Lithium and all the checks

[wurtle]

I am on lithium among others but I need three monthly blood checks, yearly ecg and health check. It's just too much. I get messages from go to have these checks otherwise they won't prescribe lithium. I would drop lithium but it's the best med I have been on. I lived two other countries when on lithium and I hardly ever had blood tests.

Its great that the NHS is looking after you so well to ensure you don’t suffer lithium poising though. That would be awful.

lithium toxicity can lead to coma, brain damage, or even death. Moreover, lithium can induce serotonin syndrome, a potentially fatal and life-threatening condition

I was on lithium for about twenty years and was good at evading the blood tests, sometimes for up to a year at a time. However I was very lucky that the routine checks picked up lithium induced Graves’ Disease otherwise I might have gone on ignoring the symptoms until something bad happened, like a stroke.

Lithium is more likely to cause an underactive thyroid which you might mistake for an episode of depression but it’s more easily treated.

Also there’s only so much lithium your kidneys will be up to dealing with over time, they won’t hold up so well forever and it’s best to keep an eye on that.

I guess so but in USA and in Switzerland they weren't that interested. I was pretty surprised that NHS wanted me to have all these tests. And not forgetting because of the thereatening messages. I don't really care if my kidneys pack up.