An eight month cough is outrageous. I had believed it was allergy related and looked at external possibilities – it never dawned on me that it might be something internal.
I had a friend tell me that she had been coughing for six months straight until her doctor took her off Metformin. That didn’t make sense to me. I’ve been taking Metformin for over two years now. Why would it all the sudden cause me to cough. Perhaps she provided the wrong drug. Lisinopril is the cause. It not only made me cough but had made Richard cough as well. I forgot that he had dealt with his own episode – though I do remember him coughing – I still hadn’t made the connection. He had been on Lisinopril before I started taking Metformin. Now neither one of us are taking Lisinopril.
I don’t know how high the statistics are for those who need to be taken off Lisinopril due to a cough. Apparently there are some pharmacists who give a warning. I don’t remember if mine did or not. If so, it obviously didn’t connect. But if it is really that common of an occurrence, why is the drug still on the market? There have been some medications removed due to some individuals experiencing side effects. Why not Lisinopril?
I realize that not every drug works the same way for every individual. There are side effects. There are trade-offs. I’m not trading a preventative for a cough. There has to be another option. As of now I won’t be taking anything until my cough completely disappears.
Meanwhile I still have mostly a full bottle of the nasty Buckley’s syrup. It did work. But I’m not going to use it to chase a side effect when Lisinopril is the problem. I wish I would have made a connection earlier or never taken it in the first place. Live and learn.
Hopefully if there are others who are taking the drug and experiencing the side effects that you will not have to go through this yourself and that this blog post will help you figure out that Lisinopril is NOT the direction you would like to go.
