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

I am going insane, my god...
Ok so I literally cannot eat anything but apples, cereal (sometimes), bananas(sometimes), fruit and veggie juices, and everything else seems gross to me.

Im losing weight like crazy, (going back to being highly underweight), I feel weak all the time,dizzy, nauseated, bowels are constantly upset, getting tired easily, people at school and work are constantly asking me if im ok, or I slept (which im not getting either) and im going insane..

I may just switch the medication im on, ive only been on it for 3 weeks now, and this didnt happen in the first 2 weeks at all. Im on provigil for my narcolepsy and lithium for the bp. I take them both at 9am and 9pm.

I am in school all day 2 x a week, 10 minute breaks, and I don't have the energy to walk around, up steps, talk to people, or even care. I don't have the finances to keep spending on gas station food every week, and most of the food is loaded with sugar and salt anyway (on paleo diet because of intolerance to gluten)

I have finals coming up in 2 weeks, and i'm supposed to be graduating after that, which means I cant stay home anymore to rest, but what do I do?

Has anyone with bp that took lithium ever had to deal with this?
Does anyone have any foods that helped?

I LOVE to eat, and im sick and tired of this *****. It is really aggrivating because I cant eat my kale salads, my quinoa mixes, my smoothies in the morning or anything.

Anyone. Please help. My body is eating itself because im not getting enough nutrients. I cant keep this up any longer, im already a thin person.

ive worked so hard to maintain a healthy weight, and I dont want to go back to that again.

I had a lot of GI issues with lithium. It made me really sick. I ended up taking lithium citrate (the liquid). I don't take lithium anymore because I still had issues.

Hope things shape up for you! Im sorry youre going through this. :/

I seem to be having a lot of GI issues as well! And I know it;s not because of my appetite because I eat very clean and exercised a lot, and never really had any GI problems..

How long until you figured it was time to stop the lithium?

Thank you.

I would really like to enjoy food again..

I stopped lithium because it was affecting my thyroid and I had no benefits for my bp. I took it for many months before stopping. Got up to 1200mg. Yuck! But I know lithium does help many people. Have you talked to your pdoc about this?

If your losing weight in an alarming way as your saying , You need to stop the Lithium today ! Call your Pdoc on Monday for advice.

There are other medications you can try.

Maybe you could eat protein bars/drinks a couple times a day. I like the flavor of some the Adkins bars.

I couldn't eat on it either. I was only on it for a week. Ended up on Zyprexa. Then Risperdone.
I am very sensitive to side effects. I am slowly titrating up on lexapro. It has made me very nauseous.

Energy bars and cottage cheese, yogurt?

I did better when I took it all at night. I was on regular release, lithobid and eskalith over time and took the full doses of all of those at night. It helped a lot with side effects.

Make sure you are eating enough salt. I used to get really sick if I didn't have enough salt and then nothing would sound good until I realized I needed something salty which often settled things down. I learned if I had diarrhea I needed salt. Since I didn't eat much salt or ever add it to anything prior to lithium that was a big adjustment for me.

I had that problem with Lithium, especially when I had Toxicity.

Nah, I haven't been able to because of school and work, finals next week, but I probably should...

Ok I think I will do that.

Ive started to keep seeds in my car so when im driving somewhere, I will at least have something in my system

Well im gluten intolerant so no oats or grains, or else im adding fuel to the fire... :S

I am an extremely sensitive person to everything as well, and im wondering what exactly the right med would be..

In any case, any dairy in the morning and usually afternoon is a no-go. I had some greek yogurt this morning, and I had to force it down without gagging it up and this whole forcing food down is getting old..

The only things I can eat are apples, bananas, and orange juice.
When youre a highly active, stressed, and 2500 calories a day consuming person, that can only go so far..

Yeah, Ive started to take it at night as well. They're the 300 mg and I take one before bed and one in the morning.

