What if...And Other Random Thoughts

Well, it looks like the dump is going to be 2 years for me.

As of today, it will be 144 days more if the dump is counted from the day it starts (November 25th. It will be 83 more days (September 25th)  if the dump ends 2 years after amalgam removal.

These days have been difficult and fraught with doubt.

What if some of these symptoms are lyme rearing it's ugly head?

Am I chelating with an amalgam speck still on a tooth?

What if my symptoms continue after the 2 years is up?

What do I do if symptoms continue after the end of November?

First, I have to get through the 83 to 144 days.

I will continue to do rounds of ACC chelation.

I will continue to take the Core 4 and other supporting supplements.

I am taking some herbs to keep lyme at bay.

If I get to January and still have increased symptoms, I will :

     Have my dentist lift my crowns, take x rays and post them again to the group

     to check for specks.

After that, I will continue to chelate.

There was a post recently in our Andy Cutler group that asked people who had the longest dump.

The AVERAGE dump lasts around 12 months.

The AVERAGE LONGEST dump is 24 months.

These are people who like me, had amalgams for many years and may or may not have used chelators improperly, like I did.

There was ONE person who recently said they were in month 30.

Reading 30 months was truly depressing.

My X rays have been checked with the group once, so I'm trusting that, for now.

I had to lower my dose of ala yet again.  This time, I went down to 3 mg.

That round went very smooth.

I took 2 weeks off because we took a week of vacation and then my left hip muscle acted up again and it took about 6 days before I could walk upright and not be in so much pain.

Monday I started  round  59 at 3 mg ala. It was rough for the first couple of hours, but it has leveled out.

Still waiting for the world shortage of dmps to end so I can try it.

Nothing much else to report.

The thought of spending the next 83 to 144 days sitting on my bed watching tv or surfing the internet fills me with dread. 

All I can think of is that I want to get up and do something. 

The problem is, that when I do, I get dizzy and so tired I can't finish even the simplest of tasks.

How to torture someone who's a type A?

Yep, this is it. 

I'll stop whining now.

Thanks for listening.

Thinking of the better days ahead,

Pam

symptoms:
extreme muscle tightness 
cannot use muscles or I'm so sore the next day
Muscle spasms upon standing
urgency
waking up at night to use bathroom (2-4 times a night)
sleeping 1 to 2 hour stretches. Rarely 3 hours once a night.
dizziness upon standing or moving around too much
brain fog sometimes when I do too much
cannot write well
numbness in feet and legs up to knees
super hot or freezing feet
ringing in ears
gait problems
blurry eyes at times
eyes not processing what I'm seeing (when in public)
nail problems

Down In The Trenches

This post is mainly written for those who are chelating.

It's Saturday and I feel crappy.

I usually wait until I feel somewhat well to write, but today I'm writing when I don't feel well.

If you're wondering...I just finished month 16 of the dump. It could end any day now or it could linger until month 24... or longer.

I just finished round 49 (still on 5 mg ala) on Wednesday night. Technically, it was 2:30 am Thursday morning, but I still think of my round ending on Wednesday night.

Rounds have been mostly good since the last post.
I've gone to a 2 hour dosing schedule during the day and every 2:40 at night.
I don't find it any more difficult than dosing every 3 hours and I'm usually up at night multiple times anyway, so I'm glad I gave it a try.

When I was doing 3 hour dosing, I just felt like I was getting some redistribution closer to hour 3 when I took another dose; I don't get that with 2 hour dosing.

I usually feel pretty good when I'm on round and the first day off, but the first two rounds this month I didn't.

Glad that's over with.

This past round I was back to feeling good. I get in the sauna every afternoon on round and the first day off round to minimize redistribution. I start feeling redistribution usually by Friday.

Redistribution, for those that don't know is when you get increased symptoms again. During a round, most people feel better and definitely upbeat.

So, here's what I'm experiencing:
Yesterday afternoon my eyes started getting blurry and later that evening watery and burning. It's Spring and pollen is starting to fall fro the trees, but I don't have seasonal allergies and I haven't been outside much. I'm sure my eyes will be back to normal by tomorrow night. This isn't the first time it's happened.

