Hi Jeanie,

You've got a gift with those needy children and adults that I don't have, but I admire it in others. They need people like you to help them. Good luck with whatever you choose to do

I hope things are going well for you at school. Our summer break starts in mid-July and ends at the end of August. We've got 3 weeks left. This is the third day I've spent planning a particular book I'm going to teach, and I've planned in more detail than ever before for a variety of reasons. I've got 8 more classes to plan after that, and 3 weeks left. I'm just constantly stressed. I've never been in a school where I've been expected to teach so much in such a short space of time. The way they have structured the curriculum, none of the kids will have time to read a complete novel in class until they get to the age where they have to write about one in an exam, which is 14-16 years old. Seems pretty daft to me. We are also expected to plan all these dynamic lesson "starters" so I've structured some grammar teaching for that and need to write some resources. I swear, I just want to sit down and cry. Right now I'd willingly go wait tables, empty people's bins, anything apart from this pressure.

I'm not sure about the chelation either. I'm back to the conundrum of why I feel better on DMSA, but if I miss a single dose (let alone a few days off), I feel worse. I'm thinking I might be having some sort of reaction to the DMSA which is non-mercury related. I'd be OK to keep up with it just to see, but it's hitting my adrenals very hard and they are already in poor shape. I tried dropping the dose from 12.5mg to 6mg last night and woke up this morning feeling totally train-wrecked. Stupidly, at lunchtime I tried one more 12.5mg dose. With the mucking around I've done I need to just stop for now, and in a few days try another round and see. Again, I'm in utter confusion as to what to do. I don't know when I'm going to get a hair test interpretation, if at all; I'm waiting to see on the frequent dose chelation list but sometimes things take days to come through there.

If I tried to each chocolate myself, I'd hoover up the whole box This is my sixth sugar-free day and I've been sorely tempted to have some today, but I keep telling myself it won't help anything. The cravings stopped being physical quite a while back, but the mental cravings can still be bad, it's been my "crutch" for so long.

Sorry this is a bit downbeat. Hopefully I will be feeling better in a few days and can write something more positive.

Ta for now,
Linda.