long term side effects of rhabdomyolysis

I did the Devil's Mile crossfit workout on a Thursday night the first week of February this year, was in pain from that night to Saturday night and was apparently starting to have issues with my kidneys Sunday morning when it looked like I'd literally cut my hand open over the toilet and let it bleed for a bit(completely freaked me out!!). That being said I went to my doctor and was told after they ran my potassium levels that I HAD to go to the ER because they were concerned I would have a heart attack any moment and that I had rhabdo in my quads. I'm 24, never been in a hospital, never broken a bone, never needed stitches. I was hospitalized for just short of 7 days, and all days except the last I maxed out the scales at over 100,000. They released me when my levels were 11,000 some, but I wasn't even in the normal range until last week...I'm on the healing track now but find that I have severe, breathtaking pain in my legs every so often;it's completely random, makes me want to cry for a few minutes and then disappears. I'm already going absolutely stir crazy not being able to really do anything since it was my legs affected and it's only been 2 1/2 months; I tried walking up a little incline of a hill, literally about 10 feet and I was in severe pain the rest of the night...I'm starting to get scared I'm never going to get back to what I was, running 3 miles a night and doing awesome fun 5ks, or even just being able to take the 3 small flights of stairs at my workplace instead of the damn elevator that makes me feel so humiliated. Anybody got any positive input on this, any good info about recovery?:-/

May I ask what genetic deficiency you were diagnosed with. my son is now 7 but just before his 6th birthday he was taken to hospital for appendicitis to later find out and be flown to the royal children's hospital suffering rhabdo. His ck peaked at 430000 and took 17 days to switch off. After 4 weeks in icu 2 weeks of that at on full life support and 8 mths of physio he is close to being back to his normal self physically we still see metabolic and neurology and still have no answers as to the cause especially when there was no identifiable trigger for it. The specialists believe he has a muscle disorder hopefully we'll get to the bottom of it and pray it never happens again.

Hi are you still feeling cold? I just got our of the hospital lady week and while my legs are getting better it feels like sometimes my legs are shivering at times. What did you experience?

I'm also experience leg shivers of something. Is that what you mean by feeling cold? I was discharged last week after having rhabdo.

I was in the hospital for 8 days after a spin class as well. My thighs were mainly affected and I can't climb up or down stairs. Have you recovered?

Thanks this has really help me My son is dealing with this now. He plays football at the college level. I will share this with him.

Thanks for sharing this really tough story. I also have hypothyroidism and rhabdo. I'm not anywhere near as sick as you have been, but it's so helpful to hear stories of others afflicted with these problems. I wish you a full recovery.

Hi I also still in pain for about 2months still can't bend or walk up stairs I can't even walk more than 15min and im tired and in pain..

know that somehow I feel a connection to you...you are not alone. Have you tried 2 250 mgs of magnesium to help you sleep? I have found that that is the only thing that turns off my never ending brain. The magnesium also helps migraines which I have rarely gotten since i started taking the magnesium daily. Every once in a while a migraine occurs, then I take 2 extra magnesium. It doesn't just cover up the pain, it makes it go away or almost go away so that I can get through a long day of work and helping my 5 wonderful kids...I don't know if you have a higher power, but I pray in Jesus name for healing for my son who was in Riley Hospital for a month and is nearly completely recovered. He occasionally has muscle pain as well, but still participates in sports. Best of luck Kat!

30 year, Retired Army...63 years old and always worked out in excess as we are trained to push through all pain and feelings of discomfort.  This time it was no different than any other except that I had not performed squats in over two years.   So just did the warm ups.. 5 sets of 10 squats at 100lbs within 20 minutes..30 second break between sets.  The last set of 10 felt like I was lifting the building and legs turned to spagetti ...like I had ACLs out on both knees my legs would just go out from under me.  Worked out upper body but continued to feel exhausted to the point of nearly passing out.  Made my way to the car and drove home and seemingly unconcious most of the way as I dont remember much of the trip.  Had to lift myself out of the car as my legs were non responsive swollen and in severe pain.  After standing up holding onto the car I promptly emptied the two bottles of gatoraide onto the driveway.  My daughter seeing this asked if I was ok...my response...I am now!!  Went in and passed out for 5 hours. After waking I still felt completely exhausted with flu like symptoms and in EXTREME PAIN fro the knees up to the hip bones in both legs.  Could literally NOT walk without holding on to something.  Walked like a Penguin with a cob up its ass...so my wife says...are you ok?  My response this time...not sure..must be getting old.  So took a epsom salt bath...a fistfull of ibuprofen and went to sleep.  Went back to the gym next day to walk it off on the treadmill..after 3 miles of holding onto the rails at a whopping 3 miles per hour I gave up and worked out the upper body lightly...drank a quart of gatoraide and waddled out of the gym.  My legs were swollen so much my normally loose fitting gym shorts were tight..my thoughts were if not for the pain this would be great to get so much bulk after one workout !!  Ha!  