I have numbness in my feet and legs, but lately it's been moving higher up on my legs and the left leg is more numb than the right. Lately, both legs feel like I'm wearing knee high socks. On round, both legs are less numb and the right leg was barely numb at all. The numbness never leaves my feet and the left foot is not very flexible at all.
Fatigue and general overall lack of motivation is keeping me mostly in bed today.
Today, the dizziness seems to be absent, so I'm thankful for that.
I will be sooooooooo glad when that symptom is gone!

Last symptoms are the top of my head seems to be smoldering, my tinnitus is a little louder and I'm itchy.
I tend not to worry about these symptoms coming and going. The Andy Cutler Chelation group on Facebook is filled with posts asking if these symptoms are normal.
Yes, they are normal mercury toxicity symptoms.

As everyone says in the Andy Cutler Facebook group: "Onward and upward.

My First 30 Rounds

First off, I want to say that what I'm about to write is not so you'll feel sorry for me. I'm writing this to help other people who may be going through chelation, and need some hope.

I also want to say....

No, I am not going crazy. 
Logically, since I'm removing mercury, 
I'm becoming uncrazy. 

Some things I describe here are symptoms of  mercury toxicity. You've heard the term "Mad as a Hatter", haven't you? Look that up sometime. (I'm not referring to the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland)  Then, think about everyone who has amalgam fillings or who received a large amount of thimerosal filled vaccines up until 2004 and some of the craziness going on in the world and the tremendous amount of people on antidepressants today for anxiety or depression.
Ok, rant (and rabbit hole) over....

My last post was 7 months ago in March. I find it very depressing to write how about how I'm feeling when I'm miserable...

I mean, who wants to read that?

Plus, people read it and comment so nicely and I don't want people feeling sorry for me - or thinking that I'm some crazy person, who's a hypochondriac who always has some new, unexplained symptom. If you are mercury toxic, you know what I'm talking about. 

Here's where I am now...

I've completed 31 rounds of ACC. (Andy Cutler Chelation Protocol). More on how I'm doing later...let's talk about the last 12 months. 

Here's some history...

I had amalgams for nearly 5 decades. Nearly 50 years. That's a long time for fillings that are 50% mercury to do a lot of damage.  I also just found out I have the MTHFR (yep, that's how it's spelled) genetic mutation where your body detoxes 50% less than others. I also used a chelator (alpha lipoic acid) in a lyme protocol with amalgam fillings still in my mouth. Ala used improperly can move mercury to your brain, which is what I believe happened to me.
I knew from the Andy Cutler support group on Facebook that my journey wasn't going to be a short one.

I knew at the end of September 2017, that I would go thru a period called the "dump" where you have INCREASED symptoms. 

It was expected to start 2 to 4 months post amalgam removal.

It was expected to last a year or more.

I had a "hoping to goal" of making a little progress by September 2018.

I had a "hoping to goal" of the dump ending at the end of November 2018.

Decisions, then the dreaded dump...

Because we had an important wedding to go to in October(last year),  I  set my final amalgam removal to be at the end of September, so that I wouldn't enter the dump until after the wedding. I'm glad I waited an additional month to do my final amalgam removal. It was perfect timing because I continually felt better after removal.

My brother passed away the end of October and we flew out to California for his funeral the first week of November. I was still feeling pretty good (all  things considered) post amalgam removal. 

flowers from the bridal shower

At the end of November the dump hit.

Muscle tightness and dizziness became more pronounced over the next month, but I was still able to have some "better" days where I could get things done.

ACC says to wait 3 months to start chelating with  Alpha Lipoic Acid, but I was afraid to start in December. I had my supply of ALA, but wasn't until the third week of January, when I basically stuck in bed and wasn't having any good days, that I did my first round.

