Wasp symptoms and conditions

I am a 52 year old female and began taking 20mg. of lisinopril about 6 weeks ago. My blood pressure was very high 174/111. I feel terrible on this drug! I'm tired all the time, zero energy. I either can't sleep or sleep too much. I am a smoker but my coughing seems worse. I have a very dry mouth at night, I feel very depressed, crying a lot. Granted, I just lost my beloved nephew to suicide in May, but I can't shake the depression I feel. I am allergic to bee and wasp stings and was never asked this by the doctor. I'm going back next week and asking for a different medication

February 22nd
2009
My side effects (Charles Clark)
3:00pm

It started with diarrhea after a couple days treatment. Then my hand muscles starting to contract on there own. Then I started having high blood pressure up to 212/118 and high heart rate and anxiety beginning to set in. My wife wanted to take me to the hospital but I refused to go (I wish I had. They might have taken me off Doxy then, but no, I was still taking it). I then started having problems breathing (like something was stopping me. Not like hyperventilating). My wife called the doctor and she said to stop the Doxy and come in. At the visit, she gave me meds for high blood pressure and ordered a heart monitor and stress test as she believed my problem was more likely with my heart. I didn't start the blood pressure medications as I needed to have the tests done in a week and a half. I had a panic attack before the stress test. There was a patient there who stated her granddaughter had developed panic attacks after she had taken Doxy for Lymes disease. What a coincidence. That weekend my blood pressure and anxiety increased and my wife called the doctor. They convinced me to start the blood pressure medicine as all of this might be caused by High Blood Pressure. I returned to the doctor 4 days later and she took more blood work as well as tested for Lymes disease again. Everything was normal and NO lymes disease. So what was causing all of these problems. That night when I came home from the Doctors I started feeling like someone just sprayed me like you spray a wasp/bee. I started to shake and twitch inside like I was dying I could feel my stomach convulsing and getting cold. Now at this point I had been off Doxycycline for a few days. My wife called the doctors emergency line and they called in a prescription for Xanex. I took it and it put be out. I woke up the next day feeling like I was on a bad rollercoaster ride going over the edge and trying to climbing out of my skin. I was unable to even take care of myself at this point. I started getting muscle twitches all over my body. I could not control my thoughts and had a hard time talking; my skin was so hypersensitive to the touch or movement. The only way I could deal with it was just lay down and not move. I felt like was going to die. More symptoms came: my middle finger on my left hand went numb; I was so nauseated I had a hard time eating; depression set in with sever panic attacks/anxiety, ears ringing, slight pain in my chest like I was having a heart attack and was becoming bed ridden and afraid of everything at this point. That next week I returned to the doctor and she noted how it seemed a struggle for me to walk into the office. She felt that I should begin meds to decrease the anxiety that was paralyzing me. She suggested seeing a psychiatrist and stated that if I got worse my wife should take me to the emergency and be admitted to the mental health program. So I began to take Paxil as well (I hate medications, but I was desperate). I was terrified that I might have side affects from these meds and I couldn't be alone and I was afraid to go anywhere, afraid I would have an attack or worse, stop breathing all together. I was terrified and my family was getting very worried about me and unsure what to do. Thanks to my best friend, my wife, and my family for taking care of me. If it were not for them, I would not know what to do. My dear mom even came in from Virginia to help take care of me. I can not express my thanks enough to my family! I have been off the drug now for almost seven weeks now and all my side effects are slowly, very slowly, dissipating. How come the Doctors don't know about this? Thank GOD for this site and the ones that took the time to post there experience with this drug! THANKS EVERYONE GOD BLESS YOU!

P.S. please reply on what you did to get rid of the side effects, how long did it take for them to go away and did your Doctor believe that the Doxycycline caused them. because I can't find a Doctor that thinks the Doxycycline can have these side effects.

bad headaches, body extremely hot and continual sweating, I was prescribed this for ten days after a bad reaction to a wasp sting I feel even worse now! I've taken 7 days and am going to stop them.

what did anyone use as an alternative???....my daughter is currently having a severe wasp reaction, has been told to take prednisone, and I don't want to give it to her.

