Give me my kidneys back, lithium!

So last night I finished writing the last of my article pool from Demand Studios. I have been writing for them since the start of April 2010, when they opened their site up to British and Canadian writers. Recently Demand Studios has been downsizing and began laying off writers around October last year. I suppose I’m one of the lucky ones in that I got through the Christmas period with work still available. I’m also lucky in that I was able to clear up the overdraft I incurred thanks to my recent hypermanic episode using money I earned through Demand Studios.

Of course now I have to find other clients to fill the very large gap in my client list, because I’ve kind of gotten used to this whole eating and paying the mortgage thing. To that end, I spent much of yesterday and today bidding on freelance writing projects, applying for work in the local area to keep me going, and putting together proposals to submit to various magazines and online projects. Whether any of them pay off remains to be seen but unless I have ideas flowing out there, I’ll never get anywhere.

I’ll be bringing the comics back and getting the videos running on all my channels again, either from tomorrow or Monday. Monday is more likely for the comics because I need to get scripts sorted for Ink Proof Cannon before I can bring that back properly. I thought I had scripts but it’s another victim of hypermania – things I thought I’d done were not actually done. I am so glad I’m on medication to stop that happening again.

Which brings me to my biggest problem. The lithium I am taking is keeping me stable and making life bearable, but it is not all singing and dancing. I found out today that my kidneys are slowly shutting down thanks to the treatment. My doctor is weaning me off the lithium and onto sodium vaproate, which is primarily an anti-epilepsy drug.

I have had serious misgivings about using anti-epilepsy drugs for many years now because I remember reading a report about how they can lower IQ and if there is any one part of me that I do not want messed with, it is my intellect. Still, modern research suggests there is no problem with IQ loss on this medicine (because I’m not at any risk of pregnancy) so I’ll give it a go.

I’ll keep you informed about how the problem with my kidneys goes on. I’m rather shocked right now at how quickly the kidneys started to be affected by the lithium. I’ve been on it around three weeks and already it’s harmed me. To think that I didn’t want to have to go to see the psychiatrist every week because it was getting in the way of work!