My hair test back in the Fall of 2017 didn't show any mercury and didn't meet any of the ACC counting rules. Mercury toxicity causes mineral derangement that shows up on hair tests. Mine showed nothing. The only way for me to know if I had mercury toxicity was to do a trial round of ALA and to see if I had any reaction on round or the 3 days off round. 

I started at 12.5 mg ALA and took it every 3 hours for 63 hours. I reacted. My ear ringing was louder and I didn't feel well on round. The symptoms weren't that much worse than before the trial round, so I continued at the same dose.

I made some gains the first 8 rounds or so.


You can find the link to the Andy Cutler Chelation group on Facebook HERE.

Lessons learned:

On one round I forgot a dose and had to abort the round. Off round, I had increased symptoms. On another round, I didn't realize I had forgotten a dose until I took the next dose. Instead of aborting the round, I continued to finish the round and I will never do that again. The redistribution symptoms were awful.

The biggest mistake I made was doing a round while up at our mountain house for a week. I extended my round so I wouldn't have the redistribution symptoms on the drive home. I also didn't have access to a sauna during the round. (big mistake). The whole next week was miserable. I will never do a round when I don't have access to a sauna. I also tried raising my dose once I felt good on and off round , but I felt pretty awful when I did, so I went back down to 12.5 mg

In March, I had a 2nd muscle spasm episode. This time I was ready. My neighbor had let me borrow a wheeled walker and I had a prescription for 800 mg of Ibuprofen. I only take painkillers when I ABSOLUTELY have to. My doctor also signed for a temporary handicap placard. Our daughter was graduating in May and we borrowed a wheelchair, but we ended up not needing the placard that day because we found a parking spot right in front of the building.

I was glad I had the handicap placard over the coming months because my muscle tightness and dizziness got worse.

Those in ACC say that the peak of the dump many times is between 6 and 9 months. June went by, then July, then August; still increasing symptoms and no progress at all.. It seemed like it was going to go on forever. Oh, and I had another muscle spasm episode in July.

During that time(but not all of it- can't remember how long), I was crying all the time; for NO reason. My serious, logical self could not control it.  Those of you who have never been poisoned by mercury won't understand that. It's pretty common in the ACC group to have adrenal problems...and crying, for absolutely no reason. I am not normally a cryer. Yes, in the past, I've cried, but not all the time and only for a good reason.

This crying was without a sad or happy thought; just all of a sudden.

Still at 12.5 mg, I reached out to the ACC group and listed where I was at and what supplements I had tried to alleviate my symptoms. Here's my post:

Can anyone help me or give me some insight? I had 5 amalgams removed last year safely (XXX the dentist in the group, just rechecked my x-rays), and had amalgams, probably for 48- 50 years. I'm in month 9 of my dump(12 months post amalgam removal) and finished round 23 at 12.5 mg ALA onlly on Aug 8th (took last week off) and am feeling pretty bad.(brain fog, tight muscles , numbness poor sleep, balance issues and fatigue) . My muscles are super tight all the time and seem to be getting worse. Most of my tight muscles start at the hip and as they have been tightening, the numbness has been moving up from my toes, to my calves, to my hips and now the middle torso progressively. I had a muscle spasm a month ago that required drugs to take the edge off pain. I'm still partially using a walker. It's difficult to walk with my leg muscles being so tight and feeling stiff. Yesterday, out of the blue, I developed a lot of black floaters in my left eye that are very noticeable . I've had a lot of white floaters for many years, but never black ones. Of course, I take the core 4, with extra mag,  8 -10 adrenal cortex a day, hc cream, adaptogens and a bunch of other supplements.  I don't eat many thiols, but don't go out of my way to make sure my food aren't high thiol, and I haven't done a thiol exclusion test. I start round 24 tomorrow, but I'm at a loss for what else to do to feel better, other than chelate and wait for my dump to be over. Thanks in advance.

Now, the group can't give medical advice, but it was suggested that I lower my dose. 24 rounds in and I have to LOWER my dose for a few rounds to see if that would help. That was depressing because in ACC, the goal is to get your dose to 3 mg per kilogram of body weight. Everything I had read in the group was true for me, 

so, I lowered my dose to 5 mg. of ALA. 

