Lipitor Moments
Kevin has been taking Lipitor for almost two years now. Since that time, his memory has been, shall we say, nonexistent. The boy can’t remember ANYTHING. I’ve gotten to where I have to leave him notes reminding him of just about everything. If I tell him something important, I know that I’d better send him a follow-up email just to jog his memory.
This week, Camille told me about the piece featured on GMA about memory-related problems in patients taking Lipitor. I spent a good amount of time researching this week, and lo and behold, I think we have found the cause of Kevin’s complete and total lack of memory. I’ve been keeping a list of every time he blanks out, and it is LONG. Last night, he was in the middle of a thought, and said “Hang on. I’m having a Lipitor moment”. I think that pretty much says it all. Needless to say, he goes to the doctor next month, and we’re getting him off this drug.
For the record, there are conflicting studies on this issue. Of course, the drug companies say that there is no basis of fact in these claims, but there are plenty of other people who have suffered from memory problems that went away when they stopped taking Lipitor.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I was going to comment, but… I can’t remember. HA! 😉
Honestly, I think the biggest problem is in short-term recall. There are certain things that I remember clearly, and others that — after 10 minutes or so — I cannot recall. And if I am prompted to remember some of these things, I can do it with some prompting, but I just can’t always recall them on my own.
I would say that stress can exacerbate the problem, as I’m struggling with it more in the last 6-8 months than I was in the previous 6-8 months. (At least I think I am.) 😉
February 18th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
leave it to Kebon to make a joke like “I’m having a Lipitor moment”!!!! That is classic.