Posted by cache-monkey on March 26, 2005, at 13:07:54
In reply to Re: Lithium, Diabetes Insipidus, new meds :( » cache-monkey, posted by barbaracat on March 25, 2005, at 14:27:20
I think I've had some urinary problems before. Mostly due to excessive caffeine and alcohol. (I mostly abstain from both now.) But I've never had it like on the higher dose of Li. Maybe I have weak kidneys or something. Although my blood creatinine and urea nitrogen were fine.
It looks like, at least after d/c-ing the Lithium for a few days I've returned to normal. Which I realize still involves drinking and urinating more than normal.
I've not tried Trileptal. I want to try the Depakote first, since it's the other "first-line" beside Lithium. (I tried Lamictal and that was a bust for me.) Hopefully after the Lithium my pdoc is willing to not push the dose too high and let my body and mind tell us whether it's working.
As far as the weight, I'm hoping to get low-dose selegiline added, which should mitigate the appetite effect. (Plus help me get off the darned ciggies.) I've also heard that adding Acetyl l-Cartnine might help in that department. Actually that might have come from you in a different thread. Do you happen to know more about that?
For the hair. Well, I guess I'll try getting Centrum Silver or maybe some selenium. (I already take zinc.) And cross my fingers; I've heard this doesn't happen to everyone.
I have my script for the Depakote, but first I'm cross-tapering from Klonopin to Valium. Xanax XR was kind of a bust. I think my body digested the layering too fast: I got super sedated for like 6 hours and then whatever anxiety prevention I was obtaining fell off after 6 hours. So, I'm going the Valium route. Anyway, since I like to do one variable at a time, I'll start the Depakote in a couple weeks after the cross-taper.
Thanks for all of your input. I'm definitely going to look into that Himalayan salt anyway, given my propensity to dehydrate.
All the best,
cache-monkey> Oh wow, what a bad time. Have you had urinary problems before or this a new thing w/lithium? Makes me glad I stick to me guns and not let them increase it, but it still concerns me. Think I'll check out some acupuncture to work on my kidneys.
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> The microdose Cymbalta is still working beautifully. Some people get good results with Trileptal - don't remember if you've tried this or not. All I can say about Depakote is that it does sedate and does thin out the hair. The sedation you'll probably be able to deal with by tweaking with other meds, but the hair thing... ummm, I don't know. Makes me wonder WHY it makes hair fall out.
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> By all means, do a search to see what if there are any urinary concerns with DP.
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poster:cache-monkey
thread:470912
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050326/msgs/475842.html