6un6silent6 Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 I've been on 900mg for about 2 months and was recently increased to 1050mg (600mg/night 450mg/morning) and it seemed to help with some of the breakthrough symptoms but this morning I was shaky as hell, a bit nauseous, scatterbrained, anxious, and had an instance of diarrhea. My Pdoc doesn't believe that I'm toxic (I measure .6-.7 at 900mg) but did pull me in today to run another blood test to see where I'm at. I've read that the higher the dose the more side effects that usually show up. Has anyone experienced this sort of side effect profile after a small 150mg increase? I've tolerated 900mg quite well so I'm a bit surprised to see this pop up all of a sudden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 The side effects used to only really appear when I didn't eat with it, But with time it seems to have gone down a lot. Even when I take my morning dose and don't eat food, The nausea doesn't seem as bad as it did when I started it. It could be I'm just used to it now. I'm at 1250mg lithium in a 500/750 split, and 40(+40 PRN) propranolol to stop the tremors, 40 stops most of them, but I'm allowed to take double up if I'm doing something really tremor unfriendly. It seems to help a bit with the anxiety too anyway, so its not all bad. My last level was 0.9. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6un6silent6 Posted August 4, 2010 Author Share Posted August 4, 2010 The side effects used to only really appear when I didn't eat with it, But with time it seems to have gone down a lot. Even when I take my morning dose and don't eat food, The nausea doesn't seem as bad as it did when I started it. It could be I'm just used to it now. I'm at 1250mg lithium in a 500/750 split, and 40(+40 PRN) propranolol to stop the tremors, 40 stops most of them, but I'm allowed to take double up if I'm doing something really tremor unfriendly. It seems to help a bit with the anxiety too anyway, so its not all bad. My last level was 0.9. Thanks for the info. I've noticed also if I don't flood myself with water it gets worse and also not eating enough makes it pretty bad. I've been able to tolerate the side effects up until now. The shakes are a bit annoying and for whatever reason my anxiety has gone through the roof. I start getting scatterbrained, panicky, and trembling bad. I'm trying my best to be patient but if it doesn't subside in a week or two I'm going to ask him to add propranolol or drop me back down to 900mg and perhaps use Lacmictal as an adjunct therapy. I can definitely say that I don't feel as good as I did on 900mg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 I find if I don't take the propranolol the shakes drive my crazy, and the thinking about them makes me think other people are looking at me due to the shakes... which drives my anxiety crazy. Again though, I found eating food with them helped a lot, I suspect it slows the absorption somewhat, and thus the worst of the side effects. I wouldn't say I flood myself with water, but I really don't know how much that would be. I always carry a drink bottle and drink around 3lt a day, It is winter though so I guess that's somewhat high compared to a normal person. I would try having food with it for sure, I generally just have a few slices of toast and whatever beverage is at hand, Or a banana. Generally whatever I can make easily, lazy food. If it looks like you are staying on it, I would also look into the Inderal or another beta blocker. It interacts with some asthma stuff by memory. The shakes were the only side effect I really couldn't put up with long term, and its lowered them to a level I'm comfortable with. Reading that over its somewhat disjointed, but eh, its late and I'm starting to get tired Cliff notes: Take it with a snack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etkearne Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 The last time I was on Lithium, I was on 1200mg (like I am now) and was fine other than the tremors. Then, in desperation, I was bumped up to 1500mg. It was the most horrible reaction I have ever had from a psych med other than not being able to breathe on Lamictal. I went of the Lithium in anger and frustration. A few months ago, when I looked back at my life, I realized that little pocket on 1200mg Li was pretty decent, so I restarted it. I am not going up to 1500, though, although my doctor told me I could if I wanted haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6un6silent6 Posted August 4, 2010 Author Share Posted August 4, 2010 The last time I was on Lithium, I was on 1200mg (like I am now) and was fine other than the tremors. Then, in desperation, I was bumped up to 1500mg. It was the most horrible reaction I have ever had from a psych med other than not being able to breathe on Lamictal. I went of the Lithium in anger and frustration. A few months ago, when I looked back at my life, I realized that little pocket on 1200mg Li was pretty decent, so I restarted it. I am not going up to 1500, though, although my doctor told me I could if I wanted haha Life at 900mg was a lot better than it ever was, but my doctor said to bump it up since I still see minor irritability here and there. He noted that it's breakthrough symptoms but I realize I also need to keep my sleep/sodium/water/stress in check to remain stable. I got my blood work back and I'm only at .7 on the 1050mg so I'll probably stick it out for a few weeks and see if it subsides. 900mg may be my magic dose but I'll be patient and give it some more time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6un6silent6 Posted August 10, 2010 Author Share Posted August 10, 2010 Bit of an update: I'm still at 900mg and in the last two days have had 3 bouts of diarrhea. I'm doing my best to keep my fluids and salt adequate to combat the loss but is there anything else I can do? Will taking an anti-diarrheal help or hinder the process? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BPCharlotte Posted August 17, 2010 Share Posted August 17, 2010 Personally I'm on 1000mg and find that if I don't eat a SUBSTANTIAL meal with it, like a full meal, I feel sick as a dog and have stomach upsets. But my blood level is at 0.6-0.7. It's different for everyone, so my advice is to experiment with different amounts of food (before) taking your dosage, and if nothing works go back to your doc and let them know. Tolerance is different for everone. All the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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