Well, since you have decided to do a loading phase for the "quick" saturation, then lets see...Definately drink a lot of water with each dose of creatine, somewhere around 2 cups. The added water will help with solubility and will also decrease the amount of creatine that is converted into creatinine. Plus, for each gram of glycogen that is stored, it will take around 3-4 grams of water. Since you are bulking, you will have to expect a certain amount of bloat, which will just naturally occur due to the added calories, especially if it is high in carbs (high carb ratios tend to create more bloat/extracellular water weight for people. Hmmm...you may want to try an isocaloric/zone/40-40-20 type diet. Some research shows that creatine may not have to be used with a high GI carb, but I have always gotten better results with the high GI route. Ideally, the only real time I like to ingest high GI carbs is after I train with weights. Morning time is debatable, but this is more of an issue of insulin sensitivity, which will vary person to person. Therefore, I always take in most of my creatine with my postworkout dextrose/maltodextrin, and also with my breakfast. I usually take in 15 grams with my postworkout drink, and 10 with my breakfast. If i take more than this, I usually will just have it with a regular meal, and not worry about the GI spike. I always get better results with higher than normal creatine dosages, but this too will vary person to person. I usually go around 35-40 grams for my loading phases, and don't go much below 15-20 grams on maintenance. Our crazy MOD E2 actually has done up to 100 grams if I remember right, but don't know/remember the details.
Duchaine mentioned that you can take some Alka seltzer and other alkaline substances to help "lower the stomach acid (raise ph)", which will help speed up gastric absorption of the creatine. This may be worth a try.
I don't know what kind of "natural" liver cleansers your doc has you on, but i really do not think they will interfere. Do you remember the names of the ingredient(s). I am not an expert on this though so maybe someone else will be able to give you a better answer. One thing you may want to look into for liver protection and regeneration is ALA (alpha lipoic acid). The added bonus of it shuttling more glucose into the cells by increasing transporters on the cell surface, will help things out even more. If i remember right, you do not live in the U.S.A. so I don't know if cost will be a factor. There is a nice thread on ALA by Huck on the Anabolic board if you want to learn more about it, also FONZ has written some good threads on it in the past so you may want to do a search using his name.
Now the potassium question is a little harder considering the fact that it will also depend on the amount of sodium and chloride ratios that are present. This is kind of hard for me to give an accurate answer on. You may want to just add a couple extra hundred mg.'s a day and see if this help keep the creatin bloat down. You may need to do some experimenting with this. If anyone else can give better advice on this area, please feel free to elaborate because I am no expert in this area, and I don't know if I am helping much. The potassium may not help much though on a "bulking" regimine since fat and water gain are almost impossible to eliminate even without the creatine. I speculate that you would probably see more effects from the potassium supplementation on a HYPOcaloric diet. Sorry man, that's about all i can add on this...i'll do some reading and see if I can find anything else, but I don't know. Par Deus????
About taking the creatine before the sugar thingy...I can see how this would be a better solution, but I think the difference in positive effects will basically be too small to worry about. Eventually it will get absorbed anyway. As long as you drink it with a lot of water, and after a workout (which also effects the absorption rates of substances), then I would not worry much about it. Plus, with the addition of sodium bicarbonate/alka seltzer, it might make this argument moot since its absorption will increase. Let me know how it works out if you do this though.
Oh yeah, on non-workout days, just have the bulk of the creatine with your breakfast, then spread the rest throughout the day with other meals with LOTS of WATER.
Well man, I don't know if I helped at all, let me know though. Maybe Par Deus or MS or someone can add something to the mix. Oh yeah, if I know Pat Arnold reads threads on this Supplement Board lately as well, he should be able to give some advice if his weeny ass has time LOL...just kidding Pat, you tha man!
LATER,
MR. BMJ