@Victoria'smom Thanks for asking! All things considered, it went well. After unpacking my symptoms and symptom history for a bit, we decided to give tegretol a try again. It sounds like my last psychiatrist never had me on a dose as high as it probably needed to be so who knows if enough was in my system for it to do anything. She also never tested my blood levels to see where things were at.

My pdoc said the ultimate goal is to get me to 400 mg twice a day. I'll slowly build this up (200 mg once a day for four days; 200 mg twice a day for 4 days; and, finally, 400 mg twice a day). Once I have a week of the full dose in me (hopefully, the med agrees with me and I make it to this point!), I have to get my levels tested. He'll test my lamotrigine levels at that point too. My other meds are staying the same so we aren't changing more than one thing at a time but, in the future, an increase in lamotrigine may be needed because of how tegretol interacts with it. A conversation about trying to reduce my risperidone (I really don't like the med but will stick with it if I have to) may also be in the future too if this works.

If this does not work, abilify (or this and a combo of something else) instead of risperidone may be the next step. I've never been on abilify but he thinks tegretol, if it works, is probably a better long term option for me.

Apparently, the pharmacy is currently out of stock of tegretol (according to my online account). hopefully, they get it by the weekend. I'd like to start taking it Friday or Saturday in case I have some first day side effects.