So now the wait begins to see what’s going to happen, and if I’m going to go backward and get sicker, have fun things like Candida and other weirdness pop out, regress back into food allergies, have severe digestive issues, and the like. I’ve read all can happen while chelating. Some people have it happen the first 6 months, for others it starts after 6 months, but loosing gains is common while you pull out mercury. Even those who are in good health and decide to chelate preemptively after amalgam removal have this happen, so it’s no indication that you’re not eating right or not doing something else right- it’s part of the healing process from mercury removal. I’ve yet to meet someone who chelated and only went upwards in their progress without any regression. My hope is that I don’t regress into food allergies while getting the mercury out. I’ve been down that road and I’m ready to move on. Some people have brain fog, neurological symptoms, and other such fun while chelating. We’re praying that all of this will be kept to a minimum and the chelation will progress quickly and smoothly, so I can regain my health quickly. Most people say they feel much better after 6 months, even though they don’t have a complete resolution of symptoms in that time. A complete resolution of all symptoms takes 1-3 years, and some never reach that point.

I’ve started some supplements to take while chelating to help preemptively deal with what might happen. To prevent Candida, I’m working up to high doses of S. boulardii along with my probiotics. I already eat a relatively sweetener-free diet, so I won’t change what I’m eating unless I see it’s necessary. For the potential regression into food allergies, L-glutamine, digestive enzymes and pascalite clay.

My current list of daily supplements:

Once my lab results are back, we’ll add others like B-vitamins and whatever else the tests show I need. By looking at my fingernails, we know I’m B-12 deficient, and we know my test results show that as well.

I’m still reeling from that food exposure last week with a headache, backache and constant stomachache. So while I can’t say that I feel good, at least the OSR hasn’t given me a worsening of symptoms. Yet. I have a feeling I need to get strapped in because it’s going to be a bumpy ride. I’ve yet to meet someone who chelated and only went upwards in their progress without any regression, either periodic or at the beginning.

My long-range plan right now is to use OSR for a period of 6-9 months, then re-evaluate and possibly switch to ALA/DMSA in cycles per Cutler’s protocol, if it’s needed.

My two big mercury exposures as an adult both happened right before I got pregnant with Belle. Once we’ve got me on the road to health, they’re next. We’re going to have them tested to see if they need to be chelated. And Jeff’s got 16 amalgams in his mouth to deal with, and then we’ll put him through chelation. I might take another 2-3 years to recover my health, but it looks like we’ve got a long road of dealing with mercury in front of me before we can move on.

Tomorrow, Jeff will be picking up the OSR if all goes well. I’ve talked with someone who has taken it and it has done well for him, but I’m still uneasy about trying out something new, in case it does make me worse. We’ll give it a few weeks and then re-evaluate to see if it’s working and if the side effects, if any, are enough to continue. I know to expect some digestive issues at first, but they should clear quickly. No one I have spoken to has noticed any other side effects, and some people have gotten better. I’ve ordered a Cap-M-Quick and empty capsules from Frontier to help me get it down, as I’ve been warned from multiple sources that it tastes incredibly bad. I’ll get it down however I have to until the Cap-M-Quick arrives.

I’m beginning to wonder if I have other weirdness going on. I’ve been taking Vitamin C along with the salt, though not purposefully trying to do a salt/C protocol. I’ve had some rashes come out. Painless, doesn’t itch. At any rate, anything like that dying and getting pushed out is good.

Even though I’m having the adrenal attacks, I still don’t have the pain and heaviness I had been experiencing in my arms and legs, I’m still thinking clearly. The low back pain is back, but it’s clearly adrenal pain around the waist and there isn’t any muscle pain with it, so it’s not as bad as what I had been experiencing. I don’t have the muscle pain and soreness all over. So the shot was a definite help, it just hasn’t dealt with the adrenal issues. It wasn’t meant to directly deal with the adrenal issues, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

Tomorrow I will increase my salt intake to 2 tsp and will also make sure I take in at least 8 cups of water. I also need to make some final decisions on what supplements I’m going to stay on and which ones to change or drop. We do know I’m low on B12 as a minimum. I also need to work on making sure I’m taking in enough calories and fat to help keep me from spiraling and dropping weight again. The adrenal attacks are hard on your food intake.

Finally, I found the Adrenal Fatigue thread on MDC, and got saliva testing done. Amazingly, my cotrisol test came back HIGH. I was shocked. I had every symptoms of low cotrisol. So I got online and started reading. I found Dr. John Wilson at Great Smokies Medical Center here in Asheville, who had some awesome stuff on his website. He had accurate, excellent information on adrenal fatigue, thyroid treatment, and even recommends raw milk on his website!

Last Wednesday, Jeff and I went to see Dr. Wilson with my saliva tests in hand. He looked at my saliva test, and the first thing he asked is if I had an open sore or bleeding gums when my testing was done. I did have a gum bleed. He immediately realized there was a problem with the test results. We talked for over 2 hours. He did muscle testing, looked at past test results and medical records I brought with me, and we ran a huge number of lab tests. Muscle testing showed I am mercury toxic, and I do have low B-12, adrenal issues and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. We’re waiting to see what else the lab results show. We have decided that as a minimum I will do an anti-oxidant that has a side effect of pulling mercury out of the brain. Once the other results are in, we’ll see if there’s anything else to add to that list.

