Therapist Inquiry into Chronic Kidney Disease

Last week my therapist reached out to me about my experiences with CKD and mental health. Apparently another Client of hers was diagnosed with CKD late in the game. I explained what my nephrologist told me that lithium can be the culprit for CKD but that people can maintain their current CKD levels for extended periods of time if they maintain their blood pressure and other forms of self maintenance.

I share this news to those folks taking lithium or considering taking lithium. I would talk to a nephrologist to understand any anticipated or experienced side effects of taking lithium for a period of several years. Lithium is a go to drug for bipolar but people with bipolar need to be educated on the risks — that lithium contributes to CKD.

Please don’t rely on my word. I am one person who took lithium for about twenty years. Since 2008 I have been on differing psyche meds that do not include lithium. Please talk to your psychiatrist or consider an appointment with a nephrologist going forward.

Best of health to you!

Pondering on Dreams and Anxiety – part two

I have been tracking my dreams for the last six months or so. I do not readily recall all my dreams but the ones I do remember I track in a journal. In my twenties and thirties I tracked my dreams but gave it up 20 or so years ago.

I have found that in many cases my dreams now connect to my waking life. There are images in the dreams that may show up prior to seeing something similar on a streaming channel. Tracking these dreams and where they intersect with my waking life is extremely gratifying. I think it also may reduce anxiety a bit to make those connections between sleep and wakefulness.

However, I also have a recurring dream where I am pregnant and I am unsure of how to raise a child financially. I am sometimes pregnant in the dream and sometimes not. Almost always I have not finished college and am trying to find a job. This repeat dream gives me anxiety rather than diminishing it. At least I can say to myself that the dream is familiar. And I know I can expect it to occur.

My therapist says dreams about pregnancy can mean the presence of new opportunity on the horizon. I hope that is the underlying meaning of my recurring dream.

Does anyone else have comments on dreams and anxiety? Recurring dreams? Tracking dreams and anxiety reduction?

Air Quality Index Impacts to Society?

The air quality index where I live is 152 which signals Unhealthy Air not just for those with heart and lung ailments but for everybody.

I am wondering what it will take to step up and avoid climate impacts going forward into the rest of 2023 and the remainder of the 2020s and beyond.

I am also wondering if the extreme weather has anything to do with the mass shootings that have proliferated in the United States over the past decade plus. Could it be that criminal behavior is associated with climate extremes?

I do not know the answer to this question. But I think it is worth investigating.

Bears become belligerent when their habitat is threatened or reduced. They also wander dangerously close to campsites and cars parked in a campsite. They do not hesitate to pull a car door off its hinges in order to get to food inside the car. This is a relatively new phenomenon in the last 15 to 20 years I am guessing.

What happens when someone with latent tendencies toward hostility becomes “trapped” by heat, fires, floods, mudslides, snow storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and so on. Does the extreme weather contribute to someone “snapping?” Again, I don’t know the answer but I think it is worth investigating.

We do know from prior research that access to green spaces is good for mental health and general health. Conversely could that mean that extreme climate impacts could have the reverse effect on mental health and health in general?

Again, I don’t know but I think it is worth investigating.

Here’s to hoping the air quality index wherever you live is the the green zone or if it is not you have a way to keep cool and indoors until all this blows over (literally).

Lithium and Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease

I have found out from my nephrologist in the past several weeks that lithium usage from 1985 to 2003 is likely the culprit behind my chronic kidney disease or CKD. I was never told that lithium has this dangerous side effect over the years. I also was never informed by my PCP that I should go and see a nephrologist. This nephrologist since April 2023 has taken me off lisinopril and kept me on a reduced level of metoprolol tartrate. Monitoring my blood pressure is key. He has also recommended losing 10 pounds, adopting a fish and chicken and veggie and fruit diet, and keeping up with a daily walk.

Although my PCP never referred me to a nephrologist even when I had/have Stage 3 CKD, I am glad I sought out the nephrologist care myself. Going forward I will get blood work done every four months and I will have a renal ultrasound done once a year as a precaution kind of like a yearly mammogram.

