Medical tests symptoms and conditions

Hello everyone. I too am experiencing the same problems described here from Lisinopril. On January 1st of this year, ( 2009 ) I was taken to the hospital emergency room and admitted into the hospital under the assumption that I was having congestive heart failure. After a barrage of tests it was determined that I have diabetes and I was already taking hydrochlorothiazide ( 50 mgs ) for water retention. I was prescribed Lisinopril ( 10 mgs ) and told to cut my hydrochlorothiazide in half. Everything was fine for about a month and then it started...
I had noticed on the bottle of Lisinopril that the one side effect in some patients was a dry cough but disregarded it since it didn't seem to be affecting me. After being on Lisinopril for a month, I began having this awful dusty feeling in my throat. It actually feels like someone has a bellows filled with dust which they've placed in my mouth and released a spray of dust which caused me to have this feeling of needing to cough almost to the point of choking. I don't have this cough all day long. It only happens intermittently throughout the day. Sometimes when I am standing or sitting but mostly when I am laying down in bed. I've also noticed that it seems to have somewhat of a consistent schedule. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I would take the pill every morning around the same time. However, I've stopped taking it about a week and a half ago and still seem to have somewhat of a pattern of when the coughs occur. Strange.
Another thing I noticed is that I've seemed to have an excessive amount of saliva which would also cause me to choke at times. Have any of you experienced excessive saliva with this medication?
I've been trying to lose weight without success and I'm wondering if Lisinopril has something to do with that as well. After reading all of these comments on this forum, I am wondering if doctors as well as The American Medical Association should take a closer look as to whether the side effects of this medication out weigh the benefits and/or what this medicine is supposed to be helping the patient with. So far I see no positive effects from this medication.

I was prescribed levaquin back in May for a sinus infection. Have suffered from severe side effects, worst of which being joint and muscle pain, stomach pains, weakness and hives (last dose was taken 10 days ago). This has been the most physical discomfort and pain that I've ever been in. In addition, my ability to concentrate and recall easy things has lessened.
The "Bafoon" of a doctor that prescribed this claimed he didn't know what was wrong with me after a normal blood test. My new knowledgeable doctor told me that some people can't even walk after taking Levaquin. She says it takes on average 7 days to 6 weeks to feel improvement. Being a 36 yr old woman, having to move turtle speed, and feeling like I'm in a 90 year old body is very depressing.
If anyone has any information on any class action or mass tort litigation lawsuits please send me the information. This drug is poison and should not be prescribed for minor infections!!!

My mother, who is in her early 70's, is diabetic and had high cholesterol. She had been taking Lipitor and the doctor increased her dosage. She was experiencing muscle pain for some time, especially when she woke in the morning. The muscle pain worsened and her muscles became very weak. She had been complaining to her doctor for some time. It took a chiropractor to suggest it was the Lipitor. Her doctor finally ordered blood work and her enzyme levels were at 9500. She was immediately hospitalized, tests run and IV's given to flush the Lipitor from her system. She was expected to slowly recover. After weeks, her levels dropped to 6500 then began to rise. Her doctor now says her muscle damage is permanent and plans to give her prednisone to stop the inflammation. This muscle damage is a terrible "side effect" for a drug that was supposed to help her. She can hardly get up or down from a sitting or lying position, can hardly walk and her lifestyle has been severely curtailed. She is also exhausted all the time.

19 years old; got first shot 09/04/07; became ill on 10/06/07, but did not suspect Gardasil; got second shot on 10/30/07. Symptoms: severe acid reflux, vomiting several times a day (every day for 9 weeks), motion sickness, dizziness, ear pain, recurring nausea, severe abdominal pain (especially just before and during menstruation), diarrhea (several times a day), extreme fatigue, weak/achy legs, muscle tenderness throughout the body, recurring headaches, intermittent back pain, weight loss of 25 lbs in 9 weeks. It was is if she had been poisoned. Unable to function; missed classes and had to resign from part-time job. Underwent numerous medical tests; all were normal. Tried several different medications; none were effective. Doctors believe she had an autoimmune reaction to the Gardasil vaccine. After 9 weeks, she recovered on her own. Thank God, she did not get third shot!!! Residual problem as of 08/08: extreme abdominal pains, cramping, and nausea each month during menstruation. Keeping our fingers crossed that there are no future complications.

