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Anyone stopped taking Repatha after trying?
I experienced stiffness and upper back pain the morning after injecting first dose of Repatha. Began taking Bayer, then Advil, when PCP suggested ibuprofen. On day two, the back pain continued to my shoulder socket and pain increased from about a 3 to about a 6. Today is day four and I am at 6x the recommended dosage of Advil to try and manage the pain. Sent note to PCP this morning that I'm leery about taking a 2nd dose of Repatha and would like to come off of it. Did everyone else soldier on through the 2nd dose? Or tempted to quit but didn't? I injured my back about 12 years ago. It healed with no problems. But the Repatha seems to be hammering at the spot of that old injury. I feel certain it's the Repatha, because nothing else has changed (i.e., not taking any other Rx's, haven't re-injured myself, and was feeling tip-top before the injection). Yoga and ibuprofen aren't having any effect. Sleep has been difficult the last two nights. I can cope okay with the stomach churning and chills; it's the increasing pain and sleeplessness that are wearing me down. If you did quit, can you say roughly how long the Repatha stayed in your system until you felt better? This is the 140 mg/mL dose that you inject twice monthly. On it for high cholesterol of 375 mg/dL.
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Yes, I stopped. I have always had a normal blood pressure of 117/170 and I was on Repatha for about six months and every other week when I took the shot I would have high blood pressure for four days afterwards and then it would subside but by this last time that I took it the blood pressure went to 189/121with no chance of it coming down so I was rushed to the hospital as a possible stroke candidate. They diagnosed it as an anxiety attack. Here’s a thing I don’t get anxiety either as a Norman course so I’m noticing that with the Repath, I’m far more anxious and I have this high blood pressure so I stopped it. But I really want it back again because it was doing such wonders to my cholesterol. So i’m thinking a month has gone by. I’m perfectly normal again. I’m going to try it again to make sure it wasn’t a coincidence but I am scared that if I go to the doctor, they’ll try to give me another medication in place of this medication or in addition too.
I stopped Repatha too. It caused bronchitis like symptoms for me. I know that’s very different from what you are experiencing but the point is, this stuff is a form of poison for our bodies. I believe side effects are significantly underreported and dismissed by the drug industry. They switched me to Leqvio and I had the same response. I now refuse additional “experiments” on my overall wellbeing.
I'm taking my last dose in a couple of weeks. My experience has been pretty similar than everyone else. Every single pain I have experienced in my life came back after the third dose of repatha. I started PT and OT for my hands, knees, neck, elbows, wrists. My BP has been a roller coaster especially around the time of my injection, and I started to have arrhythmia too, and because of the constant dismissal of my cardiologist about the side effects being related to repatha I decided I have to stop. I was also on effexor and shortly after I started repatha I was waking up at night fully conscious like if I had never gone to bed, I had nightmares every night so I requested my other Dr. for a safe way to get off of Effexor and continue with repatha. After I stopped Effexor the nightmares went away and I wake up at night sleepy, the way it should be. I'm tired of feeling achy all the time, I have no strength to do daily stuff but I'm forcing myself to do gardening and go out to keep myself a bit active. I can't take other statins or pain medicine because my liver reacts really crazy by keep raising my enzymes (but sometimes I have to do it to be able to function). I also was diagnosed with prediabetes shortly after being on repatha, after all the efforts I made to lower my A1C to a healthy levels, now A1C is back up. I just hope all of these side effects go away after I stop repatha, I read that some people get high cholesterol rebound after stop but as someone else mentioned: you have to think of the quality of life this drug is affecting greatly in your personal case and decide.
@advocate4me
I started having bad muscle pain after my second dose of Repatha. I’ve had a couple more doses since and two days after each injection the pain got worse. I have an MRI scheduled in a couple weeks to see if there’s any pathology. Internal Medicine docs think it’s sciatica and unrelated to the Repatha. However, my physical therapist thought there was no lumbar involvement. For now I had to quit physical therapy because the pain just got worse. My Cardiologist took me off the Repatha for 3 months in case my pain is related but thinks it’s coincidence that the pain started with the Repatha. It’s only been a little over 2 weeks since my last injection so have a long way to go before we can make a determination. All I can say is that the pain can get horrific!
After first shot, had severe upper respiratory symptoms with severe productive coughing. No temperature or signs of an infection, but lungs were very affected and painful by the end of the first week. The second week, the upper-respiratory issues were slightly less, , but my heart began to ache. Will not take a second dose. Cannot wait to get this drug out of my system.