My neurologist wanted me to try lisinopril to see if it changed the frequency and severity of my migraines in any positive way (lessening either). After working my way up from 2.5mg to the intended 5mg dose, maintaining that for a little while, and finding the side effects that I could feel tolerable, I then began to notice something that was not only possibly intolerable from a clinical standpoint but concerning. I was beginning to get a bit “puffy” in a manner not quite like prednisone (I know what prednisone “puffiness” feels like and when it occurs), having to urinate more, and I was beginning to gain weight in spite of that when my diet and exercise had not changed at all. After doing some research on the side effect profile of this medication, these are side effects that this medication can have, and the individual that generally has these side effects most likely discontinues taking the medication as a result of these for… well, whatever reason.

At first, I thought that things weren’t going too bad with this medication, and then… well, this. Heh.

“Well, this,” seems to be a staple of me describing this medication to varying individuals in my care team.

Well, this.

I don’t mind gaining some weight from taking certain medications if there is a net positive from me taking that medication — prednisone is perhaps the primary one here, and the primary reason for this — and I can put up with a lot of side effects from treatment if the end goal is me comparatively being healthier, feeling better, and being in less pain. But for lisinopril, gaining weight and “feeling puffy” are not desirable side effects from treatment. These are warier side effects that you have to alert your care team to, it seems like.

Someone literally told me with a straight face, or as straight of a face as they could have hoped to manage, that “just because I can use social media, I’m not disabled, and there are probably jobs that I can find if I try hard enough”… or something. (One of my friends was as surprised as I was at this and inserted their own $0.02 into the matter, at which point the person who said this didn’t even really bother to engage them from my own understanding, because the exchange took place — wait for it — online, behind a computer screen, where the person could ironically say these things behind the veil of anonymity. Isn’t that how it always is?)

I told the person that I would continue to take advice from my care team, reminded them that the lights on my section of the house are kept dim, that I am “not always at the computer”, that my computer runs f.lux with Cave Painting selected (which is the least bright setting), and that I actually wear sunglasses in the house as necessary, and yes, until I found out that Zenni Optical now makes sunglasses in my prescription strength, that actually meant over my glasses some of the time. Aren’t these people wild, though? So desperate for people not to be disabled because they can not stand the idea of these people getting “free handouts”, even though these are benefits and services very often needed for these people to survive…

It’s almost always conservatives who say these things though, and more often than not religious ones.

Many of us would work if we could, because to stay eligible for these programs really is difficult. We would.

Hell, to actually become eligible for the programs in the first place is sometimes a hop, a skip, and a jump.