with your doctor. KEEP ALL DOCTOR AND LABORATORY APPOINTMENTS while you are using this medicine. Laboratory and/or medical tests should be performed periodically to monitor your progress or check for side effects. Check with your doctor for more

I just pulled this of the aarp site about 5mg singulair,did any ones doctor do lab work,not mine. When i called Merck this week to report side effects the rep asked if my son had ,follow up blood work,

Here's something to ponder...
Here's a quote from Merck's site "Merck voluntarily updated the worldwide product label for SINGULAIR in October 2007 to include "suicidal thinking and behavior" and included similar changes to the patient product information". So if they voluntarily updated their information, why aren't doctors aware, why is the public not privy to this information?

Moms, Dads, and everyone who is taking Singulair with these side effects..if you are wondering why you've changed since being on Singulair, it just may be the side effects of this drug. Please don't wonder anymore, and take yourself off. You don't need to wean off it (coming from my son's pediatrician). It may take a few weeks to really see results. With our 5 year old son, we saw results little by little, and now it's been a month and he's completely back to normal. No more suicidal thoughts, no more blank stare, completely focused, and is his loving self again.

Every time someone new comes here and posts their story, it just breaks my heart that we've all suffered silently for so long without knowing the causes. To all the Mom's and Dad's who've thought they were doing something wrong as a parent, I feel for you, I was there. We did do something wrong though, we trusted the very person who made an oath to protect our children, to help our children. But we cannot blame ourselves for that. We're doing everything in our power right now to make our children's lives better, be proud of yourselves that you're here, finding the answer. Now let's do something about it. It's important to educate everyone we can about this. Don't let these doctors or compassionless people come in here and tell you there are no side effects, trust your parental instincts and go with them!

My daughter was taking Yaz as a predecessor to going on Acutane for acne. After a couple months began having severe nausea and vomiting which we thought was due to the Acutane (it is known to have potentially powerful side effects) so we took her off of that treatment. The nausea and vomitting increased to the extent that she had MRI, sonogram, and ultimately colonoscopy and endoscopy to determine if there was cancer, etc. All tests were totally clean...so doctors said it must be in her head. She was also having significant mood swings and almost a paranoia. That is when I sat down and tracked back to as early as I could the initial slight nausea symptoms occurred. Determine it started at the same time as this BCP. Looked up the message boards and was horrified to see what young women were going through. I immediately told her to stop taking the drug. Within one week, my daughter could eat again and her spirits were lifted. Nice to have her back after thousands of dollars in medical tests. Very frustrating that the doctors, who knew her prescriptions, did not see the potential. Because of this and another prescription issue, I will severely consider whether I or anyone in my family will use the 'latest and greatest' drug. Will ask for what has been tried and true.

Hi, I HAD A STROKE AT AGE 28.... I was 28 years old...
After doing all the medical tests possible to find out why I had my stroke, they told me that I had it probably because of the birth control pills that I was taking. They were Yasmin... but seriously, they could be another pill.

My son is 4 1/2 and has been on singulair since he was 3. He was diagnosed with asthma at the age of 1. He too has occasional bouts of bedwetting, vivid imagination, dreams most everynight. (Not sure if they are nightmares) Has mood swings. Has digestive issues.
Has had 3 seizures, and medical tests cannot find any problems there. I believe it is caused by the Singulair as well. However, it has controlled his asthma quite well. He has only allergy trigerred attacks now, and very seldom. I will just have to seek God's guidance in what's best for him at this time, until he eventually, and prayerfully outgrows this. I ask God to guide you all in your search for answers. I will check back for updates.

