Day 66 "I'm Angry Today"

So I went to the doctor this week and was very happy because I thought my life was moving in a positive direction.  My blood pressure has been a little elevated and the doctor decided to put me on blood pressure medicine to keep it down.  I told the doctor as well as gave him a list of all medications I takefor bipolar disorder and figured he would understand what that means. 

Well he decided that in addition to my daily dose of 900mg Lithium I should also take 10mg Lisonopril (Nestril) because I have elevated blood pressure.  It’s been two days since I started this ritual but every morning when I take the blood pressure medication I get really tired and feel as if I need a nap.  I can be wide awake and all of a sudden I just need to lay down.  Well I did a little bit of research on this matter and it turns out that Lisonopril can seriously cause Lithium levels to rise to toxic levels.

According to to WebMD a serious interaction may occur and cause harmful effects.  Your blood pressure medicine makes your kidneys remove extra sodium from your blood.  This decreases the amount of lithium your kidneys remove.  As a result, your blood levels of Lithium may increase and cause toxic effects.

If you experience drowsiness, tiredness, increased thirst, increased urination, weight gain, tremors, changes in your heart rate, or confusion, contact your doctor.  It may be necessary to monitor the Lithium levels in your blood more often.  Your doctor may need to adjust the dose of your medicine or change you to a different medicine for high blood pressure.  Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of any medicine before checking with your doctor first.

I feel very let down and am obviously upset.  I don’t want to end up in the hospital with Lithium toxicity and just want to be ok.  I understand that it’s a lot of work for all these doctors and nurses to be able to keep up with everything but I do feel that doctors should have a basic understanding of how psych drugs work.  I feel there’s no excuse that I should have to chase my doctor down tomorrow and Friday to try to get something other than Lisonopril or get my dosage of Lithium reduced.  I guess it's a god thing I take a drug for anxiety because I have anxiety!!

My next question is what happens if they want to reduce my Lithium?  That’s the drug I use to control my mania and if I do that am I setting myself up for manic episode.  I just don’t know what to do and wish I had someone who could just make the right decision for me.  Oh well, I don’t think that’s going to happen.  I guess we’ll just have to see how this one plays out.  I JUST NEED TO GET MY DIET UNDER CONTROL SO I DON’T NEED BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICATION.

Other than really being down this evening because of this medication thing, my mood has been pretty good all day.  It was best this afternoon because this morning I really just wanted to sleep and not be bothered.  I’m going to try and keep positive  about this because negativity is only going to make it worse.