Lamictal?

Well, I DID email my psychiatrist about the stubborn rash on Lamictal; she told me since it seems like it's doing nothing for me, that it should be doing something at 200 and even 150mg, that we should lower the dose 50mg every two days until I'm off of it.

I responded to her by saying that the medication IS helping the mania, and that maybe we could try going down to 175mg since I still have some of the early 25mg pills as well as the current 100mg pills, and see if a week of that helped the rash go away.

She never replied to that email, so I went ahead and did that anyway. After a week, the rash was still there, so this last Tuesday I reduced it to 150mg, to see if a week of that will make it go away. I was beginning to doubt it would but now, late Friday night, it finally feels almost no sandpapery at all, I can still feel it a little but I think it's going away . . . hopefully by Tuesday I'll know for sure.

That's when my next appointment with her is, anyway.

I feel a little bit like I'm on my own, here, but since we'd already established that this rash is the benign one, it's not like I'm in any danger. I don't go out much so when it WAS on my neck and maybe face, it's not like I was out around people. It was mostly on the upper chest though.

I hope she's not mad at me for doing what I've done; I also hope the medication is effective ENOUGH at 150mg that it's worth staying on. Aside from the rash, I've seemingly had no other side effects, which is rare for me and these medications. It seems like I can never get up to the "full" dose of any of these meds without problems, but being partially effective is enough for me to fight the most troublesome aspects of mania, if it's effective ENOUGH. THAT is the real subjective point, though, and at the very heart of what should be done next . . . .