God bless and be with you all.
Concerned Mom

I have been taking Singulair for about two years now and I have been getting increasing fatigue so profound I have had to go from a 40 hour week to a 15-20 hour week. I have noticed increasing pain in my feet and legs which which affects my ability to stand and walk more each day. I also have stiffness in the ligaments of my hips, knees and feet. Medical tests show no arthritis in any of these areas. My memory is not as sharp and I have very restless sleep averaging 4-6 hours a night. My mind seems to be constantly running with thoughts and my concentration is gone out the window. After reading the the comments on this site, I am surely going to have my doctor change my medication to something else!

My 56 year old son. Jim, is Bipolar. He was taking three medications, one of them being Topamax. The Dr. that prescribed this medication died and the new Drs. thought Jim was doing fine so they continued on with the same medication. Jim became fecal incontinent. We did numerous medical tests to see if this had any basis. None was found. Over a years period (Jim's third year using Topamax) Jim began losing his memory. This doesn't sound too horrific unless you know that Jim has 160 IQ and total recall memory. He never had to read anything more than once and he could quote verbatim almost anything from any page. Total recall of phone numbers and names, etc. At first the Drs said this was early onset of Alzheimer’s. He was being cared for by this time with a battery of Drs. Neurologists, medical, psychiatrists and doing some very extensive testing. Finally it was judged that no, Jim does not have Alzheimer’s. However he continued to quickly decline. He by now was both urinary and fecal incontinent. His speech was slurred and he was unable to bath himself. He required around the clock help. He would ask me questions like, did I go to school? Did we live as so and so town? Then he asked, is my name Jim? This was hard to hear but then he quit talking altogether, was staggering and would respond to telling him walk this way or sit here but little else. Finally the Neurologist told me he was almost certain that Jim had a rare brain disease and it was always fatal within a year. He determined that Jim was in the advanced stages and probably had 2 to 6 weeks to live. I was devastated! Jim was sitting in the office when the Dr. said this and he made no recognition that he heard or understood anything.

I started talking to friends about this and one of them said call her friend a paralegal nurse practioner. I did and she asked me "Why is Jim taking Topamax"? My answer I consider rather stupid now but then it was the truth, I answered "because the Dr. prescribed it". She said, titrate him off Topamax and then call me. I went to his Dr. at the time and the Dr. was most reluctant to take Jim off this medication. He accused me of "playing Dr" and was most insulting. I persisted and said if he wouldn't I would change Drs. Later I understand he took Jim off much too fast and we did have really serious side affects. We halved his dosage every two days and in 6 days he was off Topamax. Jim went into a catatonic state for several hours at a time about four times. There was about 4 days and nights that neither of us got any sleep. He had repetitive thoughts that nearly drove him crazy (His words). The sixth day Jim started talking but then would go into these catatonic states for hours. When he came out of them he would talk and explain some things, then he would quit talking again and he later explained the thoughts were going so fast in his head this was the only way he could preserve his sanity was to just "blank out".
After about two weeks of this intense illness and no help from his Dr. and Jim refused to go into the hospital, in his talking moments he said they would just fill him with sedative drugs and he wanted to get as clear as possible from these. To make a very long story short this was one year ago, three Doctors ago and Jim was relieved from his repetitive thoughts by Fluvoxamine, but that spiked him into a manic phase and eventually he went into the hospital. He is on a complete new regime of meds now but we always research any new med BEFORE taking it. It will never be just "because the Dr. prescribed it" again. By the way, Jim was taking lithium at the time Topamax was originally prescribed and gaining a lot of weight. His original RX was for weight control~! It didn't work but it nearly killed him. I called the paralegal back to thank her but she had left the law firm and no one can locate her. Our Guardian Angel????

Responding to the latest poster.

No, no improvement for me in 6 months.

So sorry to have to say that. For you and I and the rest of us.

I just came back from a rheumotologist who has done many, many tests on me. I shared with him my belief that this all started within 1 or 2 days of taking only one medicine ( and after not taking "any" other medicine at all for 1 or more years before this ) and that is Levaquin.

Immediately the subjcect of psychiatric help was brought up by him and his feeling that it is very easy to read other peoples emotional responses such are posted on this board into your own situation.

