Worried Wife Needs Help

[MamaTiers]

My husband has High Cholesterol.  They put him on Zocor four years ago.  Before the Zocor there was NOTHING wrong with him but the cholesterol.  He has now tested positive for kidney failure three years in a row and it has been getting worse, this past year his liver started showing distress.  He went off Zocor and magically all his numbers got much better (from stage 3 to stage 2).  So they put him on Lipitor.  He was only on it for a month before he got what he and the doctors thought was a sines infection.  I had him mow the back yard (which is small)  he only made it half way before he got really tired and sat down, by the next day he was complaining that he felt like he just did a hard work out and was having trouble with his legs.  Three days later he was at the ER.  His CKs were normal and Kidney's showed stage 1 failure levels, but he could not walk!  He could not sit up with out supporting his head.  He could not even swallow water. He had to "Sleep" in the rocking chair because he was in so much pain.  He also over the course of a month dropped close to 30lbs.  It's has been very scary to watch my husband waist away so quickly.

So Now with the test.  The kidney specialist said "Wow you are the first I've seen with Rhabdomyolysis.  Looks like you are statin intolerant",  The throat specialist "sounds like you had a case of Rhabdomyolysis", the pcm went with rhabdomyolysis although he did mention Guillain-Barre syndrome.  So Husband goes to a nerves specialist and the nerve specialist say "You have ALS"  

Now over the past 6 weeks (the beginning of this)  I've noticed improvements in my husband.  His arm that he could not lift above his head as no noticeable issues other then it's week.  His left leg that could support no weight is supporting a little, enough to get him up the stairs and walk without crutches.  He is not scared of falling over because he can feel the placement of his legs.  He no longer sleeps in the chair and can get out of bed without having to hold support his head.  He can put his socks and shoes on himself and he is able to drive again.  But the Neurologist Says ALS because his calf muscle and hamstring show no response in one of the tests.

So now we are scared poopless.  But after doing alot of research on my own i am trying to figure out how she could come up with this diagnosis without taking out half of the symptoms and the fact that he was perfectly healthy and lifting and hiking only three days before not being able to move.

So in the end I guess my question is Can ALS set in with NO symptoms that quickly?  He has never shown all the typical symptoms of ALS.  Also, does anyone have maybe a similar experience or a thought on something we are missing?  My gut is saying that it is a side effect of the statins, but his CKs  were never that high...however they have been going up from the first test.

[MamaTiers]

I threw his pills in the potty as soon as we got home from the ER.  I know not the best way of disposal, but i hate the darn things.  His symptoms seemed to plateau at around the 2 week point and then started slowly getting better.  We call them baby steps.  It's just really scary when they start tossing around ALS like it was nothing.  I feel like she is ignoring what actually happened to make the symptoms fit.  

Thank you for your responds I really need to hear from others on their experiences so i know we are not the first to battle Satan...i mean Statins :-)

[Occupant]

I don't know about ALS, but after taking Statins for many years with exactly the same problems your husband had. When the problems first occurred, they changed the medication to a different Statin until it happened again or even something else like kidney failure - it doesn't matter what Statin it is, they all cause the same problems - at least they do in my case. When I had severe kidney pain that required for me to go the E.R., they sent me home :"Just muscle pain" So, I stopped the Statins on my own and haven't taking any in two years, although my Cholesterol is still high.