Health insurance company symptoms and conditions

I am in month 4 of a 4 month Lupron shot that my doctor gave to prepare for surgery. I was told I might get hot flashes, loss of libido, increased urinary symptoms for a few weeks. No one said anything and there was absolutely nothing in all the drug leaflets they gave me that would have prepared me for the the horror story that my life was about to become. As if having cancer was not bad enough.Since day 2 I have suffered so many bad side effects that I have lost count. The worst is insomnia and nothing has helped including high doses of Ambien. They suggested Lunesta but my health insurance company balked and even if they had said yes, my co-payment would be unaffordable. This stuff is more expensive than gold. I am exhausted all the time. I have terrible memory problems that are so bad that I can be talking to some I know really well and not remember their name. I am unable to concentrate on anything, my mood swings are unbelievable, I feel mentally disoriented and dissociated all the time, high blood pressure, racing pulse, high blood sugar, hot flashes, raging night sweats, dizziness, bad balance. The side effects that I can handle include nausea, headaches, diarrhea, joint and muscle pain. I am supposed to be on Lupron for 2 years. The only difference I see with my Lupron experience and others here is that my gender is MALE and I have early stage prostate cancer. Being male, my other serious Lupron side effect is complete impotence which is going to go on for a long while due to the radiation. I had radioactive seed implants into my prostate gland done a week ago and I have to follow this with 5 weeks of beam radiation. Lupron seems to be an equal opportunity drug. Lupron has messed me up so badly that for the past 5 weeks I have been off work on disability status with no chance of going back for at least a month and my Dr thinks that may be optimistic. No one seems to know how long it will take to get back to some kind of normal. I just could not function at work and ended up in my doctors office having a complete emotional meltdown. I would caution anyone, male or female, to consider Lupron very carefully before having it.

I've been on lisinopril for 6 months and have been having this odd gagging sensation. Even before I start coughing, sometimes the smallest thing -- or nothing at all will make me gag. Tonight, despite the fact I didn't feel at all naseous, I had to stop the car while driving in order to gag and vomit. I also have a mild heart burn sensation in my throat and I have never been prone to any kind of heart burn in my life. My lisinopril cough is very small and inconsequential, but is more scratchy feeling than a normal cough. That's the best I can explain it.

I mentioned the feeling of gagging to my doctor. I suspected it was lisinopril since the symptom started shortly after I took the drug. My doctor shrugged off my question re: could it be the lisinopril and I concluded it must be in my mind, or perhaps some bizarre mid-life symptom of a result of being overweight about 30 pounds.

I had taken Benicar and Micardis for high blood pressure a year ago and both worked extremely well and without a single side effect. Unfortunately, my health insurance company (Blue Shield of California) wouldn't cover either, so my doctor switched me to lisinopril.

Fortunately, if my doctor reports my side effects, the insurance company will cover Benicar or another drug like it, so I'm going to fax him tomorrow with the alternative drugs covered by my insurance.

Tonight's gagging / vomitting attack provoked me to look up side effects for this drug on the internet. Now my suspicions are confirmed and I feel very validated. Thanks to all who posted here.