[czarina1984]

I find myself yet again trying to make major health desisions with the internet and my doctor is on vacation for a week... We upped my lithium from 1350 to 1800 mg two weeks ago. Last week my level was 1.2 which in the past has been ok for me. But I started having headaches and difficulty breathing that got worse as the week went on. Muscle jerks, shaking, weak, confused, slurring speech at one point. I called my dr office Mon to at least get the on-call doctor who took 7 hours to call back. I was advised that since it wasn't psych to call my pcp. His waiting time for an appt is about 3 weeks. That leaves the ER in a town that is flooded with people from a drunken festival that adds 6x our population to the city. Meanwhile I'm reading stories of kidney damage, heart damage, coma, etc. I know those are worse case scenarios but still... I'm alone in my house if anything happens. A friend is calling me every morning to make sure I answer. I am trying to make it until Monday but I am getting really cranky with being able to barely get to the restroom or hold up a cell phone.

[czarina1984]

Right so I dropped my own dosage back to what it was before (1350 mg) but after 3 days it is only slightly better. Like I can breathe normally now.

[Blue_Bird]

I was on 1800mg and got toxicity. I had severe tremors, difficulty walking, confusion, vomiting, incontinence, and ended up in the ICU having seizures and being put on dialysis in the ICU for a week because my kidneys were shutting down. My levels went up to 4.6. It's not something to mess with

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Yeah, don't mess with possible toxicity. I've been in the hospital pretty sick (although not ^ sick) too and it's not good at all. For me one toxicity seemed to make me prone to them and I had lots of minor ones and after the 3rd horrible one I had to stop lithium even though it was really effective for me. Once your levels get up to 1.1-1.2 there's just no wiggle room and toxicity is so easy. I even managed to get toxic twice when my levels had been maintained at .4 or .6 until suddenly they were very high.

I can't believe the on-call pdoc didn't help. My family dr has been involved with one toxicity but my pdoc told him what she preferred he do and the other 2 times she handled it herself.

[~Christina]

Stop is completely now ! increase you fluids to help flush your kidney.. Personally I would go to the ER now and be checked out.. You really dont want to play games with lithium toxicity! You only get one pair of kidneys.

This is not anything to play the wait and see game.

[DelusionsDaily]

Lithium toxicity is nothing to mess with since both docs will take too long head for the ER. You may have to wait a while but better healthy and safe than sick and sorry. When i had the symptoms they seemed minor but i was nearly 4x's the highest level and it could have done serious damage had it not been caught cuz i went ip.

[~Christina]

Also ER's know that possible lithium Toxicity is something that need attention NOW ! So I bet you wont have to wait for all the drunks to be seen.