Hi Patty,

I do know that mercury is very difficult to test for and I remember after a DMPS challenge test, they found next to no mercury but guess what? the chelating agent itself had cause a landslide of symptoms from then on, so it obviously erupted the mercury outwards, but didn't really pull it into the urine where it would have been ideal, as that means it's COMING OUT, or at least coming out at a rate to where they can pick a level up on testing.

The fact you have reacted so violently to this test, may also be a strong indicator you have overdone chelation and possibly it's lead or mercury. Unless you have a problem with DMSA itself (which apparently is quite rare).

But if it's not the DMSA itself, this is pretty indicative you probably have a LOT of metal toxicity (whether lead or mercury). As DMSA seems only to chelate these two metals, in fact it's an even better chelator of lead than mercury apparently, but still good with mercury.

It also shows you probably have a lot of it where DMSA can get hold of it. I don't tend to react with DMSA anymore because I don't think there is much mercury in the areas where DMSA can reach (at least not significant enough perhaps). I am unsure. But you have reacted so strongly, that it sounds like you've probably unleashed quite a bit of it and repoisoned yourself. You can get backfire effects and wind up acutely poisoned after challenge tests or just mobilising more than your body can readily get rid of.

There also comes a time post amalgam removal where your body tries to dump the long years of storage of mercury. This can happen anytime apparently from 3 months onwards. Even a year and a half later is not unheard of (that happened to me). So it's quite on the cards, that your body still holds a lot of mercury in storage and you are possibly very poisoned by this and the fact you are showing little to no levels of those metals, could show retention toxicity and the fact you remain poisoned by them becuase you do not eliminate them readily.

Even healthy people show a level of mercury because we are usually exposed to it one way or the other, but they are readily eliminating it. Very sick people who are obviously poisoned by it, showing all signs of mercury but little to no levels, may be suffering retention toxicity which is very very bad and hard to treat. A doctor here who is an expert in mercury understands this after treating hundreds of patients and he thinks these types are the most poisoned of the lot. an audio tape I have is of a doctor's meeting with a guest speaker Dr Paula bickle who also explains to the doctors to watch out for the mercury toxic patients who show little to no levels, because this is a very difficult senario. Again, retention toxicity. IF it smells like a rose, looks like a rose, generally it is one and no to low levels are a bad sign if you have all the hallmarks, but are not showing anything coming out of you, or at least not enough to show up on testing.

I hope this might explain your situation more, but again I cannot be sure (who can?). 1 year post amalgam removal is often the worst time too. I was at my worst around 1 year to a year and a half post amalgam removal and had to try and get through each day. Chelation sped up the process, but didn't make it easy. Cutler's lessened the side effects somewhat, but never took them away. I always felt ill trying to eliminate this stuff and my body did a terrible job doing so. I held onto it like a magnet! You maybe similar to me, plus you are no doubt (like me) highly reactive to even small amounts of mercury, which indicates that even if you DO have a low level of mercury, you are likely poisoned easily by it. Low for someone else, maybe high for you. peoples' tolerances are different, immune status, everything comes into it. So whether it's "truly" low, or "falsely low" you are obviously poisoned.

Have you done any further chelation since the testing?