Went to work the next day and lifted my self in and out of chairs as my upper legs were not functioning.  To simply bend them was like having knifes stabbed into them front and back.  I was thinking about how muscle pains from work outs never reached such levels in the past and there had to be something else going on.  As the day progressed the pain level became more like gunshot wounds and then the flu symptoms and full body aches kicked in.  Felt like I had a fever, became very weak and delerious.  Drove home and while waddeling across the kitchen my daughter who is a Cross Fit nut and Army Officer asked me how I felt...this time I replied......like I am dying but have yet to get permission from the Army.  She asked the color of my urine so after checking came back with what looked like Navy Coffee or crude oil.  So she says Dad....I think you have Rhabdo.  So I say Rhab what ?   Googled it and after reading al the symptoms the last line said...  You have Rhabdo so go the emergency room now or you will DIE from Kidney and or heart failure.  So while standing there reading those last two lines over and over I said...You can die from doing squats...WTF !!!    Got into the car went to the hospital...the reading was 130,000. Liver numbers were 1800 and 800.. After two days on constant IVs the blood revealed 165,000..another 24hrs it was 178,000...next 24 hours constant IV it finally dropped down to 155,00 and continued for three more days.  Not to mention passing 90ml of fluids every 30 minutes for 5-6 days and pain medications I had to leave the hospital to survive...they were killing me as there was no Sleep even for the dead in that place !!!   So the last day my reading was 48,000 and the liver was 1200 and 400...I demanded to leave or go postal their choice..  They let me leave but the doctor said you have to come back in within 3 days as your leaving with numbers higher than most people checking in..I told him I felt like a million bucks and needed to die and home.   So now a month later I am able to go up the stairs without too much pain..still weak in the legs but it comes and goes...still working out upper body but taking it slow.  sometimes I fell like this will never completely go away but find that walking and hydrating helps. Stay away from caffine products especially coffee and stick to hydrating with gatoraide and orange juice or apple juice. Eat a lot of water based vegtables like celary and fruits of all kinds.  Eat something every hour even if just a handful of nuts or carrots etc...anything and everything just keep it light but often...   If your not pissing every couple of hours and going regular then you dont have enough water and fiber.....your energy will be better as I have tried it then stopped just to see and I felt my energy go down as the hydration and eating slowed....give it a month or two at the very least...take your time as rushing it will only set you back.  

Btw when I had a blood test two weeks later...it was still at 4000..but now back to normal. 

All the best and most of all  "Keep Breathing"

Thank you! This helps immensely. My best friend was just diagnosed with Rhabdo and had EXTREME memory loss, confusion and delirium. I don't see that a LOT of people said they experienced that. She's on day 4 and still very disoriented.

Very similar to my experience. Push-ups and squats, but it was the push-ups that really got me. My ck and livers were pretty similar to yours. 5 weeks post rhabdo. Curious how your recovery is going.

Hello All,

I'm glad that I stumbled on this. I've been concerned with my health after Rhabodymyolysis nearly had me on dialsys.

I've noticed that my overal health has not really improved since I've been taking it easy. I'm gaing wieight much easier.
Also I can not work for great amounts of time and even stress related work, school or life affects my health in a great deal.

Since then I've changed my eating habits to eating healthy, however I'm to nervous to start working out because soon after a light run my body starts to feel slugish for the whole week.

I've been activly looking for remedies or life styles to help midigate Rhabod from ever getting any worse than it is all ready. However there are no forums that essentially disscuss this topic about treating, life styles, or preventions.

All I've seen so far are just sights that dicuss stories or treatment processes, nothing else.

Anyone Got any Ideas or solutions to this matter?

In situations like these doctors primary concern is the threat to life and limb. Thus they are only conernced with saving your kidneys, bringing your CPK levels down to a point in which you have reached stability, checking heart electricity activity, making sure no blood vessels were compromised, and etc. Anything after stabilization would be deemed outpatient services and wouldn't qualify under the emergency criteria. Which is not what they were there for. I'm going through the same thing as you. Before I came to the hospital I met with my PCP. Who took the blood test and immediately got me a same day appointment with an Orthopedist. The Ortho then got a sonogram and a MRI done. All this before I came to the hospital. The reason why I tell you this is because I know your PCP or Ortho are the ones who will have the answers for you. Your Ortho will be able to tell you if you most likely will need physical therapy and your PCP will always be a helpful person to consistently collect your information and make more recommendations. Go to them immediately after as I will be doing. They should help get the ball rolling for you and give you great insight on where you should start and how you can continue. One big thing you should be doing is asking your PCP how often you should be seeing them to check on your health. Also if your doctor recommends that you seek out other medical services (like an Ortho, physical therapy, etc) to make sure that you have all those physicians send all notes and information accumulated to that PCP. It's very important that your PCP stays very informed on all updates. This will help increase efficiency in getting the best advice. So in short what I'm trying to say is your job mostly is worry about healing. Put the weight on your physicians shoulders to make the proper reccomendations to you. And don't slack for one bit on those recommendations. So when you PCP tells you that while on your IV you should try and drink liquids- you get your family to get you a gallon of water so you can drink little cups of it throughout the day. You and I are both young and should use the advantage of a young persons ability to heal to its optimal. I hope this helps. Best of luck to you, me, and everyone in this unfortunate situation. May we all live a long and happy life. - Neville

I was diagnosed with rhabdo after a 1 hour spin class as well. I spent 2 weeks in the hospital then transferred to rehab for a week. Now I am home waiting on outpatient rehab. My legs hurt sooo much. It's been almost a month with little to no relief. My cpk levels were over 20,000 for 4 days. Does the pain ever go away?