Thanks Sunshine, Bex and Mikey for the welcome back. It's lovely to come here and read friendly, warm and supportive messages. If I'd known I was going to sail through customs like that, I would have offered to get DMSA for others here in the UK. Unfortunately there's just no way to tell. In the USA, each returning resident is allowed to bring a total value of $800 (£400) into the country with them, before customs charges. In the UK, if you're returning from outside the EU, it's £145. I don't know why they sock you like that; maybe they're after the people going to New York to spray their money around or something.

Jet lag initially worked in reverse for me here. I had a couple of days when I was alert at night and planned schoolwork with ease; my mind was clear, and I felt calm and confident. My emotions even started to come back. I dared to hope that this signalled the end of the depression, in anticipation of my new job, but unfortunately I'm back to the same-old same-old now: muddybrained, emotionally numb, generally half-dead (though at least the liquorice extract seems to be giving me the physical energy to do what I have to do). It's making the teaching a bit difficult. My "spark" isn't there, and when I got into my classroom first thing this morning I had a spell where I cried for no reason. Managed to pull myself together and get psyched with some positive self-talk.

Looks like the bottom line is that I just need to keep chelating. I've changed as much in my life as I could and if any of that was causing the depression, it should be going or gone by now. Chelation is really all I have left. I'll be starting another round tomorrow.

Thanks for listening guys. This is one frustrating process.