XPost: sci.med.psychobiology, sci.med.pharmacy, alt.support.kidney-disease   
   From: dalton@nfld.com   
      
   I met with my new psychiatrist Dr. Gordon Noseworthy   
   this afternoon.   
      
   My EKG was normal, my uric acid is slightly above normal, and   
   my hemoglobin is slightly below normal.   My kidney tests   
   were about where they have been for the last few months:   
   creatinine 167  eGFR 38  compared to last time's   
   creatinine 172 eGFR 37, so the abstaining from alcohol   
   for a few weeks had little or no effect (but I plan   
   to stick to my limit of two pints twice a week).   
      
   Last time he said he was leaning towards Abilify so I was   
   prepared to argue for Epival.   But he said he had   
   talked with his pharmacologist and that person had   
   recommended Epival, with a backup of asenapine (another   
   atypical antipsychotic), not Abilify.   
      
   So he is switching me from lithium to Epival but   
   leaving me on olanzapine.   However he is leaving   
   me on lithium until I reach a desired blood level   
   of valproic acid.  He put me on a relatively small   
   dose of 500 mg Epival/day to start, and after at   
   least ten days on that I will get blood tests, and   
   then Iwill see him again on March 13, when depending   
   on the valproic acid blood test he may tell me   
   to start gradually coming off the lithium, or   
   he may have to increase the Epival a bit first.   
      
   --   
   David Dalton  dalton@nfld.com   http://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)   
   http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/nf.html Newfoundland&Labrador Travel & Music   
   http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)   
      "Here I go again...back into the flame" (Sarah McLachlan)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)