blicero....

Let me start by I have been on 1 1/2 grains of Amour for a year now. That did not really help because I was mercury poisoned and the mercury was inhibiting the Armour's ability to do "it's job".

I don't know if its ONE thing that got me to where I am today, but can tell what I did. After being diagnosed I was put on a strict no dairy, no sugar, no bread diet. I went all out, all organic. I found a friend who was already eating like that and she gave me a bunch of recipes, which I stuck to 3 or 4 for two months. In 6 weeks this brought my overeall body (not mercury) toxicity levels down from 20 to 13 (on a scale of 1-21).

I also drank ALOT of water (RO then I put it into a Vitalizer Plus machine to oxygenate it), added sea salt to my eggwhites and steamed veggies, and put in a whole house filtration system to stop the chlorine from touching my skin, it was making me sick after every shower.

I was also put on herbal drops to help me gently detox. They were different ones for the liver, kidney, pituitary, etc.

After 6 weeks of this I had my amalgams removed one quadrant at a time 1 week apart. I don't know if everyone can handle this, but "I went for it" because I felt as Elvis says, my intuition said I could probably handle it. At this time, I was still tired as ever, crying all the time, depressed, suicidal, impulsive, irrational and had to pray all the time to stay sane. And had a bladder infection almost every week and herpes breakouts. It was awful. I coudn't stand to be touched because it hurt (a symptom of adrenal insufficiency).

As each quadrant of almagam was removed I seemed to get an eensy bit better. By the 4th week, it was amazing, I had euphoric feelings and energy.

Then I started chelating. All the time still sticking to the diet and drops my doc was giving me. As soon as I started chelating my energy levels rollercoastered, some days were awesome, some were awful. At the 3 month mark I started to notice that I was fatigued ALL the time, no more good days.

I reread Andy's book section on Adrenals and the Thyroid. Both my first doc and my 2nd doc said they were weak. My 2nd doc had me do the saliva test. This showed low cortisol levels in the afternoon, however, my energy levels did not match with the test. I convinced my doc to let me start on hydrocortisone. I could have done isocort, not sure how you spell it, but I knew enough from Andy's description and the posts on this formum and Andy's forums that I had symptoms of severe adrenal insufficiency for the last 5 years, that progressed as I got sicker and needed something stronger than the herbs (I had herbs before that from the 1st doc, but they only did so much and then nothing).

So...the doc gave me some HC and away I went. Nothing happended on the first dosing she suggested, which was just do it as the test shows once in the afternoon. I decided to take a risk and do it in the morning, lunch and the afternoon. What a difference! Went back to the doc and convinced her I needed more based on Andy's book (copied the pages and had her read before we met). She gave me 140 pills for one month to see how I do. I also convinced her to give me a prescription for 1/2 grain of Armour to add to my already existing 1 1/2 grains of Armour to see if I would do better with just a little more. PTL, she gave it to me.

Then last week I finally decided and had the energy thanks to the HC, to go to the www.stopthethyroidmadness.com website. I spent 5 hours reading it, reviewing my past lab results from 1999 to now and WOW I have been thyroid deficient and adrenal insufficient for a LONG time!

So...I took another risk, and started folllowing the suggested dosing schedule (incremental increases) per the website under Adrenal Info for HC. This made a HUGE difference it just a day. I also started "stress dosing" as they suggested on the website and this made all the difference in the world when we had an all day party for my sons 16th birthday. I never would have made it without the HC.

I also added the 1/2 grain of the Armour to my 1 1/2 grains that I was already doing and then 1/2 grain at lunch and 1/2 grain at 4pm, to mirror the body's natural cycles and HC dosing schedule, and that made a huge difference.

No, I still cannot run or exercise, but hey, now I can go to the store and grocery shop, get the mail, bring in the garbage cans on garbage day, and do some minor errands and stand a little longer, which is huge when preparing dinner for the kids. I am assuming, based on the info here and everywhere, that at some point the majority of the mercury burden will be lifted, all the rest I am getting and the proper diet will lead to full adrenal healing, or that I will only need a little and that my energy levels will make a full recovery. I have seen so much recovery just in the area of thinking AND this is a little thing, but its big to me my strength is returning, I can open jars and potato chip bags and lift things without paying for it the rest of the day and without getting out of breath.

I also noticed that when I started officially chelating the Andy way March 17th with DMSA (started on 12.5 mgs) that although it didn't make me feel good during it, that afterwards I would notice little differences in my thinking more clearly. More than anything, after I added ALA a month or so ago, along with switching to 50 mgs of DMPS, I really began to see differences in my ability to be patient, be able to finish a page I started reading, read more than one page, concentrate, think clear thoughts, my cognitive thinking improved and my overall sense of well being improved. The depression also lifted. Before I would have to really pray alot to get it to go and, yes, I faked it for my family and for my sanity. I noticed the more I gave in to it, the more it showed up. Then finally, the drugs, the diet, etc. all seemed to kick in and the sky opened so to speak.

I really suggest going to the website and they have forums for that too that really help.

All the best to you,

Gabriella <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />