@astaingegerdm - Yes he did. I was his patient for 8 years. I was very healthy until mid 2020. I had covid in Feb 2020 and developed Long Covid symptoms after a few months. He turned into a condescending jerk who obviously didn't believe LC was real. He ignored my symptoms unless they were measurable like tachycardia. I finally got him to refer me to an allergist 8/2021 but he also prescribed Lipitor (Statin) in June 2021. The Allergist identified my issues with Mast Cell abnormalities and set a treatment plan but I kept developing new symptoms. I got really sick in Jan 2022. I developed Angioedema and severe muscle and joint pain. I REALLY thought I was dying. I presented to his office after my ER visit and they did no follow up tests. The PCP kept ignoring the symptoms and saying he was letting the Allergist manage my condition. They didnt even review my current meds. I asked them to. After a month of thinking I was dying I finally figured it out for myself. A drug interaction between Lipitor and Cyclosporine. They should have caught that. That was the beginning of my kidney decline. I developed Rhabdomyolysis but we didn't figure that out until June.
The only reason we figured out I was in failure (GFR 14) was because the allergist and I discussed stopping the Lipitor completely for a while so I could take the cyclosporine to reduce inflammation. He ran labs and found it. That's when I went back to my PCP to rerun my labs and have a discussion about managing my over all health status. That's when he fired me in a follow up letter. They did say they were referring me to a Nephrologist but I never got a name or a call back. I tried to find one on my own but couldn't get a new patient appt for 3 months with any Nephrologist. I had a friend who is a dialysis nurse slip a print out of my labs to the doctor she works for. He got me in the same week. I had stopped taking the Lipitor about 3 weeks previously anticipating the drug switch and also because I had concerns about what I was reading about statins. When the Nephrologist re-ran my labs my GFR was up to 35 after being off Lipitor 3 weeks. He easily diagnosed the Lipitor Drug reaction and Rhabdomyolysis. At 7 weeks off Lipitor my GFR is up to 45.
My former PCP ignored symptoms of a Statin drug reaction for a year. I'm still not recovered. It takes 3-4 months to resolve the Rhabdomyolysis muscle pain and hopefully the Angioedema will resolve too. I'm 9 weeks post discontinuing the drug. I'm starting to see a decrease in the muscle pain. My mobility was minimal until last week. Without a PCP I didn't have a doctor to manage the acute pain. The Nephrologist was basically done with me as soon as he figured out I wouldn't need dialysis and turfed me back to the Allergist.
The Allergist saved my life. He got my Long Covid symptoms under control but it was masked by the Lipitor reaction symptoms for another 9 months before we figured it all out. I'm praying that this is actually my last mountain to climb and that in another month the Rhabdo will be resolved and when the dust settles there wont be permanent kidney damage or other problems and I'll be able to return to a normal life.