In September, I had a few days where my muscles didn't seem to be so tight. My chiropractor agreed. I had/have only been getting a K-laser treatment on my hip and neck twice a month, since my muscles have been too tight to adjust me.

Right around the time Hurricane Florence came through, I had 2 weeks of feeling really bad. At least with the lower dose I wasn't crying all the time for no reason, but what was the point of getting out of bed? Unless you've experienced this, ya'll don't realize how much energy it takes to keep yourself upright when you're dizzy and off balance all the time. 

I started feeling better the first week of October. When I say better, I don't mean I feel well- I just felt a little better than bad. I went to the grocery store the other day because felt pretty good that morning. I felt pretty good in my head; sitting down. Unfortunately, my body didn't get the message. Fortunately, I parked in a close parking spot and brought my cane.  By the time I had walked the whole store getting my groceries, I was feeling ill and had to sit on a bench near the pharmacy. It was all I could do to pay for my groceries and get to my car. Sitting down in my car and driving is usually no problem because I'm only dizzy standing up, but I rested before I left just to make sure. My (large) neighborhood is right next to the store and my house is about a mile away. I think I'll continue to have my husband do the grocery shopping for awhile.  

I am still having what I call "meltdowns", after riding in a car, going to a noisy restaurant and eating dinner or going to an appointment or doing any number of things that my body perceives as stress. I try to warn my husband that I'm about to cry beforehand, so he doesn't think he did something wrong. 

I will be glad when that symptom is gone for good. 

Where I am now...

I am finishing round 32 today. I usually start a round on Monday and finish on Wednesday, then take 4 days off, but I want to get one more round in before going to our daughter's baby shower in SoCal in November. I want as much mercury out of my head by then, so I'm only doing the minimum 72 hours between rounds.

Well, that's where I am. I can feed myself, do a couple of loads of laundry a day, vacuum one room at a time before needing a rest or walk out to get the mail and  pull a couple of weeds. I can drive myself to the chiropractor 20 minutes away twice a month. I take a cane when I go out to help stabilize me and to help others to see me. I still use my walker at home to help give me some support when I'm tired. That's pretty much it.

For now.

Looking forward to digging in the dirt again and going to dinner and enjoying it, instead of wondering if I'm going to survive getting through it without a meltdown.

Thanks for listening

Pam

UPDATE:My head suddenly cleared the Tuesday night (Oct 30th) after I finished my 33rd round. Traveling was difficult, but I was able to enjoy our daughter's baby shower on November 4th. 

Current Symptoms:

dizziness when standing/walking

muscle tightness/spasticity

super hot or freezing feet

numb feet and ankles

spider-like sensations in legs

brain fog (when I do too much or after a round)

waking up at night several times

urgency

ringing in the ears

meltdowns
gait problems
blurry eyes at times
eyes not processing what I'm seeing (when in public)
nail problems
random fibro pain
stabbing pains that last for hours or a day
legs so tight, it hurts to straighten them
  

Replacing The First 3 Amalgams

Hey Everyone! 

I haven't posted for a couple of months, so it might be good to bring you up to date as to how things are going  with me.

I'll recap for those who may have forgotten:
I had a bit of a breakthrough with the really bad brain fog that kept me from driving at all with the K-Laser treatments from my chiropractor. The K-Laser reduced the inflammation in my neck and after a couple of treatments, I was able to drive myself to the chiropractor 20 minutes away on my appointment day. I pretty much wasn't able to do anything else that day and had to rest so that I wouldn't get any level of brain fog and I could make it to my appointment. Driving home is never a problem because I feel great about 10 minutes after the treatment and for about 2 hours afterwards.
I highly recommend K-Laser or another cold laser treatment. If you have pain or inflammation, seek out a chiropractor or other clinic that offers it.

Despite not having the really bad drugged out feeling brain fog, dizziness still continued to be a daily occurence. I might have an hour or two of nearly  a clear head, but later in the day or if I stood up for too long, the dizziness would come on. It made it very difficult to make even the simplest of chores or even to make dinner.

