Painful, but fortuitous

[moominmuppet]

So, apparently Mom's in the hospital with dangerously high lithium levels. They found this out because she took a bad spill the other day (she may have a broken nose, as well as generally being rather beaten up and battered all over), and when she went to the doctor to get checked out, they tested her blood levels to see if that was the cause of the instability at the root of the problem. Good thing, too. Dad says if they'd been any higher, they'd be talking dialysis. Just talked to her, and she's frustrated, but doing ok.

Patient-instructing tonight was good; I always enjoy when we get the residents through, since it means working more on the medical history side of things, as well as running through the actual exam. Both residents were really engaged and interested, and it was a good, if long, session as a result.

Just waiting for Casey to get here now, and still trying to hide from the heat as well as possible.

Comments

[wldrose.livejournal.com]

how did your mums levels go out of ballence

ash

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Lithium's a rough med; it's the oldest of the bipolar meds, and still useful in really tough cases like hers, but it's got a nasty side-effect profile

If I recall my psychopharmacology right from almost 20 years ago, because lithium as an element is closely related to sodium, it easily replaces sodium in the body, and fluctuations to one's sodium level (due to dehydration or diet changes or fuck all) can lead to the same amount of medication suddenly being an overdose as the body sucks up the lithium in replacement of lost sodium. She's normally checked and followed pretty closely in terms of blood work, but I don't know how this happened exactly. Her health is very precarious and she's dealing with a lot of different conditions simultaneously, so med management is practically a full-time job (which Dad handles admirably, thankfully).

[wldrose.livejournal.com]

oh i wasnt asking that sorry I meant if it was natural. Some places have high levals in the water.

and your lucky your dad is doing such a good job.

ash

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Oh, no worries. She's very open about her psych stuff, and it's where I learned my approach to mine. And I can't begin to express how lucky we all are to have my Dad. He's one of the most obsessively functional people I've ever met, and has handled everything for years, including making sure that all of us kids know exactly what's going on each year with plans for support for her if anything were to happen to him. Given what she's been through, and her level of functionality during her worse bouts, I can't imagine her _not_ falling through the cracks of the system if she were having to navigate it solo. It's scary to think about, and I see echoes of her in friends on the street who did fall through the cracks.

[wldrose.livejournal.com]

the litteral "there but for the grace of god go I"

ash

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*nod* It influences my politics a great deal, unsurprisingly.

[wldrose.livejournal.com]

like my dad being homeless even when i wasnt talking to him I knew what was going on and it influanced my decisions.

ash

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*nod* Yes, very much so.

[jajy1979.livejournal.com]

Not that mom regulates her diet very well.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Not as well as she could, but I understand the inherent tension in having to think of oneself as a patient all the time. Sometimes not feeling that way is more sanity-saving than the health benefits of following every rule every time. I worry, but it's not something I really feel I can jump on her about except when it gets especially dangerous.

[jajy1979.livejournal.com]

It's beyond that issue. It's the willful "I know this is going to hurt me but I'm doing it anyway" thing she constantly does. It'd be like if Dad and I decided to bolt down strawberries, won't kill us, but it would mess us up enough to screw the rest of our systems. Mom knows that certain foods are just prone to this and her logic has been "well I can eat this now, if I don't eat it later." which is just bad.

She doesn't need to be hyper restrictive, but some moderation is necessary and that she frequently doesn't do. It frustrates both dad and myself who are much more personally controlled about the foods that do us in.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine living the the dietary restrictions she has, so I can't comment too much on it. Do you know if she's still on the MAOI? That's the nastiest by far in terms of food interactions.

[jajy1979.livejournal.com]

I've completely lost track of most of her medications. They seem to change on a monthly basis in scope and quantity. The majority of the stuff I get on her case about are diabetic things where she eats a lot of pasta which does her in quite quickly.

Most people can't imagine living with my dietary restrictions either. Nor could I imagine my friends who can't have gluten. Everyone has to deal with the deck their dealt, and once you're used to it, it's not so bad. It's the getting used to it part that sucks. I still miss eggs now and again, and I hate trying to go to potlucks, company luncheons, or other such events because it invariably means I have to explain it, again, and everyone feels bad for not being able to feed me. Then I feel bad for not being able to eat something.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*nod* Everyone deals with it differently. I may worry about her well-being, but it's a relatively substantial jump for me from that to judging it.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Yeek. Hope she feels better soon.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Thanks; it looks like she'll probably only be in for a few days, but I'm just glad they caught it.

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

Ack- had she not had her levels checked in a while or was her dr just not paying attention to the test results? I don't know much about lithium levels, but I was on clozaril for a year when I was 18, and while they tested me weekly, no one paid attention to the actual test results. During that year, I developed asthma, got the flu 3 times, and finally ended up in the hospital with pneumonia for two weeks. At that point, my PCP [who wasn't in charge of the monitoring] became royally pissed off because my white blood cell count levels were incredibly low and neither the lab or my psychiatrist had bothered to inform anyone. Grrr!

Anyway, I hope your mom feels better soon. She'll be in my thoughts.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Thanks; I'm not certain on what caused this, but I posted an answer to a previous comment that goes more into why lithium is so easy to overdose on, if my science-fu is still strong.

Dad essentially advocates for her with the medical system, so things don't normally go unnoticed for long.

[findingthegirl.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I hope I wasn't being too nosey. I'm glad your mom has a good advocate on her side. It's also good to know that about lithium, because that's one of the meds my dr is considering starting me on.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Nope, no worries.

Yeah, lithium's such a weird one. Remarkably effective, but tricky to manage.