This reaction is very common in children.
All the people who have mentioned adverse reactions to lisinopril are right on the money; most people tolerate it well with minimal or no side effects, but if you have them, you have them big time.
These are nowhere near as dramatic or frightening as others’ tales - luckily, mine have been major annoyances at most.
When I was about 16, I wanted to switch from the asthma med I’d had around for years (a syrup that had ephedrine, theophylline, potassium iodide and phenobarbitol, of all things) to something else. This was before inhalers were common - so doc gave me a scrip for Marax, which contained theophylline, ephedra, and hydroxyzine (an antihistamine). I came down with a bad cold, was having asthma issues, so took one pill.
Within an hour my pulse shot to 130. My mother didn’t believe me until she took my pulse herself - then she called the doctor at home.
Doc said “forced fluids now, then try a half tablet tomorrow”.
Same result with the half tablet.
So I got by with the syrup for a few years until I went to the doctor at college and got a real inhaler.
About 8 years back, doc wanted to add another medication to my blood pressure control regime (I was on a low dose of a beta blocker). She put me on Lisinopril. She warned me that a dry cough was one possible side effect.
Sure enough, a couple of weeks later the dry cough began… and continued to get worse. For other reasons I was having trouble sleeping, but this cough made what sleep I could get be very, very disrupted. The cough was only at night / when I was lying down, so despite the timing being close to the new med, the doctor really, really believed it was due to worsening reflux. 4 months of going down that garden path, and worsening misery, and I finally refused to take the stuff any more.
I forgot one. Years ago, when I started to get insomnia, I thought I’d try melatonin.
Never again. I think it kept me in an all-night-long REM stage. It gave me vivid, unpleasant, bizarre dreams, and I didn’t even wake up feeling rested. I threw the rest of the bottle in the trash.
Lexapro. I’ll just cite the “sexual side-effects” they warn about and leave it at that.
Atenolol (IIRC). Being on this coincided with a major depressive episode about 20 years ago, and I don’t know if depression is a known side effect or if it was just that I told my doctor that I had bothered to lookup what LD50 was for it, but he took me off it PDQ when I did.
Seeing teela’s addition above reminded me: they changed the formulation of Tavist (allergy med) a long time ago (apparently the original formula was really bad for some folks) and shortly thereafter I went through the same side effects everyone on that episode of TNG where they weren’t getting REM sleep anymore had. Fortunately, back then, that was the only thing I was taking, so I knew exactly what the problem was.
When I first saw this thread I thought “I’ve never had a serious reaction to a drug”, but as I read, I started remembering that I’ve had many.
The worst was probably my first treatment with Rituxan for B-cell lymphoma. Fortunately, my sister had come to town to be with me; otherwise, I’m not sure what would have happened. The chemo room is crowded, and the nurses do not monitor patients closely.
About 90 minutes into the infusion, I felt the need to urinate. When I got to the bathroom, nothing would come out (in a weird way), and I started feeling odd (I believe that my kidneys had shut down). I managed to make my way back to my sister and told her something was wrong. At that point, according to my sister, I started swelling up and turning red and yelling, “I don’t want to die”. Sister alerted one of the chemo room nurses, who shut down the infusion.
I ultimately had 13 Rituxan treatments but never again had a reaction.
Most recently, I had a reaction to the flu shot. I get the flu shot every year and have never before had a problem, so I didn’t sit and wait after getting this one. By the time I walked to my car, my right arm had gone completely numb (the shot was in the left arm). I had trouble unlocking the car because I kept dropping my keys. It was a cold and rainy day, so I just waited in my car for about five minutes, and the numbness cleared. If it hadn’t, I would’ve gone back into the clinic.
A number of years ago I had superficially injured one of my legs, and it became badly infected. My GP put me on a powerful antibiotic. It had the side effect of really intense itching, especially my forearms. So I just spent my time scratching my forearms. What I didn’t know until later was that I was scratching off all my hair follicles. Since then, I’ve had no hair on my forearms.
Apart from nearly killing me with an iodine contrast agent that caused anaphylaxis decades ago, the worst one was griseofulvin for toenail fungus. It might have actually worked because if I had kept taking it, I have no doubt I would have heaved up my toenails. Lately, I learned I couldn’t take diltiazem (I turned into one big hive) and a flu vaccine made my palms turn hot, bright red, and itch horribly on and off for months. I don’t get flu shots anymore.
Do you remember what the antibiotic was? I’m curious!
Scratched out your hair follicles - yeeeesht.
This is why people who can take flu shots should have them.
Severe allergy to iodinated contrast media is extremely common; that’s why some places are switching to gadolinium contrast, which has its own set of problems but most people aren’t violently allergic to it after a single dose.
