Hang in there, Bex. I'm sure the affect of the cigarettes will start to subside. Within only a few hours of stopping smoking, the body starts to heal. If the body is already ill, then it will take longer, but you will get improvement. Maybe be extra strict with your diet for a couple of weeks and drink only water.

You have a good idea what to do and are reading up on things to help yourself, and that puts you ahead of so many people already.Just don't be too hard on yourself, you're doing well. You've faced up to your health problems, your weaknesses, and you're doing something about them. Some people just can't face up to the possibility of mercury poisoning and just don't do anything about it.

You made a mistake with the cigarettes, but we all make mistakes and indulge ourselves. I went for a pizza a few weeks ago and had a coke with it plus olives. By the night I was in bed with migraine (couldn't see from visual disturbances). This week we ended up in pizza hut again (not many choices of places to dine). I learnt from the past experience so I had a thin pizza with no extra toppings and a glass of sprite instead of coke. I didn't have any reactions that time.

I think with any diet we have to be realistic concerning our own personal abilities. I know I can't keep to my personal diet fully, so I try to about 95%. Some people are able to live by very strict diets, and that is fantastic, but I do slip up. I also am trying to combine various diets on a budget that I have to compromise if I don't want to starve. I just try not to beat myself up because I know I am doing my best. There is a saying "experience is the name we give to our mistakes": but it's true. If we turn them around into an experience, we can learn from them <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

It's none of our faults we got this illness. You're doing your best and always have informative things to say here to help people. Keep the faith, you're doing great.