Bye Bye Abilify.... Hello Geodon~!

Honeybunches seen the pdoc this afternoon.  After looking at his most recent blood work from last week, we discussed possibly putting him on Geodon and taking him off the Abilify.  She basically let me decide if we should leave things alone or if I thought we should change.  After how concerned his primary care doc sounded on the phone and seeing his blood work for myself I thought it would be best if we did change.  She told me that Geodon is gentler on his body, especially his liver.  We are going to go up on Geodon slowly, then once he's up to where she wants him, then we will titrate him off the Abilify.  Here is her plan:

Dec 26/27
20 mg 1x day

Dec 28/29 
20 mg 2x day

Dec 30/31 
20 mg am and 40 mg pm

Jan 1/2 
40 mg 2x day

Jan 3/4 
40 mg am and 60 mg pm

Jan 5 and ongoing....
60 mg 2x day

Then we'll wait 5 days.  On January 10th, we'll begin titrating down his Abilify.  Right now he's on 5 mg 2x day.  Here's how she's going to take him off:

Jan 10-12
2.5 mg am and 5 mg pm

Jan 13-15
2.5 mg 2x day

Jan 16-18
2.5 mg once a day

Jan 19th stop Abilify

She was saying how we could go up to 160 mg on the Geodon if we have to.  She was sharing with us how she recently went to a conference where they mentioned that Geodon seems to not work with children because doctors don't go high enough on it, so she wants to get his dose up there.  So even when we get him where she wants him initially, there will still be room to go up.  The pdoc gave me her cell phone # to call her, even over the holidays, if we have to.  She is taking the nice chart/calendar she made me about his med titrations with her wherever she goes she said.  :)

I am scared to change, but the time has come.  She gave me a copy of his labs.  They did a ton of blood work, but here are the concerning #s:

D. Bili 0.3 Should be 0.0-0.2
Cholesterol 240 Should be under 200
Triglycerides 352 Should be under 150
HDL 35 (Says that is low)
AST 88 Should be 10-36
ALT 131 Should be 24-49

His Lithium level was good at .9.

I hope things go well with this med change.  Pdoc thinks Geodon would be easier on his liver as well as not cause as many issues with his triglycerides and liver enzymes.