I know someone who went through months of medical mystery symptoms including being hospitalized for what they thought was some kind of massive GI infection.
Finally, she wound up going to the ER for some symptom - and someone there asked her “Are you taking lisinopril?”.
Lightbulb moment. That ER staffer was the FIRST PERSON who’d ever guessed that was the culprit. She stopped taking it, the symptoms went away.
Now, this was after she’d been on it for several years - with no trouble at all.
The stuff really is a menace.
Though as I’ve said here on a number of occasions, the damn stuff literally saved my life. See, the doc finally sent me to a gastro - and while I’d quit in the interim and the symptoms were improving, I kept that appointment. He said “you have reflux, we should check for Barrett’s”, I said “how about while we’re at it, I’m 50, so…” and this has led to my chiming in on every colonoscopy thread started on the Dope in the last 8 years :D.
Ooh - I think this is what happened to the person I mentioned:
It specifically mentions lips as one of the places that swells. Also upper airway, which would be terrifying as hell for me (I assume it could make me dead, if not caught).
I was on the ortho-evra patch for birth control and I had 2 simultaneous pulmonary embolisms. The doc said due to my age (I was around 25) that it was highly unlikely that it would be anything other than the patch that caused it. No more birth control or hormones for me!
I don’t remember the name of the medication (Baklofin?) I was given following a back injury some years ago but one of the known side effects was hallucinations. I saw two ghosts living with me in my one bedroom condo; one was an attractive young woman who was always dressed in “old fashioned” clothes that covered her from her neck to the floor. She was very pleasant and easy to talk with; the other was a guy who wore jeans and a flannel shirt—he accused me of having murdered him. I stopped taking whatever it was and the ghosts left after a day or two. I kind of miss them.
Sulfa drugs.
Complete crash & burn.
Captopril, in the same class, is also notorious for doing this. I definitely remember that from school. That has to be taken several times a day, and even more people can’t tolerate it. Interestingly, it’s been used extensively for diabetics because it improves blood flow to the kidney - and there are people who told their doctors that dialysis would be a cakewalk compared to being on this. 
I think this is a Me Too.
A few years ago, I did some heavy exercise in the back yard in July. Digging sand from one area and taking it to another. I was in my mid-50s and had a problem with my back that I really needed exercise to help correct. Anyway, I worked out in the hot summer sun for a few hours, moving several wheelbarrows of sand and went inside to cool off. I drank lotsa water. Whenever I peed, though, it was darker than iced tea. I also felt like crap. Not just crap like from over doing it, but real crap. Not just that afternoon, either, but into the night and the next morning (which was Sunday). Situation did not change, so Monday morning I went into to see the Doc.
The Doc ran a bunch a tests and told me I had blood in my urine, and prescribed Sulfameth/TMP (apparently, a sulfa-based antibiotic). He also told me that he thought I just dehydrated myself, so I needed to drink a lot of fluids. I started the antibiotic, drank lots of fluid, and my pee stayed dark and things got bad. On Wednesday, my fever hit 106F (I kept a record, which I still have). So, back to the Doc.
On Thursday, the Doc referred me to a urologist, on Friday. I still felt like crap, still running a fever, and still dark pee. I told this to the urologist. He specifically asked me about the blood in the urine, whether or not it was a lot or just a trace. I told him that my pee was dark and the Doc said it was blood in my urine, which is why I was there. He also asked me if I had trouble peeing at night, but that is just what he does. The urologist wanted to take a look in my bladder (I am male) and there is just one way to do that. Another appointment a week away.0
Anyway, by the following Monday, my fever still was there and things weren’t getting better. I went back to the Doc. My Sulfamet 'script was expiring the fever wasn’t abating, so he gave me Cipro. Within a day or two, my fever was gone. I went to the urologist and submitted to the embarrassing and painful inspection of my bladder, who said there was no problem that he could see, but wanted to see me in 6 months. As the crisis was over, I just figured I had a bladder infection that the Sulfamet couldn’t kill off, but the Cipro did.
Fast forward another year of so, and I developed an ingrown toe nail. Not bad, but it hurt. Back to the Doc, who prescribed Sufamet… I’ve dealt with ingrown toe nails before and soaking them in Provodine Iodine and hot water fixes them in a week, so I did both. The fever and feeling like crap returned. I stopped the Sulfamet and kept the soaking and my toe was better in a week and I told the Doc that I didn’t want to take Sulfamet ever again.
Did nobody ever suggest you might have had a slight case of rhabdomyolosys? I can’t comment about your reaction to the medication but the fever and dark urine sounds a LOT like rhabdo. It was the first thing that came to mind even though I couldn’t remember the term. Intense exercise, heat, dark urine…