I was diagnosed with exertional Rhabdo back in March 2014, from doing one of the Open WODS in CrossFit. I have since returned to CrossFit but not 100%. I am noticing that on the more intense days, I end up with a horrible headache and my body feels off. Has anyone else experienced this? It doesn't matter if it was a heavy weight lifting day or more of a MetCon day...I feel off.

Update my husband started Physical Therapy last week which was awesome for him because he was so worried about getting back into an excersise routine thinking the Rhabdomyolyis would come back! The have him certain stretches and exercise to preform. Educating him on how far he can push himself!

Just 4 weeks ago, I was diagnosed with Rhabdo. I am 26 healthy and normal guy. I just decided to go and start working out. I went to GYM and worked out for 1 hour. I went home and i was okay but in the next day all the symptoms started muscle weakness, fatigue, pain, headaches, dizziness, fast heart and no energy at all.
For a few days i thought it is from the working out or i got cold but one day it really felt very bad and i went to the ER. they did a blood and Urine work and they told me that i have Rhabdo and my CPK was more than 3000 i stayed in the hospital for two days and they discharged me when my levels went down to 1000. Two days after that i went for a blood work again and the doctor told me that my levels are back almost normal. One week after that i was still having the symptoms so i went to my primary doctor he did a blood work again and told me that my levels are normal and i am recovering.
Now i still have some symptoms but not strong like before and they are decreasing very slowly. but still if i do any effort i get a very fast heart beats. They are advising me to:
1-Stay away of any stress.
2-Rest as much as i can.
3-Drink water and Stay HYDRATED HYDRATED HYDRATED.
4-Some drinks helps like Gatorade.
5-Eat well.
I just hate it because i cant wait to get back to myself. But hopefully soon it will all go and be okay again. It is just a very big hit to the body.

Hi...and welcome to the Rhabdomyolysis family. If you have found your way to this site...you have been personally impacted by Rhabdo. I was diagnosed with Rhabdo 6 months ago in April of 2014. I wanted to join this support group so that people newly diagnosed can understand a little about what to expect in your recovery...and trust me...the chance of a full recovery ~vs~ death/permanent damage is the same as the flu. So, if you are in the stage of your diagnosis that no doctor, nurse, or medical professional is giving you a clear answer, you can rest easy that eventually you will have your normal life back. However, the journey is far far worse than the flu.

On the first day, in my first hour, of the first time I ever had a personal trainer...I got Rhabdomyolysis. Of course at the time I didn't know what I had. I met my personal trainer at my gym and the first set of exercises that he had me do was 3 sets of 20 squats. I knew while I was doing the exercise that something was very wrong. By the second squat my legs were shaking but somehow I powered through and moved on to another exercise. I finished my hour session with my personal trainer and my legs (specifically my thighs) felt like jello. I was in a lot of pain and it felt like someone had completely removed my thigh muscles. In the car on the drive home I could barely push the gas pedal, that was how quickly the damage was done. The next day and night the pain became worse and worse. About 30 hours after I had worked out, I went to the urgent care in a desperate attempt to get something to ease my pain. Despite not being able to physically bend my legs to even pee, I was in complete denial. I had convinced myself I pulled a muscle and I was being a wimp with the pain. I thought the urgent care Dr. would roll his eyes at me and tell me to get back to the gym and suck it up so that I could loose this extra weight. When I did see the Dr, she gave me a physical but didn't say much to me during or after except that she wanted to order a urine and blood test. While we were waiting for the results, I was so convinced that I was fine and she would tell me the results were fine and I must have just pulled something, that I got dressed (which my husband had to dress me because I could not walk or bend my legs and every 2 minutes I had muscle spasms so bad in my legs that it could have dropped a 700 hippo). You can imagine my surprise when the Dr. came in and said, Jill your blood work came back irregular. She went on to tell me I had Rhabdomyolysis and what it was, but I don't remember what she said from the point she said irregular until she left the room and my husband said, I cant believe your going to the hospital. I was taken from the urgent care to the hospital via ambulance. Rhabdomyolysis is when a massive amount of protein enters your blood stream. What is dangerous and even fatal about it is that it can shut your kidneys down and it can lead (if left untreated) to kidney failure, dialysis, and even death. Your kidneys filter your blood and when your blood is filled with massive amounts of protein, the kidneys become blocked while trying to filter the blood and eventually just shuts down. An average woman's CK levels should be around 160. My Ck levels were 19000 and my liver had 2 tests that were both very bad which meant that my liver was already heavily impacted by the massive amounts of CK in my blood. I did catch it in time that my kidneys were fine, but I was in the hospital for 5 days with non stop fluids in an IV, which help keep my kidneys clear while the CK leaves my blood. I left the hospital with my CK levels still maxing out at 13000 (which was as high as the hospital could test).

