain, tenderness or weakness….myopathy sometimes takes the form of rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown) with or without acute renal failure.”

And another:

Statin medications decrease your body’s supply of CoEnzyme Q10 (CoQ10), which is an essential nutrient for heart strength and function.

So this was on my mind all the next day. Do I take it more? Talk to my doctor? What should I do? As I was laying in bed the next night my neck muscles started hurting enough to make me want to locate some osteoarthritis relief. It spread down across my shoulders. I shifted positions but it continued, not getting worse but not getting better. I told Jack that’s it, I’m not taking the Lovastatin anymore. I woke up fine, no pain.

I went back to the site yesterday and discovered it’s a site for home remedies. And they were making the risks of the lovastatin sound much worse. Granted, they weren’t lying. What is quoted above IS true from all my research, but their motive is to scare people like me who are silly enough to try to attempt anything coherent at 4 AM to buy their products.

Note: I have nothing against home remedies or alternative / natural products. And it may have just been me being stupid at 4 AM reading too much into their info on the side effects of taking Lovastat.

I’m still taking it and will continue to monitor any/all side effects. I just hope I can get healthy enough to get off both of these medications before I worry myself to death.