Really? Ive been told that eating too much salt will make the medication not work because your kidneys will just flush it all out because it doesnt segregate the different *salts*, and if for some reason your blood level is already high, that could bring it higher

I have a HUGE salt tooth, so I will be happy to know that I need to eat more salt

I have been getting diarrhea every single day of this damn medication.. I'll have to eat more salt I guess

Thanks for the insight

So do you think it could be that im not getting enough salt?

What causes high toxicity?

It's worth a try. I was told to make sure I was eating a consistent amount of salt and after my first toxicity salt would definitely help. I had something called diabetes insipidus on lithium where my kidneys didn't hold on to electrolytes at all and flushed everything out to the point that when it was diagnosed I was actually peeing every 45 minutes without noticing until told to pay attention. My urine output was nearly double normal. So it is possible that was why salt helped me but the DI wasn't diagnosed for probably 2 years after my first toxicity and I am pretty sure salt (and ice water) helped even earlier than that.

I was able to take the entire dose at night. My doctor actually really encouraged this but obviously I wouldn't shift your dose without asking your own dr about that one. Extra salt isn't going to hurt you unless you start eating it by the jar or something but changing med times is a little different.

Hope you are able to find something that helps you feel better. If you don't soon you probably should get a level drawn just in case; nausea and GI issues are signs of toxicity and it can sneak up on you.

When you took the entire dose at night, was it the 300 mg "take one twice a day" thing?

I know when I was trying to change to take them at more convenient times, my body was definitely pissed off at me haha

Toxicity can be caused by lots of things. Stomach flu, any time you are dehyrdrated, being too hot and sweating a lot, exercise without water, seemingly random physiological changes (at least that's what 2 of mine seemed like), not getting enough salt to help keep your fluids in, taking meds that interact with lithium (which includes ibuproferon and naproxen--no NSAIDs on lithium).

My first toxicity started with stomach flu and went on for months because I had an ulcer and so vomiting made sense (I was under a ton of stress) and my levels would come back ok because I was vomiting so frequently. Finally I stayed off work to keep the meds down and came back toxic. The next time I had no cause; I started hallucinating and my psychiatrist sent me to the er pretty sure it was neuro. It wasn't until they had a med student in learning about toxicity that I realized I'd had diarrhea, increased tremors, difficulty walking, speech issues, headaches, all lithium toxicity sx (and also sx of other things) for weeks. The 3rd time I had no warning but just was violently, horribly ill and didn't go to the hospital because I was stubborn about it.

I would look it up and not just rely on my memory. Those are the big ones as I recall but there are sure to be other causes I'm forgetting. After all I had toxicity 3 times, I clearly wasn't great at noticing .

I think it was originally written take one twice a day and then the dr said I could take all of it at night. I was having a lot of vomiting from lamictal at the time and I think partly the goal was just to keep my lithium in (the vomiting was in the morning) but also it was easier to handle that way. It was harder to get levels drawn at 11 Am than it was when I had 12 hours after a PM dose but otherwise it worked fine. But the formula you're on probably matters whether this is ok and some drs probably have different concerns than mine did. HOwever if you're allowed to take it all at night you miss out on a lot of side effects although you do have to pee at night more frequently. I got to do that in my sleep almost.

Oh my gosh that is truly terrible.. My dad was in the military, and he really pushed me my whole life, so I usually push myself to death, and honestly don't realize that I need help with something. I don't seem to have limits and I dont know when i need to take myself to the hospital or advocate for myself. Thats something I need help with because this toxicity thing, its no joke.

Im getting a bit scared because I have had increased tremors a lot lately on and off (Was doing a speech in class, and my hands were shaking uncontrollably..) When I go to school sometimes in the morning, ill notice my hands are shaking for no reason, and my surroundings just seem warped and I feel out of touch a lot of the time..When im driving, ive actually had 2 close calls downtown as far as accidents go and I swear, it wasnt because I was being wreckless [like usually] it was from me feeling 'out of it' and i was just thinking it was a sign of stress and school and little sleep..Ive had random migraines and im not sure why [havent had migraines since i started eating clean] and I am having problems relaying words and talking to people about ideas even though in my head I know what I mean. Its gotten so bad that my professor thinks im dyslexic. She pulled me after class today to ask me to get some testing done because I failed both of my papers because they don't make any sense at all to her. The ideas werent linked, and I went from a bridge to a mountain, and there was no link. Im not sure if that was mania or just my comprehension skills..