I went home and for a few days was still in a great deal of pain but it went from a pain level of 10 on day one at the hospital to a pain level of a 5 by day five. Within a few weeks, I felt fine and my CK levels had dropped almost back to normal. If I exercise I still have more pain in my legs than I did before, but other than that 6 months later I have no side effects. I feel fine and Im ready to get back to my original weight loss plan. I never had to take at home medications, but while in the hospital I took some light pain meds when needed, a daily shot to prevent blood clots since I had almost no use of my legs, and a medication to help the muscle spasms.

Most people that get Rhabdo have never heard of it, and it usually comes as a surprise from more exercise than your body can handle. Whether you never exercise or are a life time athlete, its important to stop doing any exercise that hurts. If you try to battle through it thinking that 'no pain no gain' is the way to go then more than likely you will push yourself too hard and end up with Rhabdo. Rhabdo is like hell on earth. No words can describe the pain of what you will go through and no amount of looking up will make up for it. Please, if you are excising, be smart and don't push yourself too hard!

It's been three months now since I was discharged from the hospital. And since that time i have seen a lot of doctors. I visited 2 caradiologists for the rapid heart rate and even a Mouth, nose and ears doctor. My cardiologist did all kinds of blood works, MRI and Ultra sounds but everything comes back normal! . I can say i am much better but I still have a lot of odd symptoms. I tire very easily, i have muscles spasms, i still get chest pains every while ( They told me in the ER one time i might have some ripped muscles in my chest too), I feel very weak and feel my body is so weak, like my body is drained because of fighting with this horrible Rhabdomyolysis. I also have headache and dizziness ( sometimes) i am wondering how long will it stay like that? God knows! But it is a horrible and scary experience and i can't wait till I get rid of all these odd symptoms
i started to take CoQ10 and Vitamin C 1,000 mg 5 days ago. We will see what happens. Good luck everyone and I will appreciate if anyone from the guys who posted here two or even three years ago can tell us how he feels now. God heals!

Hello everyone.

Here is my story. I'm a quite active 29 year old male and though had some drinking issues never really was a big of a problem. Im usually very active often play basketball.

Last week I was on a course of antibiotics and antacids, also had few beers for 3-4 days on friends birthday. Monday first time in 2 years I hit gym very hard. Supersets and hard workout for 2.5 hours. Next day I was in pain (had this before without issues), second day more pain and some little bruising on biceps. Then urine started to turn darker than usual color, but I was still feeling fine. I went to hospital and my liver test AST was 1300 adn ALT 600. Doctor though it was hepatitis and sent me home ignoring what I said about my workout. Still felt fine, that day my daughter got ill and we drove to another town to a better hospital, I also admitted was nauseaus and thirsty all the time. In the morning once one doctor ignored again another one done CPK test which was 98,600!!!! But I was fine, i could walk, eat, talk, be normal, only eyes were bit yellow. I was put on IV most of the time, no ICU, just stay in private room and hydrate using IV and medicine to keep kidneys pushing to go to pee. Second day dropped to 47,000. Third to 17, then to 3,000 now discharged 1,600. Now that I got discharged I start to feel worse physically. Examples, headaches, nausea, lower back pain comes and goes, dizziness... get tired veyr easily. Doctor said it will take a week to recover but I have feeling it will be longer. Though he is not convinced exercise alone caused that, he said usually cpk not so high from gyms. Now 2 days out of hospital, I hope there wont be any issues with kidneys? I did not develop kidney problems in the days I were in the hospital.

so great to see these discussions. I've been getting the feeling that Rhabdo is something most doctors don't have too much understanding of.

sup3r10r- my story is a lot like yours. I've been out of the hospital for 5 days now, didn't have any kidney problems while I was there, but started feeling bad after getting out. I had blood tested yesterday though, and it seems my kidneys are fine. It seems like a lot of the post-rhabdo symptoms people are describing resemble problems with the kidneys, but I'm getting the feeling that that's not what's going on.

