Complacency Can KILL you!

Just a heads up--I have been taking the same blood pressure medication for over 14 years.  It is called Lisinopril.  I never expected that all these years later, I would have a bad reaction to it.  So when some things started to happen, I didn't connect them to the medicine--fact is, I never connected them at all--until it nearly killed me.  Small things, like choking a lot for no reason--a sudden rash that itched like crazy--

This past Sunday was just a normal day, but then I started to feel--"Odd".  Hard to explain.  And it happened so fast, I really didn't have time to even realize WHAT was happening---the left side of my tongue swelled to the roof of my mouth.  I could barely talk, and was having trouble breathing. I was rushed to the ER and there I was told I was having an anaphylactic episode.  Had I not gone to the ER right away, where they could treat the sudden swelling of my tongue and also my throat, I would have suffocated. As it was, I was lucky I got there fast and they didn't have to intubate me or do a tracheotomy to help me breathe. They believe it was a side effect of the lisinopril, a medicine I thought was "safe" because I had been on it for so long.

Now I know--NO medicine is safe!  You CAN develop side effects even after having no problems for many years.  So if lots of "little" things start happening, check out the side effects of your meds!!