He did give me the time and chance to at least present the idea to him regarding the "fact" that all of this began shortly after I started taking my 6 day dose of Levaquin. When I told him about the thousands of "exactly" matching experiences by you other posters, he shifted in his seat and stopped me and told me what I just recounted in the previous paragraph.

After repeating individually all the medical tests that have come back negative on me and repeating his hope that I get back on anti-depressants, he then shook my hand with a look of pity on his face and said something like, I hope that my allowing you to unload your concerns on me helped.

I am 54. I am not so ignorant that I don't understand and appreciate the importance of relying on well tested, scientifically solid and proven facts when it comes to making decisions about almost everything. But there is something wrong here. I can sense it. And yet no doctor will give "any' weight to what you and I and others are honestly pouring out here on these boards.

The "fact" that thousands of people are saying the same thing after almost all of them report only one thing in common ( the taking of Levaquin and or Cipro and usually just this one medicine alone ) is simply emotionally unstable nonsense motivated
by people who are suffering from something other than Levaquin or Cipro side effects and proabably mental in nature.
And their physical testing results are thier God of logic here.
If 500,000 people were reporting what we are reporting, and they didn't have the 30 different clinical test results to back this up they would probably say this was some form of mass hysteria.

It is a very sad and actually frightening statement about the almost crazy mind closing mentality of our medical community and their educational conditioning.

Of course there aren't many studies and clinical test results of people who have had such serious side effects like ours from Levaquin and Cipro. These powerful antibitoics haven't been around for decades and there is proabably 100,000 times more money behind trying to prove these drugs work and are fine and "not" that dangerous, than the monetary amounts and motivations behind trying to show that they are indeed much more danagerous and damaging than anyone will admit.

My depression and anxiety took off "after" I started taking Levaquin, not before! My leg weakness and soreness and other limb pain is "not" coming from my depression. And all these other unprecedented and extreme cases of insomnia, itching arms and scalp, weird wincing pains, stomach problems, shuddering, tremors, weird pulse rates, incredibly heightened sensitivity to cold and then immediate turns to feeling too hot, uncoordinatided gate and a few other carzy symprtoms started only after 1 or 2 days of a 6 days dose of Levaquin for me. And I have never, ever experienced anything like this before in my life ( with the exception of a few panic attacks, like who hasn't had those ) until I started taking this Levaquin.

I have written to so many major media outlets asking them to start looking into this situation of ours and so many like us. I will "never" just cave and accept my devastatingly changed life by simply accepting every doctors explanation that I am just a loon because their test results aren't shwoing them any results that would explain this.
WRITE...write to everyone you can about this. There is massive money behind trying to make you believe there is nothing wrong here. Stand up and be courageous here. You may have to take anti-depressants in the search for the truth and cure...but what other choice do we all have? JB

I was put on Zoloft for (alleged) depression and unrelenting fatigue after a panel of medical tests (blood work, urine, CAT scan, etc.) revealed normal levels. After 3 days on Zoloft, I started hallucinating...flashing beam, lights, etc. Has anybody else experience that so fast? I got the heck off of Zoloft immediately.

Switched from Zestril to Lisinopril in Jan 2004 - Starting in February have had incredibly severe leg crams eleven times; numbness and tingling in arms a couple of times; extreme fatigue; dizziness and light headedness, large weight gain. Numerous medical tests have not revealed cause. Visited a dietician today to discuss weight gain, and she immediately connected my syptoms as a possible side effect to Lisinopril, and suggested I discuss the possibility with my doctor. Internet research indicates many others have similar symptoms from Lisinopril.

I just happened upon this site and I'm so glad I did. I have been diagnosed with panic disorder when I have never had panic attacks in my life. I fainted in January and spent six days in the hospital undergoing dozens of medical tests only to find out I was having severe panic attacks. I was taking Yasmin for two months and went off cold turkey on January 10th. On January 14th was the day I fainted and all of the panic symptoms started. Be very very careful with this medicine. I had NO idea until now that my symptoms could be connected to the Yasmin. Like many others here, I have been tested for everything from heart problems to autoimmune disorders. This is the only medicine I was on. I am now having to take Lexapro since getting off of the Yasmin. I am 27 years old.