ANYWAY, from the stuff I described, does it sound similar to your situation?

Im sorry I rambled, I couldn't talk about this to anyone and ive kind of unloaded.

I don't think you rambled.

Try not to completely freak out about this. The hard thing with lithium is that normal and toxic look a lot alike. That's why they test your blood so much at first (and later at least every 6 months if not more often). Hand tremors are normal; I had to take medication to control them. GI issues are normal, especially early on. Cognition can be weird at first. There is such a small difference between normal level and toxic level that side effects look the same.

However, I think you need to get a level done soon, like as in tomorrow soon. You are not on very much at 600 mg so toxicity is not very likely. But anytime you are not feeling right on lithium you need to get checked. Some people are more sensitive and can be bothered with a lower level and some people have a lot of toxicity symptoms at lower levels. Please call your psychiatrist in the morning and explain that you have not been feeling well on lithium and would like to have a level drawn. Make sure you tell them everything you said above,including the difficulty with writing papers. They should respond to that with an "OK" and hopefully questions about how you are feeling and they should tell your dr. all of this. If they argue with you wait until you are close to 12 hours out from your last dose and go to urgent care and request a level. And then find a new psychiatrist because they should always agree to give you a level if you feel you need it (unless they have a good reason to say no of course but my experience was that if I wanted a level I got one). And because they should have explained this to you already.

Here's a non-scary article on lithium and toxicity (a lot of them are unnecessarily scary):
Lithium Toxicity

Lithium is definitely something you have to learn to handle and observe and not push through. My 6 months of my first toxicity was excusable medically like I said but I also was insisting that I was fine and just stressed and not focusing on getting the labs with a full 4 days of lithium in me. I threw up so much during that time I had to have my entire front tooth surface replaced by huge fillings because I damaged my teeth vomiting. I was living on Coke, water, crackers and Dumdum pops for dry mouth. It was really not good and I was trying to do way too much (my therapist moved with almost no warning so I had to change rapidly and then my assistant was fired 2 weeks later. They had been trying to hire a 2nd assistant for me and so I wound up essentially doing 3 jobs. I kept telling them I could only do it so long and that I couldn't keep working 60 hours per week much longer and they ignored me until I wound up disability for 4 months. I'd been more or less off meds for 2 months by then because of all the vomiting. My therapist actually noticed it. He happened to walk behind me to his office and saw I was dragging one leg slightly and then I was slurring my speech quite a bit so he called my psychiatrist and she had me do anything I had to in order to keep things down until a level was drawn and then called me with "I know why you've been so sick!!!".

The more severe things I've never noticed on my own; I've noticed after the fact or felt there was no warning at all. I tend to think that is typical and that the things you are aware of are probably adjustment that is really hard on you, harder than it should be, but you can't know without a level. How long have you been on it and how long since you had a level drawn?

Another good resource, probably better if I'd been a little more patient with the search engine:

http://www.swagbucks.com/?cmd=gn-jun...=3rdb6055v9x1q

Ive been taking it for almost a month now..?

Im pretty sure, but my gosh.. that is horrible..

They havent done a level yet, but ill ask.

You know, Johns Hopkins is one of the top in the country, but there are definitely some duds, and I feel like I got stuck with a lazy one...

My therapist is great, but my psychiatrist, he doesn't seem to care that much, and when I asked him about the prescription, he was like, "Oh, yeah, good point."

WHO SAYS THAT???

SO I dont see my psych. until the end of July.... But ill definitely call in the morning.

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.

you need to call your pdoc ASAP