I've been coughing my head off

Oh, I've felt fine; but for the past month, I've been awakened several times each night with a tickling throat and a cough that won't quit.

Now, any chronic cough worries me. My dad developed a chronic cough, and he ended up with lung cancer. I don't smoke, but I can't forget how Daddy coughed for so long before he was diagnosed.

Today the light bulb in my brain turned on: I've never been on prescription meds full time until a month ago, when the doctor prescribed LISINOP/HCTZ to lower my blood pressure. Hmmm, that's about the time the cough started, and it's gotten progressively worse ever since. Honestly, I cough until I gag, then I cough some more until I get a headache. And I NEVER have headaches.

So I Googled the name of the drug and found this under the side effects: "Cough: Presumably due to the inhibition of the degradation of endogenous bradykinin, persistent nonproductive cough has been reported with all ACE inhibitors, always resolving after discontinuation of therapy. ACE inhibitor-induced cough should be considered in the differential diagnosis of cough."

Another person had this to say: "I am going to have to go off this! The cough started during the swine flu scare. Every time I started my coughing fit, finally ending in a gag, people would scatter. I have been on it for 2 months and the coughing is not subsiding. I have to bring my right knee to my chest because the coughing is so severe I feel as if its causing a hernia in my right abdomen."

Oh, there's more. One nurse said the cough is the main reason people go off this drug. So I didn't take my pill today, and I won't be taking any more. I'll visit the doctor next week, and if he wants to prescribe something else, I'll try it. I will not make the mistake of saying I got information from the Internet, because I've learned that doctors don't want to hear that. I'll just say I made the connection between the cough and the medicine, which is the truth.

As I make this entry, I have eighteen pints of tomatoes in the canners. I think I may almost have enough for the year now. I'd better, because I'll soon be out of pint jars!