Hi Beth,

I thought you were the man in the picture (silly me didn't notice the love heart), yet I kept sensing the feminine about you lol. So I was right instinctively! Not that I don't sometimes get it wrong. It's not always easy on the net.

I think by your symptoms that the DMSA is definitely doing its thing. I know how it feels to kind of dread the next round. I am doing DMSA right now believe it or not. Though I've had all that in my past, I wanted to give it a go to see if anything would happen. But it hasn't. I also tried ALA not long ago at extremely high doses and nothing happened there either. It's just a test in case to see if there is any remaining mercury and looks like there isn't anything significant enough going on (so far). It's only because I had a visit to the dentist earlier this year and last year and got worse after it, which usually means exposure to office mercury vapor. Though I've had no amalgams for many years, I still get ill from walking into a dentla office. However, evenso, chelation doesn't appear to be doing anything this time.

Since you have been mercury free for over 4 months, you can certainly bring ALA onboard if you want. However, because the DMSA is having an impact, you may want to do that for awhile longer before adding ALA and see if you can bring the levels down a bit more perhaps.

50 mg is actually a pretty high dose for many people. Too high for some. So going down to 50 mg, is not really a drop in my opinion. I used that dose consistently when I was mercury toxic and I was getting well from it. I have found that it doens't actually matter so much, as long as you are getting symptoms the mercury is being moved/removed, OR improvement. One or the other can occur. You can usually feel something is going on if you are poisoned and chelate.

I can understand the memory problems big time. I know how that feels and I have to read something over and over and over. I always forget, even when I think I won't. Referring to the book is a great help. If you can get it? Great. At any rate, check this link out here INDEX POSTS TO ANDY CUTLER because this is a webpage with questions and answers with Andy Cutler. You should find it a great help. It guides you about supplements, dose, when to start ALA and why. Symptoms, timing etc etc.

This may also be uplifting for you to read:
CUTLER PROTOCOL TESTIMONIES

I hope that your next round maybe a little more tolerable. It's pretty heavy going because you're taking a dose every 4 hours, which mounts up to alot of chelation. Andy's book states to do one week on, one week off. Though he's made some adjustments for those more poisoned and sensitive. And his protocol is more flexible regarding that side of it. Though the dosing (frequent) remains fixed for good reason.

As long as you chelate for 3 days or longer and take a break for about the same or longer. It's not wise to chelate longer than a week or two weeks. Chelation can really use up the minerals from the strain of it and you do get broken sleep. Breaks are needed for recovery.

Keep us posted!