My son is 27 and in great general health. His job is working on computers, so he has to make himself exercise. He tries to walk to work (about half a mile) and jogs about 10 to 15 miles a week. In the summer, he spends all his free time wake-boarding, which is fairly rigorous. With summer coming, he decided to try and get in better shape, so he bought an extreme home fitness program. He did this for three days and followed the high protein diet that went along with the program. He was extremely sore after the 1st day which he expected, but after the 3rd day he was feeling very ill and sore. He urinated brown just once, and it was painful to drink water or eat. By the sixth day, he wasn't getting better so he went to the doctor. Long story short, he was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis and was in the hospital for eight days on IVs trying to flush his kidneys. That helped with some of the problems but not with the filtering. He was finally put on dialysis, which helped. Our prayers are that dialysis is short-term, and soon this will be a bad nightmare.

Four years ago I had a liver transplant. Approximately 2 weeks post transplant, I developed MRSA, could not be weaned off of the ventilator and during lab work it was noted that my CPK was over 5,000 so the docs called in my family thinking it was a heart attack. After additional testing they realized it was Rhabdo. My kidneys were already not working and I was on continuous dialysis. Spent 28 days in ICU but my kidneys regained their function. It took me a long time to fully recover because I was so weak I was unable to even lift my arms. Now I am fully functional four years later and liver is doing fine. I still have episodes of fatigue at times though.

I had always been strong, healthy, and overweight. Simvastatin was prescribed because of cholesterol. I became increasingly tired, felt flu like muscle weakness, tendinitis on both arms legs, headaches and dizziness as well as other symptoms that were not the "top two" the doctors asked about (cramps and pain). I had those intermittently, but passed them off as something I got from yard work, or hiking. After losing 30 pounds I was much weaker than before I began my prescription. I was sent to a heart doctor because blood tests came back showing muscle breakdown. Heart stress test was good, but the doctor was brainwashed into believing that if you could get cholesterol down under 180 you'd be wonderful. It almost killed me with the side affects. I quit my Statin, and 2 plus months later I am feeling better, but still not back to where I was. Statins work by suppressing the liver function. They keep the liver from manufacturing cholesterol, but also prevent it from accomplishing its other tasks including manufacturing other important body enzymes. For recovery you must take minerals --Magnesium selenium, calcium and more. One must take CoQ10, as this is what is necessary for liver to make for muscle repair and is suppressed by statins. Also need vitamins A and D. When on a statin you may not die from heart attack--your heart my just give out due to increased statin induced weakness affecting all the muscles.

Five years ago I joined the Jupiter study of Crestor. I felt pain and muscle weakness with dark colored urine after the second month. I stopped the Crestor, and the pain subsided after a few days, but I still had all the other symptoms, vertigo, fatigue, weakness in my legs. Now after 5 years I feel that the symptoms have gotten worse except for the vertigo. At the time Astra Zeneca said to go to my family doctor who did blood work. He said there was no Kidney/liver damage.

I am a 63 year old healthy athletic male. I used to jog a lot but now speed bike a lot, about 100 miles per week. I over trained in late 2011 by biking two days in a row to keep up with younger guys. I live in hot Florida. Several days later, my urine turned dark reddish brown, and my heart rate at rest went to over 200. I could not eat or get out of bed. After three days in bed I called a nurse friend of mine who wanted to put me in the hospital. Blood tests confirmed rhabdomyolysis, but about two weeks later, all was well.

This is my fifth week since diagnosis and I am still weak, tired, thirsty, and above all out of breath. I just walked slowly for 20 minutes and I am exhausted. I was diagnosis exertional rhabdomyolysis. I'm 59.

My husband was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis. He has been hospitalized for two weeks with IV intake. He is not getting any better. The swelling of his feet, legs, ankles, and arms are horrible. He can't even lift his own legs to really walk and get in bed.