My employer-provided health insurance is a large and stingy HMO who would rather prescribe pills than do the tests to see if they are even necessary. Without even doing a cholesterol test, my primary care doctor prescribed Lipitor because I had reached the magic age of 60. Within 24 hours I was experiencing severe muscle pain and a day later I could hardly walk. When I told her that I had stopped taking the Lipitor because of the pain, muscle weakness and fatigue and that my symptoms resolved over the next few days, my PCP acted like I was a snowflake who was unwilling to tolerate pain. She also refused to order any tests to see what was causing the pain.

I immediately changed my PCP and contacted my siblings, one of whom is an MD, and discovered that they both had statin intolerance. My brother also had permanent nerve damage from the statins he tried, a rare but documented side effect. My new PCP first had me get a cholesterol test and then had me try two different statins for my slightly elevated cholesterol. Again, I had the same reaction with each of them, even the low-dose statin. Fortunately, the muscle pain and fatigue resolved shortly after stopping them. Since the new PCP refused to make a referral to a neurologist or rheumatologist (standard procedure at this HMO), I saw an out-of-network MD who prescribed a PCSK-9 inhibitor. Unfortunately, this group of drugs is really expensive and my HMO won't cover it. Ironically, Medicare does cover it, so I will have to wait until I retire before I try it.

I am so sorry for your experience. It is not fun to feel as if you have aged 30 or 40 years overnight and nobody can or is willing to find the answers.