Twining of the Blood - Spinal Tap Procedure Needed?
09.27.2008 - Spinal Tap!
slight stroke and after a
few months I might be better or...... So then they said maybe a
spinal tap to ensure I didn't have an infection in the spinal fluid that
circulates from the lower spine to the brain and back again. They took
four vials and other than a small sting, I felt nothing. And my blood
pressure was 113 over 74! I finally got out of the VA around 4:30 P.M.
A very long day! So I am waiting for results from the spinal tap.I told my dentist about this and his girlfriend is a pharmacist and his father a doctor. They wondered if it might be a reaction to my cholesterol meds and other meds I am taking. Check out the info Martin sent me. So nice of him and he is only 22!
Hi Chuck, I was chatting with my girlfriend, the pharmacy student, and she asked me if any of my care patients were on any "statin" drugs.
She then proceeded to tell me that the one you're taking, lovastatin, can have drug interactions with some of the antiviral drugs. One of these side effects is blurred vision. This side effect is from chronic/long term use of the drug, such as in your case. To determine if this is the case, she suggested a few tests you could have the doctors run.
LFT test - test liver enzymes
CK test - test creatine kinase levels in muscle
The point of these tests is to figure out if the lovastatin is being metabolized enough, which could cause side effects.
If you know the doses of your drugs and your cholesterol levels before and after you started on the drugs, she can make a few calculations to see if you're taking too much of the medication. She recommends rosustatin or fluvastatin, which don't have drug interactions with the other medications you're taking.
