I’ve had a distressing day. I rang the doctors to talk about my new prescription for the higher dose that should start next week. She was very thorough and quickly realised that the topimarate dose prescribed by the neurologist was 25mg at night for 2 weeks then 50mg at night repeating. The prescription supplied to the pharmacy (which I was given a copy of) was for 25mg twice daily for 2 weeks then 50mg twice daily repeating. It’s no wonder I’ve been feeling so ill, with all my other meds. The doctor was cross and is going to flag it up as a potentially dangerous mistake. Anyway, we agreed it doesn’t make sense to go back a step but I’ll be taking 50mg at night, which may mean no dizzy spells in the day. I also asked her about the slight possibility that topimarate affects lithium levels so she agreed I need a lithium blood test. As I’m on multiple meds she also said they’ve recently taken on board an in-house pharmacist and she’s going to task her to look at all my meds and make sure they’re agreeing with each other.
An hour later she called back. She’s decided to have a good look back at my history and bloods. Where she discovered 2 things. 1. I’d been over medicated with my thyroid medicated since 2018. And 2. My last lithium blood test in March had shown my lithium level was right on the absolute top level of normal. Both she was very worried about. So, I’ve got to drop the thyroxine and have a blood test in 6 weeks and I’ve got to have a lithium test now (I’ve booked in this Tuesday) and we decide next steps from there.
I’m angry, and upset. All of this has and could have had a huge impact on my health. The lithium could have made me seriously ill and how could they have missed the thyroxine for 2 years?
