Pickle juice symptoms and conditions

Sore toes. Legs swollen but left leg around ankle swells so bad that skin burns. Twitching of muscles and charley-horses so bad in my ribs that I can't wash myself in the shower without having to quickly stand straight up or my ribs will crack. Twitching of fingers due to muscle cramps. Scratching the cheeks of my face until bloody when I am not paying attention because of itching. Can't stay awake if not pre-occupied with a physical task. I have fallen asleep while someone was talking to me or while watching TV. Have fallen asleep while driving. This is over and over and over even when well rested. Feeling of something terribly wrong about one to two hours after taking my pill. Like I am dying. Severe chills, racing heart, starved for air. Can't get enough air. So bad sometimes, I am afraid I will have to call 911. During sleep, constantly having to urinate buckets overnight. Up almost every hour and when I go I must pee a half a gallon. Incredible thirst next day for pickle juice or kosher style pickles or orange or grapefruit juice. Plain water, coffee, milk, or tea doesn't satisfy. My doctor brushed off my complaints so I've now dropped him and have set up an appointment with a different one.

I started taking Lisinopril 20mg in early April. The week after I started, I began craving salty, vinegary foods (banana peppers in vinegar, pickles.) I also couldn't get enough V8/tomato juice. These are all foods I liked before, but I felt the need to consume them every day in huge quantities. I even drank the pickle juice sometimes! It took me a while to figure out the connection between starting the med and these cravings. I told my doc about it, but he didn't seem to think there was a connection. Well, I stopped Lisinopril a week ago and I haven't had any more cravings since then.

Also, I suffer from depression and I am almost positive that this medication exacerbated that condition. Certainly the fatigue that comes with taking Lisinopril didn't help things anyway. I also found the lightheadedness annoying, though it was livable.

Before Lisinopril, I was on Norvasc for five years and didn't experience any notable side effects. My blood pressure was always normal on Norvasc, whereas the Lisinopril lowered it to low normal (enough that I felt lightheaded.) Interestingly enough, my BP has been normal since I stopped Lisinopril last week. Go figure.

This medication and my body DID NOT get along. I won't be taking it again and I can't wait until the poison is completely out of my body!