Bex, if you're there, can you remember how you felt between your first rounds of chelation? My memory of mine is hazy but I have a memory of feeling better on chelation and a little worse when resting.
Hi Linda,
For me it differed. If I recall correctly. I sometimes felt worse on round and it was difficult for me to keep chelating. I would sometimes experience a feeling of being almost drugged and very tired. I did feel something happening. Other times I might get an increase in depression and start crying. Sometimes I felt more hyped up....other times it settled my symptoms. There were rounds that I would feel the symptoms increase by the day and I'd feel so ill by about the 4th day,that I was often unable to chelate for a full week. (this is when I used to try doing the one week on, one week off).
It's just that the past couple of "rest" days have been rough. I'm quite fatigued, especially in the evenings. My stomach is upset off and on, again particularly in the evenings, and the headache sneaks back a little at that time too. I was having mild palpitations and racing heart (90 bpm when resting) and experienced that briefly today, though it seems to be dying down -- my feeling is that it was connected with a long release of adrenaline. My insomnia's got worse. It wasn't too bad before. I hadn't expected this to be going on between rounds.
The symptoms during the years of healing from mercury can be distressing to say the least. Sometimes, just when you think you're improving, you can feel the sense of being dragged back where you started (or worse). Also, when you are inbetween rounds, this does not mean mercury is still not coming out. Some is, and some is being reabsorbed until the next round. So symptoms can continue or be worse on occassion. Or of course, you can feel better. There doesn't seem to be any clear repeated pattern.
Expect that your usual symptoms will often be exaggerated. As healing takes place, the symptoms in the areas of trouble can be worse. You can feel you are not healing, but deteriorating. This is where it becomes challenging to continue. It feels either fruitless, or things just feel worse. I had many times of this. Even without chelation, I did too, but perhaps less intense.
I've been taking some pancreatin digestive enzymes and thought I was OK with them because they haven't caused the gastrointestinal upset that other digestive enzymes have; they are enteric coated to be effective in the small intestine. I'll stop those, and the selenium too, and see if either of those has been contributing to this, though I'm not sure why they would. I'm only taking 200mcg of selenium.
It's possible they maybe contributing. Definitely stop them and see. But keep on with the chelation if you can. It's the most important! Chelation is what gets a person well, not supplements. They can help and support the healing process though - if they are the ones we require. I had to stop a number of supplements because I reacted quite badly very easily. I gather that can also be typical with mercury toxicity.
I sometimes started and stopped a number of times. I mainly took vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium. But the selenium was the one I often had to take a break from. So it's definitely one that can cause issues with people.
I've resolved to be brave this time and not allow fears to make me stop chelating. I'm just concerned. The positive effects from those first couple of days of chelation, with ALA alone and later with ALA/DMSA, have completely vanished. I'm hoping that someone with chelation experience can tell me that this can just be the way it goes for a while and that I haven't done something horrible to myself
Yes, please keep chelating Linda if you can. Do not expect each round to be the same. Because the process of mercury elimination never usually is. You can have very difficult rounds, that can leave you feeling awful and wondering why bother? Then you can feel lifted again another time. But this will continue until enough mercury is gone to where you start to truly feel better and for longer periods of time and hopefully permanently.
You haven't done anything horrible to yourself. This is the way it can go, not just for awhile, but sometimes LONG periods of time. This poison is extremely volatile in what it can do to your mind/hormones/emotions. It's changeable, which I guess is why they call behaviours that are changeable "mercurial".
It is typical for a poisoned person to feel very down to it and feel like they have damaged themselves. It is typical to react to different supplements to where you no longer know what is doing what. Starting/stopping etc. This all brings back ALOT of memories for me.
I am still going to get the ALA very very soon. My next lot of supplements I buy will include it. I'm nervous, but in a way, I'm hopeful. So who knows what will happen?
But I relate much to what you are going through here. It is a very slow and very rocky process.