Hi to all,
I wanted to take a minute to say Thanks to all who post and search for answers to this drugs confusing and serious side effects.To all who have taken the time to contact the FDA and file a report to help others.Dr.Sarah Sellers is no longer the person to contact at the FDA,she has moved on after concluding her end of the investigation on Singulair.If you have a serious side effect please still take the time to file on the official FDA site for adverse event reporting.In NY. state we are still searching for legislation to help with the notification process for these serious side effects.There are to many Doctors that still do not have a clear idea of the updated side effects,and are not reporting as they should.
Letting your doctor know that good medicine is all about follow up on complaints,such as researching the singulair website to rule out that it may be the drug or it may not.Just dismissing the patient and prescribing another drug is how these drugs go undetected for so long.We want this to stop and only the unfortunate recipients of the horrors of this drug can make this happen.Again thank you for your efforts to change the system with follow through and perserverance.Our horror story is one of many and we want to help those who have survived the ravages of this drug, OUR CHILD DID NOT. Kate and Dave M.

My husband was stung by a wasp. He had a major reaction of hives and fainting spells. Naturally we went to emergency where the doctor prescribed.. you guessed it.. PREDNISONE !! sigh. He was told to take it only the next morning of his attack as the prednisone would make him too irritable to sleep. He woke up the next morning and all his rash was gone and he was feeling like a million bucks. NO more side effects from the wasp sting. We were always wondering WHY he needed to take prednisone for a wasp sting but wanting to listen to our knowledgeable and GOOD doctors, my husband took the prednisone. He was told to take 10 5mg pills in one shot, therefore, 50 mg. per day and then eventually wean himself off. Well, he took but the first 10 and within the 1/2 hour he developed an even greater reaction to hives than the day before. He became very agitated and moody... We drove back to the hosp. only to see the same doctor who'd tell us that he didn't HAVE to take the prednison if he didn't want to and that he was SURE that the prednisone had not caused this latest and worse reaction !!
For crying out loud. This is the year 2008. Couldn't the doctor have told us ahead of time that if the symptoms disappeared before even filling in the prescription ( which is what happened in this case ), THAT He should never have taken any drug? Prednisone is a killer. I know.. My mom DIED because of this darn drug only to find out that they were treating her for a disease that she probably didn't have after years of using PREDNISONE. These poor older people think that the doctors are GOD and that they have to listen to their every word. My husband, on the other hand, has thrown the drug away after just ONE USE. PLEASE, people, find other doctors and solutions and get second opinions.

Here’s a little update from my last post, I hope it may be useful. The reference to snake venom set me thinking, as around six years ago I suffered anaphylaxis after being stung by a wasp on the end of my tongue. I was rushed to casualty as my head and ears swelled up. I was coved in a red spotty rash and although the major symptoms subsided after a day or so after treatment , it after several weeks before I was back to normal. I now carry adrenaline in case of a similar incident. Many of the symptoms were similar to what I have experienced over the last month, the shortness of breath, the red spotty rash ( forgot to put that in the last post. I still have the spots on my arm and back!) , painful joints, blurred vision etc….

So it got me thinking, is there a connection? It would be interesting to note if any of those posting here have similar intolerance to insect venom.

A quick Google brought up a reference to a paper by Janice L Stumpf, Nadine Shehab and Anish Patel in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy Vol 40 No 4 p699-703 titled ‘Safety of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Patients with Insect Venom Allergies’

In the conclusions it states ‘….it seems prudent that patients with document allergic reactions to insect venom avoid ACE inhibitor therapy, if possible..’

I’m convinced that I was slowly going into a form of anaphylaxis brought on due to allergic reaction to linisopril, I now know what I will be telling my GP, as I’m sure many doctors will be unaware of this link. Make sure that if you suffer from the same intolerance that your doctor is made aware.

Hope this helps.