QUESTION:

I've read most of the posts on this thread and there's one thing I'm experiencing that I haven't found much or any talk about:

does anyone have symptoms that get much worse at night? I wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I need to go to the ER again. Very dizzy, weak, almost falling over if I stand up, nauseous, and freezing cold shivering even if it's like 75 in my room and I'm under blankets. I almost feel like I'm going to lose consciousness (and I'm sure whatever's going on, it's probably compounded with anxiety). but then, after being up for a bit, only like 15 minutes or so I feel fairly normal. still kind of weak and lethargic overall, but manageable. I'm seeing my doctor about it later this week. has anyone experienced this?

I am so pleased i have found this site, i have become very desperate recently with my symptoms, i live in the UK, and there seems to be little known about this or help i am getting to deal with it. I got rhabdo after joining a gym on my induction i was put on a TRX trainer for nearly 40 mins, i had never done gym exercise before and was totally new. That night it started with the pain in my right arm, it was in spasm and i couldnt bend my arm. I went to a & e (er) and they gave me painkillers, no bloods and sent me home. The next day my other arm started, i couldnt move and both my arms started to curl up. The pain was unbearable. I went back to the ER and they at first were not helpful, i had to push as i knew there was something wrong,after bloods taken my ck was 3,000. I was put on a drip, and all of a sudden panic with the gp's unsure of what was going on. After asking me what i had done etc they diagnosed rhabdo and were astounded i was out on the trx.
That was last July, since then i am having ongoing probs. Some days cannot get out of bed, severe pain all over, fatigue, lack of concentration. I go to the dr but they just keep saying its fatigue, thats the way you have been left after this condition, but they seem to know little else. They also say my immune system is shot, and that i am open to all kinds. I am now 4 weeks in with a bad viral upper respiratory infection, no better and lost the hearing in my left ear.like you JiminyKirket, i wake during the night, fever, shaking, terrible pain, dizzy and nausea too. I am worried about my job as have had a lot of sickness, prior to this i hadnt been to the gp in several years. I have more bad days than good now, and spent almost the last 4 weeks in the house, unable to do very little. I just wish i could get somewhere with my gp, they have taken recent ck levels again, but they have returned to normal, so glad though i have found this group.

Hi guys- Im Kyle from Manila Philippines and was just discharged from the hospital 2 days ago due to rhabdo. This my story- I never did any exercise my entire life and never been to gym at all, last week, i decided to tone my body so i went to the nearest gym within my area and get a trainor to tell me what routines and programs should i do. I spent the next 2 hours doing this, doing that in the gym, but the max i had was 15lbs weight lifting. after that i felt that the muscles in my arms started to get sore, but i just ignored it since i was thinking its normal after doing work out. the next day my urine was cola coloured and i just realised it might be because my body is changing and adapting the work out. that afternoon, i still went to the gym and did the same routine, that night i cannot bend my arms and noticed that my biceps and triceps were widen- (at first i was happy because i was shocked with this fast results), then i noticed that my urine now went to red colored(doctors said its tea color). the next day i decided to go to a clinic, and doctor advised me to do some lab test 3 days after and refer me to an ortho, said to monitor my body first in the next 2 days. so i thought it might have been normal as the doctors were not worried of my case, then i went to the office and talked to a colleague whose been doing regular work out in the gym, he said that it is abnormal to have a cola-tea-colored urine and though its normal to have a muscle sore after gym but not to the extent that you cant straighten it and bend it. so i went home and while i was on the cab, i researched all my symptoms and boom!- i see rhabdomyolysis. i went immediately to the nearest hospital and they put me to the ER. my cpk count went to 230,000. I spent the last 5 days in the hospital with continuous IV. I was assigned to 3 different doctors- they had me the auto immuno test and all are good, the fifth day my cpk went down to 37000 so they let me go and advised to take water from time to time.

now its my second day after being discharged from the hosptial, and reading your experiences make me confused whether i should feel lucky or should i be worried with my post-rhabdo case, I am feeling perfectly fine, no muscle pain at all, expect that i cant still straighten my arms. i am not having any headaches, dizziness or anything. its like I'm a normal body. what i'm just worrying is the fact that i have to monitor myself now and afraid to put my feet inside the gym again. Guys- were there cases like the effects of rhabdo visibly show after few months?im just afraid that it might manifest to me after months, cause to date, I'm not feeling anything weird in my body at all.

my son got out of the hospital from this after a 5 days stay....no idea how he got it....he's not a big exerciser, not on statin's and not a drug user.....my ( our ) concern is the numbness in one of his legs...no feeling at all.....it came back in one leg but the other leg has not...we keep getting reassured from our doctor that he will return to normal...that it takes time...has anyone experienced the complete numbness in legs and if so, how long did it take to return to normal...thank you for you time!

