Hi Weety,

Well, I don't know the answer to that because I've probably been toxic all or most of my life. Put it this way, you will know at some point that you are getting better when enough mercury is out of you to allow for healing to take place and to actually notice the changes.

Certain things can improve over time, sometimes without you realising it at the time. It's a good idea to keep a list of your symptoms and then see if they start disappearing over time or lessening, but bearing in mind, it's a long term process, so you will likely not feel you're getting much better until more significant changes take place.

There may come a time when you feel well or much better, even before you are properly detoxified. You can "feel" well again and things lift off you like depression, anxiety a feeling of your emotions being blocked or that sensation of indifference, inability to feel "joy" or excitement as such. At some point when detoxed enough, it's like windows start opening up, you can get quite surprised at how blocked and sick you really were when things start to improve. You feel happier, lighter, more sociable, it's like the lights turning back on and for some people can be almost too overwhelming and they have had to seek help for that. Amazing eh? Heck I LOVED it! I thought it was Xmas everyday almost. But even then I don't believe I was fully detoxed, but the differences for me felt so significant, that the contrast felt heavenly compared to how I had been feeling for so many years.

The more you improve, the more you become aware of how sick you were and it's an ongoing process. You will likely not know if you are completely detoxed and you do not need to be, because nobody will ever get every tiny scrap of mercury out of them. Like any toxin. But when your body's own burden is reduced enough for your body to improve, that's when you'll notice changes (if this is what's causing your symptoms).

Andy Cutler says that a person should continue chelating for about 6 months to a year or so after they "FEEL" well, to ensure more mercury is removed so that it won't cause future problems. Also there can come a time where chelation can actually keep you feeling better because it's grabbing the mercury that's still leaking out of you and filling you back up. It's when people stop a little too soon, than they can sometimes start feeling poisoned again because there was still stored mercury that needed to be chelated and instead as it was still slowly leaking back out, there were no chelation to grab hold of it, so it built back up.

So sometimes they get quite a surprise and have to chelate again until PERMANENT improvements result, to where they don't relapse anymore. However which way you get the mercury out, it's a slow process and not usually a smooth upward climb to health, but rather a bit of a roller coaster ride. Key is to reduce the side effects by using a chelating protocol that is effective and safe and reduces the risk of redistribution. I think Cutler's is probably the best I can think of for doing that. But everybody is different.

Your body wants to get this stuff out, but usually people have a tough time with it because many of us are not good are eliminating mercury from our systems, which is why we got sick in the first place. Not just mercury's direct impact, but the fact it accummulates and builds up in tissues/organs/brain. I wish amalgam removal was the cure, but it's the beginning of a long process of detox for many of us. Some get better quicker than others and that can depend on immunity, other health factors and chelation.

Your partner will not necessarily find a new person at the end of chelation. But she may find a much happier, healthier, improved Weety with some hidden traits and qualities that can become much more apparent <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />. The good stuff becomes enhanced! I've heard of people divorcing with toxicities like this and then re-marrying eachother again after detox! That's how horrific this stuff is. I've heard of people with candida having a similar problem. It is very sad that health problems like this have such a gross impact on someone's mind and personality, as well as overall health. Some people might worry that they'll somehow be a different person, but it's hard to explain. It's not quite like that. The core of you remains.

I hope that you will find such healing! Can you think back to anytime in your life that you felt more normal and healthy? It's hard to remember isnt it? But when you get more detoxed, you start remembering things again and you start feeling like YOU, the real YOU. So much of the time with this we live in a toxic depressed fog.