Lisinopril Orthopedic Surgon, Ulner Nerve, Gall Bladder, Muscle Wasting, Neurologist

It shouldn't be up to us patients to find the cause of the pain we experience and we get into trouble for researching.... I was prescribed Lisinopril at the end of august to moderate fluctuating BP that had suddenly appeared after a Contrast CT scan in May. I am a competitive sportswoman very fit and healthy always 120/80 until after this scan. Crazy stuff stared happening. Yo yo BP permanent blinding head pressure pain, bulging soft veins and an uncharacteristic sloshing gut...stomach I think but may be intestines, eyesight change.... sense that connective tissue had suddenly gone too stretchy, sensation that my stomach no longer supported in the right place pulling on oesophagus, raw physical not functional abdominal pain.

I took one tablet of Lisinopril and within 15 mins as I got the expected BP drop my entire abdomen started to burn like I had a football of stinging nettles inside me! It lasted 24 hrs and I was beside myself. Saw GP following day who said as it was not listed it was not a drug reaction!! Bit of a bloody coincidence though I say. Leave it a day and try again. EXACTLY the same thing happening. I don't care what they say that is a drug reaction. I have not taken since.

The stinging stopped but I started to be unable to maintain body temperature, feel constantly faint, started getting prickly vein pain and sudden blanching in my hands unrelated to temperature. Seemed like blood was not going all the way round body.... GP says stress anxiety but that is not me and these are very real physical symptoms. Research Lisinopril and discover that ther are plenty of journal reports that this drug can, rarely, cause visceral angioedema, sudden swelling of the mucosal tissue. Rarely recorded because no one believes us when we say that is happening to ME!!

Need to understand the mechanism these drugs use to create their 'benificial' effect....

I have had same stinging reaction recently immediately following a further contrast ct scan ...an hour after scan and back home the stinging came again. I recognised it as the same. You don't forget that pain.... across chest this time too. Again I am told it is not a reaction !!! this time it lasts for over a week and I think has done some biochemical damage to my body as a consequence. Circulation in my arms completely screwed.... Arms started to scorch inside and pulse with my heart as the stinging stopped...and baffled medics. Hands by my side, they fill with blood under gravity and go deep red but the instant I elevate the hand for a few seconds it blanches completely and prickles. Pulse is normal even when hand above head but for some reason blood is not making it across the capillary bed and into the venules in the normal way. Lisinopril started this problem in August with just two doses...... I believe This drug has triggered an over production of Bradykinin which for some auto immune reason my body has not mediated.... brady kinin vasodilates by releasing by promting endothelial cells to excrete nitric oxside... un regualted this can damage the endothelial cells themselves. As capillaries are only one cell thick it doen't take much to damage the network. Bradykinin is also implicated in contrast reactions .... unregulated for many days in my case I believe has gone on to do some extensive damage to circulation.. we have capillary beds everywhere and I can feel my lungs are not happy.....
Getting anyone to take this serously is a real challenge. I know I have reacted. I am being told I have not as all usual blood tests are normal. I can demonstrate this bizarre reddening/blanching and it is happening on the inside too. I am sure the process of investigating using chemicals has screwed my body chemistry.
I also believe that physiochemitoxic changes in delayed reaction to contrast have resulted in seriously altered osmotic pressures in my body that have affected the tensile strength if collagen network. Suddenly my fingers are super flexible, my skin has suddenly lost significant spring back tone, my stomach feels as though it has stretched and distended deep into abdominal cavity and the connective tissue supporting it stretched or given way. It is not a very nice feeling. I cannot get it taken seriously at all and it has ruined my life.
This started In may when I had chest pain and burping and because I had a newly discovered left bundle branch block they suspected heart attack which angiogram ruled out. I think I reacted to contrast as early as then but didn't realize. I had prickly abdominal pain when I was discharged which I had never had before......

Until May i had never been to the doctor with anything..I am 51, sensible intelligent and articulate. I know my body really well through years of training for events and competitions. I know when I say something is not normal that I am not being oversensitive, and yet through out this as new things started to emerge and I felt my body reacting to be told you are not reacting is unbelievable. I did not know for sure that I was reacting to contrast til after the last scan in October. Unfortunately I think that it is too late..