Hello group here is my story.
After not going to the gym for some 8 months, with summer coming I decided to drop some kilos (Europe here). The program was not that harsh, and I had done it before so I thought this will be easy. While there I realized that I left my water bottle home so during the exercise I was drinking from my gf's bottle but much less than I usually do. Next two days I had huge muscle pain, I could not even undress myself without some help, but I was like eh ok after gym is normal. Three days past gym and I notice my urine becoming darker and darker. At some point gf pushes me to go to ER. My CPK was 88.000 the first day, Myoglobin was over 5000, kidney results were ok showing no sign of damage. So IV it was about 3 liters a day for 4 days. They let me go when my CPK dropped to 10.000. My problem now is that I am urinating more than drinking. I tried to keep a diary and recording the amount of water I drink and the amount of urine. For example, 3 days after they let me go I have been urinating for 20 times. I have had 2 liters of water and urinated 3.5 liters. Is this normal? I also have started to feel pain in my lower back, to the extend that I am having hard time fall asleep. Another problem which I did not have before is high blood pressure. One week before this even my blood pressure was 120/75. During my staying at the hospital and even now that I have been out for 3 days my blood pressure is 145/86. any suggestion?

I got rhabdo on the job on October 9th but it wasn't until October 12th until I was admitted into the ER and then the hospital and stayed for a week with Rhabdo. It's now December 28th & I'm still having issues- my rhabdo was concentrated in my triceps to which my hands and wrist have been affected to this day. It took me two weeks to be able to open a Gatorade, a month and a half until I felt like getting out of bed and I'm still having muscle/nerve pain in both of my arms and hands. I've been doing Physical therapy- then per doctors orders stopped physical therapy and now my doctor has me trying it again- it seems with any activity (like typing this) my pain flares up. I even went for a walk yesterday thinking I needed to start doing something... Nope my body wasn't ready.

The good part?! I have seen a difference in pain... In the beginning and for close to two months I had pain all day everyday now it's random and brought on by activity mostly! So I guess I'm seeing some improvement!

This is my second bout with rhabdomyolysis. It was mild so I was given IV fluids in the ER then sent home hours later. The first time I didn't know what to do and is was painful, rough and seem to take for ever to recover from. This time I have found ON (Optimum Nutrition) 100% Whey protein to be very helpful with my symptoms. It has reduced my symptoms of nausea, muscle pain, dizziness and overall malaise. I'm taking 1 scoop twice daily now, and for the first few days I took 3 servings per day and it helped even more. I'm just trying to stretch it out as it's expensive. 5lbs will last you 37 days at two servings per day. I drink lots of bottle water and am getting plenty of rest. Hopefully it will clear in a few months so I can move on with my life.

Update on Whey Protein. Had to stop taking it everyday as it was hurting my kidneys and turning my urine dark. So all of my symptoms, dizziness, nausea, malaise and weakness are back. 1 month into my recovery and still drinking lots of bottled water and getting as much rest as possible.

okay guys. i had rhabdo before but i didnt know i had it until my back was hurting and went to the doctor they took blood test and urine test so came positve for rahbdo. so they put me on IV for a night and day. they told me not to work out for 6 moths. that was back in the states. now im here in guatemala. so its been a year that i havent worked out. about two or three months ago my cousin and i went to a marathon and after the marathon i did some push ups and worked out my arm.
the next day i couldnt even move my arm and when ever i walked i had to tiptoed because of running to much. So during those painful moment never went to the hosptal. it took about three or four days that i could move my arms. after that i felt better i would keep playing soccer some times my back would hurt.--- after three months my arm are hurting my heart is pounding fast. so bieng here in guatemala i got an apoint untill next three months to check my blood and uring.... So my question is if i had Rhabdo those three months could i have some organ damange such as kidney, heart or any other oragan. Please guys i would really apriciate your advice and any info. Sorry for the mispelling and the run onn. i went to the states to study.