My neuro wants me to try Lithium as the other meds we have tried have not worked very well.  I would appreciate hearing about anyone's experience.

Thanks,
Bill

  It helped alot in the past it is worth a try and I didn't notice any side affects untill I went over 900mg.
   Good luck,  Phil

Bill:

Like the others here, I recommend you try it!  It's cheap, and often effective alone, or in combination with other prevents.

I had to discontinue using it due to side effects.  A few cautions that I remember are:

Keep your fluid intake up
Keep your intake of table salt relatively stable
Get frequent blood lithium levels taken until you have a stable level in the theraputic range.

The side effects that I had were an odd metalic taste in my mouth and slurred speech, almost like my tongue was too big for my mouth.

Wishing you well,

Ray

Edit: to fix a typo

Thanks for all the input!  Good to hear I won't run into any mental problems like slurred speech and getting distracted

I must say there is a bit of a stigma associated with taking these types of drugs, but I can get over that pretty quick.

He has me starting at 300mg and going up 300mg the next week and possible up 300mg if needed the following week.  He took baseline blood tests today and wants to follow up with another blood test after I have established my dosage and will revisit him then.

I have been detoxing and will try seeds again and then start the Lithium in 2 weeks unless the seeds do their work.

so far i love my lithium...been chronic for 10 yrs and it has all but cut out my day time hits....im taking 1200mg a day and honestly if there are side effects then maybe i just done notice them,
maybe im to caught up in the fact im not constantly poking imitrex needles in my leg ..hopefully it will keep working unlike all the other prevents in the past....
wife says im not as crazy as i used to be either

-jason-

billyjoe wrote on Nov 20^th, 2008 at 10:05pm:


I drink a pot and a half a day. But I always stop at noon.

Guiseppi wrote on Nov 20^th, 2008 at 11:43pm:


Guiseppi may be right if he is alluding to keeping the lithium use from your coworkers because even if you explain it to them, they may still think you are bi-polar. So take that for what it's worth.

Roland

Aint it the truth, the most frustrating aspect of our "condition"!!!

Guiseppi

billyjoe wrote on Nov 20^th, 2008 at 4:14pm:


To Lithium (Quilonorm retard) treatment, it did help me, marginally, but I did get some what a positive effect at a doss of 900mg/day
But with the Lithium, I encountered some adverse effects: hands tremor, some loss of memory, very short tempered, somewhat lethargic.

An observation: the effect of O2 as an abortive seems to diminish with the use of Lithium (for me!),
I had to reduce radically the use of Lithium due to the adverse effects that interfered in my daily routine at work, and some what at home. So looking at the gained effect vs. adverse effects made my treating Dr’s reduce the use to below 400 and the stopped totally as it was below the effective “window” for Lithium to be effective for CCH
This is my personal experience with Lithium, this should not make any one forgo looking into the use of Lithium, I would just stress the need for close medical observation when useing Lithium.

Michael

Good question! I have several relatives who suffer from bi polar disorders. I haven't suffered from them yet, and thus far lithium hasn't seemed to cause me any problems in that area.

I've often wondered if my relatives and I have the same chemical imbalance, that just manifests itself differently, them with bi polar issues, me with CH. Nothing I've studied, researched etc, just curious.

Joe

wildhaus wrote on Nov 24^th, 2008 at 1:07pm:


Ditto…on what Michael said.

I have tried two times to quit lithium and my K10’s are back in two days so I cannot give a long-term answer to the question. I do feel a lot happier for the first day but had to continue use.

I highly doubt that any psychological impact will occur unless there was an underlying condition from the start that was aggravated.

PFW’s,

Roland.

I had a terrible time with Lithium. It cranked my hits up to near constant- 45 minutes of hit, 45 minutes off, nonstop, no sleep until I got so tired I forgot a dose and then would get better. A relative noted I only felt better when I forgot it. I attributed it to being the hottest week of the year, and stayed on it.

Eventually my pharmacist said that he didn't know me that well but that even he could see that it was having a terrible effect on me. I was exhausted, tearful, and constantly throwing up. The only thing I could keep down was licorice and gingersnaps. Family kept asking me if I was pregnant because I had never been so emotional before, not to mention the chronic sickness. I cried when he told me I should stop taking it because I felt it was my last best hope to either get better or possibly go back to being episodic. That was probably the worst depression I had since being diagnosed.

If it works for you, go for it.  But keep a pain journal in case it makes you so out of whack you can't be objective about it the way it did to me. Don't get a refill if it doesn't have a positive effect within the first few weeks.