What the f*** can i eat???!!

JaiHanaLakshmi · May 02, 2015, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustMeJen5294

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they typically do a level after a couple weeks. And since I had a truly atrocious doctor when I started lithium (she spent exactly 8 minutes per session with me according to her notes and documented I was functioning at a high normal level when I was coming home and going to bed in dirty scrubs, eating only chef-boy-r-dee and often uncooked, too scared to shower daily, and cycling all over the place but since I was a healthcare worker I was fine. Great logic).

Yeah, just because a place is great doesn't always mean great drs. I go to Cleveland Clinic and have had great experiences with everyone in psych except this one guy who I saw when I was on medical with lithium toxicity. For some reason nobody could explain yet nobody would fix when I was admitted they cut all my psych meds in half. And when I tried to get him to listen and fix it instead of explaining any rationale to me or doing anything he actually walked out as I was talking. I wound up screaming at the regular dr in the middle of the night because I needed Seroquel so badly and wanted to leave but had taken some sedative earlier with the promise my other meds were coming soon but they didn't. They admitted to not knowing how to handle me, said I should be in psych (for a medical issue--I needed fluids and my kidneys monitored) and when I filed a complaint the psychiatrist responded by saying I had a worse problem than I did so that I would look confused and irrational. All I wanted was to not be thrown into a huge episode because nobody cared enough to put me on my usual meds and let me have a chance at sleeping. I could have taken the complaint farther but his response made it clear he was going to keep making it sound like I was out there on Mars and he was just being rational and walked out because I wouldn't listen to him. Which wasn't true. So you can definitely get bad people anywhere. (At the same time my personal psychiatrist had taken the time to find the resident who would see me in the ER, explained my history and her suspicions and why, had him keep her updated, watched my chart from home and called me 2-3 times on a Saturday to check on me while I was in the hospital).

For sure if you haven't had a level yet you need one. That much I'm pretty sure about even if you weren't having symptoms. And since your dr didn't educate you anytime you feel like you are having symptoms that are excessive you should have your levels drawn. It has to be 12 hours from the last dose (11-13 hours usually) and otherwise is not a big deal. I had a reaction to risperdal where my blood pressure went up from my usual really low to 200/100. I went to the ER with a throbbing headache and feeling sick and with swelling in my legs. They were all weird about my requesting a level be drawn but it was very hot and I was feeling nauseous and that's enough to justify a level. Anytime you are sick enough to be at an ER they should draw a level to be sure. It won't be really meaningful unless it happens to be 12 hours out but if it comes back high then you know it was probably really high at 12 hours. With my 2nd toxicity it was drawn at maybe 20 hours and my level was I think 2.9 so quite high and if it had been drawn at 12 it would have been really high.

The good thing is that if it is high IV fluids help quickly. I actually only had them once although the 2nd time I'm sure I should have but the only way I was getting to the hospital was via ambulance and I wasn't going to the local hospital for any reason as I had a very bad experience with them and they can't handle that kind of thing anyway but Cleveland is 2.5 hours from here and I couldn't ride that long without being sick in the car. So my logic kind of failed and I refused to let my mom do anything.

I hope it goes ok tomorrow. Let me know how you are doing.

Thanks for your advice dear, and im sorry you had to go through all that..

I finally got an appointment with my psychiatrist on Monday (rescheduled) because it got so bad that last night, I woke up with a throbbing pain in my foot and I woke up screaming and crying because I swear, I thought a rat was in my room chewing off my foot, and I woke up, it was literally hurting like it really had been.. Ive been hallucinating SO much and having psychotic thoughts more often, and ive been extremely thirsty lately, drinking 140 oz of water a day and I usually drink 64, and just feeling extremely delirious... I cant do this anymore and im embarrassing myself in public, because I have strangers asking me if im ok, and I look like a toothpick.

I hope he can help me because im already extremely stressed out. Im telling you, this medicine is making things worse than when I didn't take it.

BeyondtheRainbow · May 02, 2015, 09:11 PM

This does not sound like it is helping you much. You are on a low dose mg wise but levels don't correspond to any particular mgs.

I think you need to be ready to really advocate for yourself. Write everything down so that you don't forget to tell him anything in the course of can be a rushed appointment. Plus all the symptoms you are having are important. If he leaves you on lithium insist on having a level done. Like I said before that should never be a big deal and if it is that's a huge warning light about this dr. If you feel like you can't tolerate the lithium anymore go in prepared to tell him that and that you want to try something else because this is intolerable to you.

Unless you get a dr who is really great advocating for yourself is a huge part of dealing with this illness. It can be really hard sometimes. The first time I was in the hospital the dr there really kind of wanted me to try lamictal one more time. Both my family dr and psychiatrist have recommended against that because I had bad reactions to it twice and the 2nd was the bad rash and the pattern of the rash was a sign that it could be a bigger problem. In fact I was taking the only cold med that I am allowed to take then and they won't let me have that either because I could be severely allergic to it now after having been exposed to such a reaction with lamictal.

Lithium is a good starting point and it can be a really good med. I seriously cried when we decided I had to stop taking it. But it is far from the only med and meds shouldn't make you miserable. There will always be side effects and some may be unpleasant but what you are describing is beyond what you should have to tolerate and it also sounds like it isn't necessarily working very well anyway.

Hopefully your dr will listen and come up with a plan to make your life less miserable. If he doesn't push him to do so. It doesn't have to be like that. You said you'd had some trouble with some papers; you may also be able to get a note that says you were having issues with a medication and that affected your performance and maybe that would get a 2nd chance for you. My mom is a professor and I know she would give a 2nd chance for less reason than that. They don't have to be specific. But you really have been through so much.

I hope you make it through tomorrow and that all goes well Monday. Please let me know how you are doing.

JaiHanaLakshmi · May 02, 2015, 09:15 PM

Thank you. I needed someone to tell me that I needed to advocate for myself.
I used to be in a religious cult, and I lived under a rock, so everything is pretty new even though its been 2 years, a lot of common sense things are extremely hard to grasp. I'll take a break from hw and write them down now or else I truly will forget!

I will definitely let you know. Thanks for being such a dear. <3

BeyondtheRainbow · May 02, 2015, 09:23 PM

I grew up in an abusive family where you never were allowed to have anything wrong. (I just had ankle reconstruction surgery for an ankle I broke at 15 and kept running 5+ miles/day on immediately without knowing it was broken and ultimately damaging it badly).

I had to have help for quite a while with learning when I needed to go to a dr and when I needed to complain. I am so fortunate to have someone in my life who helped like that. I kind of sensed you are the way I was and so I'm glad I didn't offend you; I just know I needed a lot of help to know what to say and when it was time to say it. Eventually I found a psychiatrist and a family dr who were able to help me learn to advocate for myself although as recently as 5 years ago I had to go to talk to my family dr to explain that I would lie about pain after I lied with some testing he did to see if I had a kidney stone and made it seem I didn't when actually I had passed a stone probably earlier that morning without any pain control. Now he questions me more carefully if I should be in pain. Even my dentist has learned I'm not trustworthy with pain after I said a badly infected tooth "sort of hurt" and he found that I would have been needing IV antibiotics in about 24 more hours. It's a hard thing to learn but vital. And you will learn it. It's one of the things bipolar makes sure you do or you will struggle even harder than you would originally.

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What the f*** can i eat???!!

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