I would say continue unless his doctor has gone immediately to a high dose. What does is he on now, will he be getting his blood checked?

I had those problems - they are also symptoms of lithium overdose (but you also get vomiting etc) - but you do feel rough everytime you increase the dosage. Is he drinking lots of water? That helps with the nausea

@acuriousfish I am concerned because both his mother and aunt and grandfather had kidney failure issues in fact it killed his aunt and disabled his mother. He is on 450mg I think it is.. he is due to have his blood checked tomorrow though.

Last night I advised he take the meds till we talk to a doctor as I don't want him having some problems because of skipping doses.. but this toxicity worries me.

Id rather him be on a medication with less danger.. but its so hard I know he needs something but these med side effects scare me for him.. My moms best friends husband who was generally easy going shot and killed himself and he was bipolar so I am worried off or on medicines. Ugh..

i was feeling like that when i started lithium not anymore i would tell him to continue and eventually that will go away... it took about a month or so for me.. good luck!!!

ok, the way it works is that doctors test the blood for the amount of lithium - they start low and work up because everyone is different - they are looking for a level around 0.7 ..but less than 1.1 (different people have different ideas about that and I'm going from memory).

Hopefully they did a check of his kidneys BEFORE giving him lithium - they hopefully will now - for some reason I've not figured some US doctors seem a bit lax on that..my memory was something like a week after going on a higher dose I would do a blood test, I'd then be told a couple of days later, go up another 100mg.

Having said everyone is different - dosage is generally 600-1200mg.

oh..and btw..skipping a dose would mess it up - that way you would be put on too high a dose because the blood will show a lower concentration

ahh and i wanted to tell you that your a good wife and a sweetheart!!!xoxo

Thanks again all.. he is on 450mg twice a day so a total of 900mg they started him on.

yup thats how much i started too!!!

UPDATE: Ok, it ended up he was having so many weird things happening they took him off the lithium (begrudgingly, it took a second doctor to convince the pdoc) and just like that hes physically better. Now of course the bipolar is still there and he has to concentrate harder on calming his mood swings but the scary arm tingling and confusion and nausea etc is gone for him. His lithium levels were normal at the time too.