Guiseppi should spot this post soon. It is the preventive that works well for him.

It's been my prevent of choice forever. I started at 900 mg. a day while on cycle, would block up to 90% of my attacks. About 5 years ago I had to kick it up to 1200 mg a day as it started losing its effectiveness. At 1200 mg a day it still blocks 60-70% of my attacks. At 1200 mg a day, if I didn't tell you I was on it, you'd never know. It causes a little lethargy, nothing like the Hollywood movies portray with the mouth breathing zombies! I can generally overcome the lethargy with a cup or two of coffee.

The first time you go on it, you have to go for blood draws every 3-5 days, while you slowly up the level of lithium to determine what your therapeudic dose is. It's not based on body size so much as in how your body porcesses the lithium.

You pee a LOT the first 10 days or so, it's a salt and your body initially tries to dump it as fast as you take it in. You get a little fine muscle tremors, nothing that ever bothered me much.

Which is why it remains my prevent of choice, minimal side effects, and pretty effective at keeping beasty at bay.

Joe

Are you taking the entire daily dose of prednisone first thing in the morning? It's always been my understanding that it should be taken right when you wake up, to most closely mimic the body's own adrenalin production. Also, it will be at its lowest level possible at bed time.

I pulled off a 30 year career in law enforcement, using lithium as my primary prevent. At the levels I used it  for CH, it really didn't affect mydecision making and alertness levels.

Joe

I've been taking Lithium now for about 3 years. Started out at the 900mg rate and have now bumped up as high as 1800; this after years of trying all other prevents such as verapamil, depakote and topamax. The lithium in conjunction with 50 mg topamax and the ever popular Batch's vitamin regimenhave worked better than any others that I have tried over the past 30 or so years. Not as many side effects for me from the lithium but the topamax has given me fits; everything from kidney stones to irritability and dopiness(is that a word ). I get the occasional tremors/shakes but nothing too bad. Best of all, it seems to have shortened my cycles by 3or4 weeks over the last couple of years. Much luv and PF wishes.

Pfunk

The only side effect I remember vividly was I had to wake up to pee at night (like 5-6 times a night!)

Oh yeah...the first few weeks it's brutal. It's a salt and your body tries to dump it as fast as you ingest it! It levels out after a few weeks.

Joe