So today, I got in the kitchen and worked like a mad woman, only breaking to process subscriptions and eat a big lunch. At 2 o’clock I sat down and realized I felt tired. I took a nap around 2:45, and when I woke up about 3:30, I knew I had overdone it. My arms were back to feeling like lead and I was nauseated. I laid on the couch until time to finish dinner. After dinner, I had a low-aldosterone, adrenal attack and started dumping fluid. So tomorrow, I will take it at a more reasonable pace. I am going to have to curb my enthusiasm and not over-do it, or I could likely set myself back. Now that the attack is over, my arms aren’t feeling like they have lead in them anymore, and I’m feeling ok even though it’s 10 o’clock at night. Comparatively, it was a mild adrenal attack, but it was enough to warn me to pace myself and not get crazy and to continue to ask people to help as I need it. I’m hopeful I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling good.

The anti-oxidant is by Dr. Boyd Haley, and is called OSR, or Oxidative Stress Reducer. I’ll start once the doctor’s office gets another shipment in. It’s oral and it dumps through the bowels instead of the kidneys and is said to only pull mercury from the central nervous system. As I learn more about it, I’ll post more. I can tell you already that it’s highly controversial, and a lot of folks in the chelation community have extremely strong opinions on which protocol is best, or is the only one that should be used by everyone. In just joining some lists and saying that I was doing a doctor-led protocol instead of trying to piece it together myself or from a book, I’ve already been attacked over it by those who feel all of the doctors are wrong except the one they happen to follow. I’ve had more than one person tell me, quite rudely, that I’m going to make myself much, much sicker just because I’m seeing a doctor for treatment and they just want to experiment on people. I’m praying for discernment and the ability to sift the grain from the chaff as I learn more about this area of regaining my health.

I’m most anxious to get my hair and neurotransmitter testing back, and my individual nutrient levels, since we already know my B12 is low. The hair testing will give us the full range of heavy metals and a full picture of what we’re facing with the chelation. I’ll post to the blog often through this journey so you can follow the progress of my treatment. As we get test results back, I’ll post them here.

So needless to say, we were shocked. None of us had considered that has a possibility, even though he’s had them in the past. Since his car accident in 2004 he’s in such pain that when things like this happen, he can’t tell you where it hurts. Thanks to our wonderful VA system, he does not have adequate pain relief. The local pain relief clinic wanted thousands, then still wouldn’t give him enough to relieve the pain adequately. They didn’t want to ‘get him addicted.’

So what’s the right choice here? Someone who lives in such pain 24/7 that he can’t function at all at any time, or someone who can function but is on a potentially addictive medicine and is monitored?

Did that doctor check his brain when he walk into medical school? Did he skip the Hippocratic oath? Sadly, I already know the answer to that one. They’re more concerned about possible legal liability than they are helping a patient have any quality of life.

So hopefully things will be better soon and I can go home in a week or two. But dad’s chronic pain and inability to function remain. He’s aged 30 years in the last few months, and is barely able to move and isn’t functioning on any real level. Adequate pain relief would give him at least some of his life back. The thing is finding a doctor willing to help and having the money to do it.

If Sandra Lee spent as much time and money on the food as she does those tablescapes, she could be an awesome cook with some wonderful, traditional foods.

I don’t know whether it’s a relic of culture or a lack of skill or both, but many women think the same way.

My dad isn’t in good shape and the packing is going slow.  At this point I’m doing everything by myself and it’s slow going since I still have to worry about taking care of the kids and everything else.  It’s probably going to take me another week as a minimum to finish the packing in the house before I can start packing the garage.

That means that when we are here to visit, we have to deal with having gluten in the environment. Trying to function in a kitchen that isn’t yours and has gluten in it can be daunting. What do you do if you know you’re going to be in a gluten-filled environment?

The keys are coming prepared and avoiding contamination. If you have notice that you have to travel, making freezer meals is ideal. But I had little notice of this trip and because I only had two single-serving meals in the freezer, I knew we’d need those for the night we arrived. I’d have to cook once I got here because the freezer stash had been used up in the move. Making a detailed food packing list including the menu for the week and what you’ll need to accomplish each meal is key. I pulled out the Rush Meals Crock-pot Issue (Volume A Issue B) and used the shopping list to pull from my pantry. I packed my crock-pot and some food storage containers, my skillet and a couple of saucepans, knife and cutting board, some disposable plates, and then made a quick run to the store for what I needed that wasn’t in my pantry. I also picked up some extras like calcium-fortified OJ, fruit, some trail mix for the car ride, and a box of cereal for an emergency breakfast in case I woke up sick one morning and wouldn’t be able to cook. I knew lunches would be covered since the meals make enough for 4 people, and it’s just me and the kids. Breakfast was covered with some eggs, and I had the crockpot and some quinoa so I could do a fruit and quinoa porridge.

To avoid contamination, I’m keeping my items in closed boxes. I turn the pots and pans over in case any flour goes flying, it will settle on the bottom of the pots. I rinse all items before use, just in case, since we’re so hyper-sensitive to exposure. Cooking in a covered crock-pot is ideal, because my mom is a late riser. I’ll start my dinner in the mornings before mom has gotten up and gotten in the kitchen, and any dust floating around has had a chance to settle overnight.

So traveling when you have celiac or gluten intolerance isn’t impossible if you have a game-plan ahead of time, or an already prepared menu like a rush meals issue and a stocked pantry to pull from if you have to leave in an emergency.

So we made it back to Mount Olive.  It took about 6 hours in the car, about half of it while raning. I brought some pre-cooked meals with us I had frozen for just this purpose.  I felt like we were practically moving again, we had to bring so much food with us.  In order to have something to eat, we have to drive 70-miles one way to get to a Whole Foods, so I came prepared to stay two weeks.