I have been on 20mg lisinopril for over a year. Didn't notice any...

LISINOPRIL CAN KILL! I started taking this "medication" in July 2007, after my butthole cheating spouse dropped me from our insurance plan. Prior to this, I was taking 10 Mg. of Norvasc, the real deal, not the new generics. When I started, there wasn't a generic for Norvasc. Anyway, due to no more health insurance or prescription insurance, doctor at a local medical church outreach type program put me on lisinopril, 5 or 10 mg. My life was so hectic at that time that if I had any symptoms, I don't recall them. That is, until February of 2008. I started feeling tired, throat itched and it felt like (I know this sounds gross, but...) felt like I had a wad of phlegm in the back of my throat that needed to be coughed up and expelled. Problem was, it NEVER would come up. Finally, after about 5 days I went to my mirror, pointed a flashlight into my throat only to see that my uvela looked different, kind of like it was bright pink and "hanging" wierd. That so-called phlegm I kept feeling was in fact my Uvela (or pallette tongue, as I grew up hearing the grown folks call it that.) In the beginning, it would eventually clear up on it's own, and I was working my butt off since my spouse had just deserted me and my children. I was also having extremely heavy and long menstrual cycles, and that was my biggest concern. After having no period for about 8 months, I finally had one on Jan. 9. It would last for 45+ days. I went to the ER twice during this time because I would wake up in the morning and blood would drain out of me like a faucet. I thought I was going to literally bleed to death. Back to the lisinopril......every 2 to 3 months these issues with my uvela would recur but worse than the previous time. It got to where I could not talk when these "episodes" would occur. My uvela would be either huge and hanging on the back of my tongue or it would look like it was being stretched from left to right, and barely be visible. But it always did one thing the same; it hurt like hell. I would 4 days on the sofa in pain, scared to swallow anything other than water, but I did. Lots of it too because my throat felt utterly parched. I had a flare up the week of Chirstmas also, but just tried to wait it out. Kept telling my Doc about these symptoms, they said it was allergies and to just take some claritin. They never got it no matter how I explained it. During the summer months of 2008, I experienced strange sudden rashes on the back of my neck that burned when the sun shone on it. Doc said it was a fungal infection and put selsun blue on it. It worked, only to be replaced with a strange burning rash on the left side of my chest, right below the underwire in my bra. It hurt like someone was holding burning coals on it. Thinking it was the same rash, I applied the Selsun Blue shampoo. BIG mistake. It actually became smooth and leathery looking, and the next day in the shower, it all peeled off. Then about 2 days later it was gone. I tried to flare up on the other side but it wasn't as bad as the left side. Again, still couldn't connect it to lisinopril. Long story short, I have been taking a drug that is actually making the rest of my body go haywire. On Feb. 4, 2009 I was rushed to the ER at the Medical College of Georgia where they quickly performed an endoscopy and found that my airways were almost totally swollen. Thankfully, my body responded to the prednisone, benadryl, pepcid and the antibiotics and the uvela (which this time was larger than any previous episode) returned to normal. I did stay in the hospital overnight. They were going to release me. I looked at the doctor and said, "And what if this flares back up and next time my airway closes up completely." They at first were insisting it was okay to send me home. I KNEW THEY WERE WRONG. Twenty minutes later, he returned and said they had decided to keep me overnight. That is the ONLY thing that saved my life. I knew it wasn't resolved. I don't know why doctors, who have gone to great lengths to become such, don't know all the risks about what they are prescribing. Or they just don't care. I feel so abused and crapped upon to my former doctor. Either he just doesn't know what he is doing or he's getting a big kickback from the pharmecuetical companies and their judgement is clouded by dollar signs. Either way, I was diagnosed with ACE-inhibitor induced Angioedema. Others have actually died from this. BTW, doc had just doubled my dosage 2 weeks prior to this episode. Shows how clueless he really is. I still don't know if the menstrual problems are any way related to the edema.
One more thing, during these episodes, my ears feel like they are on fire, my whole head feels like it's going to blow up, my sinuses were going berzerk, doc prescribed medication after medication and nothing helped. Even after stopping the lisinopril (I've been off for over 10 days now) and they symptoms still come and go erratically. My head aches, esp. around my temples, I get dizzy a lot, I even had a bright red "flushed" look on my cheeks, and my neck is always stiff and painful. Lower back also for weeks. Today, I woke up itching all over. Throat is swelling again, hard to breath. I am so appalled about this that I just quit every medication except the metformin for my blood glucose levels. did try to take the amlodipine after the 3rd day home from hospital, only to be up all night with breathing issues. I can't fall asleep b/c of the pain and if I do doze off, I wake up gasping for air and my heart is racing. This has been going on for months as well. For every symptom I had, doc prescribed a new medication. (I was taking about 8 RX's including a nasal spray). All I can say is that if they high blood pressure don't kill you, the medication prescribed to control it is likely to. Nurse keeps urging me to take it until my appt with a new doctor, which is 2 weeks away. I keep telling her, I can't take any ACE-inhibitor. I'll just take my chances without the drugs for now. I feel like a drug addict only my doctor is the drug-dealer, and the pharmacy is his supplier. I've never done illegal drugs my entire life yet I feel ashamed about all the prescription drugs I've been taking. What's worse is that doctor's are in denial about adverse reactions and allergies to medications. They NEED TO BE RE-EDUCATED. The FDA is not much better: when I asked why this drug hasn't been recalled, they insist that this reaction "is rare" and affects mostly African-American persons." Which implies to me that since it's only blacks who mostly are affected, there's no need to do anything about it." That too is wrong, it can affect any nationality, any age range, males and females. People are dying from this and nobody does anything. So lisinopril users beware.....this drug can strike even if you've been taking it for months or even a year. It's almost as if it's a parasite attacking the host. Hospital urged me to stop taking lisinopril and ALL ACE-inhibitor's at once. I did.