About a month ago, I had 3 of 5 amalgams safely removed by a biological/holistic dentist here in Charlotte. It was a traumatic experience and it was mostly my fault!!! 
Let me tell you why, so you don't make the same mistake...

I currently belong to a group called Andy Cutler Chelation on Facebook. It's a great group with a lot of support and a lot of good information. I highly recommend it if you're concerned about mercury toxicity.

The day before my dental appointment, I figured I should read the ACC group file on what to do at the dentist office. I mentally checked off each thing to do...
until I go to the part where it said to stop taking vitamin C two days before so that the numbing meds the dentist gives you doesn't wear off too quickly. I take 1 gram of vitamin C four times a day and had just taken my morning dose, but didn't take any more that day. I figured I'd be ok.

The  next morning at my long awaited appointment, the dentist gave me nitrous oxide and it took a long time for me to feel the effects.  The dentist covered me from head to toe, gave me a mask with oxygen, had a special vacuum to whisk away any vapors and the dentist and assistant were covered and had a respirator on. 
The mercury was removed from 3 teeth, 1 was a crown. I was given multiple injections of numbing meds and was nearing the max amount she could give me in 1 day. She was working quickly  trying to finish prepping my final tooth for a crown, but wasn't able to finish after giving me a final injection. The assistant gave me a temporary filling and I had to make an appointment to come back the following week. All of this took 4 hours.

Let me tell you...my jaw was so sore and I couldn't open my mouth more than an inch until the 3rd day.  I felt miserable after the numbing meds started to wear off, but I started feeling better about 10 pm the evening after amalgam removal. The  strange thing was that even though I felt sore and not so good from all the dental work, my brain was clear and my eyesight was great and I could see the TV in my room without glasses. I thought it might be from the 4 hours of oxygen I had during the dental work. Makes me think I should look into that!

One thing of note; the day after getting the amalgams removed I felt lighter or that the mercury burden was lighter. Kind of like when you get a hair cut. Someone else brought this up in the ACC group. Many agreed.

I went back the following week to get the final prep done for my 2nd crown. I made sure that I stopped all vitamin C three days ahead of time, just to be sure. When I went back in, the dentist gave me 2 shots of numbing medication and went to do a third, but I waved her off and said I didn't need it and that I was already really numb. She wanted to make sure the same thing wouldn't happen again. I told her it was because I hadn't stopped my vitamin C in time. Things went well and now I'm just waiting for my permanent crowns to come back so I can have those put on.

After this dental appointment, I wasn't that sore and could eat regularly the next day. It was a lot better than the first appointment.


I'll be making the 2nd appointment to get the remaining two teeth for the end of September. I'd do it sooner, but the ACC group says that your body starts to dump mercury 2-4 months after your last amalgams are removed and many people don't feel well. We have a wedding to go to at the end of October and I don't want to miss it.  I will start chelating after Christmas, which will be 3 months after the last amalgam removal.

Ever since the 3 amalgams were removed, I've started to make a little progress again. The most progress I've made has been the past 5 days because of something new I've been taking. I'm pretty excited about it and hope my new found energy continues.

I read about a lot of things and then try them, if they're not too expensive and of course, not dangerous to your health. 

Sorry to leave you hanging here, but I'll tell you about it next time!

Pam

Here is the status of my symptoms:

Numbness, tingling in feet - fluctuates, but seems to be getting better

dizziness/off balance- getting better 

brain fog- Haven't had any in the past week

blurry eyes - seems to have stablilized

urgency  (3) - still a problem

noise sensitivity (2)

startles easily- very little unless it's a really loud noise.

muscle pain -2 some days more, especially after working too hard.

muscle weakness- I think I'm getting stonger

high pitch ringing in the ears/low pitch ringing. High pitch comes and goes,

This list is getting shorter!

Here are some products I like and are currently taking:

These are affiliate links, which mean I'll make a small commission should you order from the link. Thanks!