To me these events seem to indicate that the health system in the US is somewhat broken. It is only a matter of degree how broken it is, particularly for some diagnoses including mental health, more so than others. It has only been in the last 15 years or so that the medical establishment has been able to prescribe psyche meds from a variety of options or choices.

This post I hope will alert people to check with their medical specialists about any sort of side effects of your current or prior psyche meds. This is just a precaution so as to manage unwanted impacts to your health. It may boil down to a cost-benefit assessment if lithium for example is the only med that works for the bipolar and the associated kidney damage is minimal.

Here’s to being an advocate for your overall health yourself! I hope your vigilance will keep you from any unwanted side effects of treatment past and present and into the future. Wishing you the best overall health possible….!

Alert: psyche and blood pressure meds and chronic kidney disease

I have found out in the past year that I have chronic kidney disease. My levels have been pretty much constant since 2003. The nephrologist has told me that years of lithium use may explain the CKD that I now have. The good news is that creatinine levels and eGFR levels have not progressed that dramatically since 2003. I have been on clozapine since 2008.

I have also found out yesterday from the nephrologist that low blood pressure can be as damaging to the kidneys as high blood pressure. My PCP never mentioned that and never caught it that my levels were too low when I brought in a journal of my blood pressure levels from the last year plus earlier in March 2023.

This serves as an alert to all my friends taking psyche meds and other meds out there. Please double check with your psyche doctor and your PCP about your psyche med impacts and their side effects and other meds (like high blood pressure meds) and their side effects. I would hope this information would be taken into account when we are prescribed certain meds we need for mental and other health stability. Does not make sense that we would have to take a hit on our physical health just to get the right psyche meds.

The more information we can gather the more we can make an informed choice about our whole health. It appears that whole health requires we look at all meds we are taking and be sure side effects are kept to a minimum.

Please keep informed! Please keep well!

Dreams Going Forward

I recently have reduced my prescription of clozapine from 450mg to 400mg a day under the care of my doctor. My dreams have been much more vivid throughout this process probably due to being less sedated and thereby remembering things. I am keeping a log of my dreams and their potential interpretations. This is something I did in my twenties and thirties but haven’t done since. A lot of the dreams include my being pregnant which according to writings shared with me by my therapist may mean a new chapter in my life is beginning. We will see….

I may or may not share my dream work depending on how intense things get.

Feeling Guilty, Feeling Inadequate

My elderly Mom (a Senior) has recently been in the hospital for several days. She has had a close friend/comrade staying with her during the night in the ER and then each night she was in a hospital room.

If this were to happen again and this comrade were not available, I would have a hard time sleeping in the ER and sleeping in the chair by the bedside once my Mom moved into a room.

For my own health, I need to be in bed by 10:00pm and up around 9:00/10:00am. If my Mom were to be readmitted to the hospital, I would need to put my own health first which means taking meds at regular hours and getting a very full night’s sleep.

I feel guilty and inadequate about not being able to care for her as I would prefer. But like the saying goes on the airplane safety drill, put your oxygen on yourself first and then others.

I know the right thing is to accept what I can do for my Mom and maintain my health. It is just that my wishes are that I could be with her round-the-clock if needed.

Taking Care of a Senior when You Have a Mental Health Diagnosis

My Mom has been in the hospital for the last five days. She has a good friend who has done the heavy lifting of staying overnight with her in the ER and in her room once assigned. She is home now.

I have been going to the hospital several hours a day with my husband to visit her. Anywhere from 4 to 7 hours or more. I have been able to sleep at home and largely keep my health maintenance routine in tact.

I am wondering how those with a mental health diagnosis manage when their elderly mother or father is ill. It would have been extremely difficult for me to spend the night in the hospital one night much less five. I am very grateful to my Mom’s friend that he stepped up to be her care provider at this juncture.

Does anybody else have stories of having to manage through your own illness while taking care of someone else like an aging parent or a sibling?

The Dog Trainer We Go to

The dog trainer we go to has unlimited class options once you pay the base fee. Today we have gone on a Field Trip walk around an area park. We got a lot of free advice for how to do things better. We will try going on these Field Trips on a regular basis as well as attend an Introductory Agility Training class.

Our pup is very smart because she’s part poodle and she means to please because she’s part lab. Together it makes for a lively combination and she always keeps us on our toes…!