[T]hat’s not me in the picture but it’s how I felt in round 18. It started off with a bang – a powerful surge of energy that sent me doing every kind of errand on the first afternoon, running madly around from one store to another, fixing things around the house etc. This was my first ALA-only round and first time with 60 mg on the shorter 2 hour schedule.
By Wednesday I was jittery and exhausted and thinking of ending the round because it was too intense, like riding a bucking bronco. But, I slept well that night and woke up calmer on Thursday and was able to continue the round for 8.5 days. When I finally quit, the sleep loss combined with energy, “wired and tired” was just too much. You could see the sleep debt around my eyes.
But I’m feeling very happy about the round because my side effects were minimal this time. Almost no head pressure, no depression and just a few short-lived minimal headaches. My redistribution day was also mild. I was productive every single day even if my late afternoons were a bit of a loss and I experienced a little euphoria.
So that’s the news — I think the two-month break I took from chelation to ramp up methylation and fish oil has paid off as it did for Viking. I haven’t found a magical dose schedule and my chelation experience is not perfect but I think it’s good enough and all going in the right direction.
During this round, I switched from Isocort to hydrocortisone without any hiccups and reached my fish oil target at 3.2 grams of omega-3. I also increased my SAMe up to 800 mg and my Lipo C up to 2 g. Next, I’m going to work on adding another 800 mg of metafolin.
I’m going to target two chelation rounds a month – five days of DMSA and ALA and seven days of ALA only (hoping to reach 100 mg every two hours within six months).
My next round will be 50 mg DMS and 25 mg ALA every two hours during the day with one three-hour stretch at night. This is the schedule I’ve settled on: 11:15 PM – 2:15 AM – 4:45 AM – 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Here are my round notes:
Round 18 (8.5 days) – 60 mg ALA every 2 hours, total chelation days to date: 74
- Monday, November 25: Started this round 11 AM after getting some important work done. I thought I had tried ALA only once before but after lots of digging it appears this is my first round without any DMSA. I’m excited to try something new! First dose gave me a nice energy surge. This comes as a relief because yesterday my energy was so low I was worried. The background: I had a migraine for three days triggered by switching from a dry vitamin D, to an olive oil-based D3. , worried that maybe the my fish oil had some unreported vitamin D in it so I switched to flax oil. That day my energy was very low, but I’m also in the process of tapering down isocort so I don’t know what the cause was. Anyway, migraine is gone and today I’m back on fish oil and increased befotiamine by 150mg to 300 mg. Tremendous energy surge lasted all day long – ran loads of errands in the afternoon and evening. Slept well to first alarm, woke early before the second alarm and took second dose early but forgot to turn the alarm off. Slept lightly and poorly for the second half of the night. This was my intended schedule: 11:15 PM – 2:15 AM – 4:45 AM – 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- Tuesday, November 26: Feeling mildly energetic in spite of sleep loss.
- Wednesday, November 27: Jittery and exhausted – feeling like giving up in the afternoon and evening, on the verge of saying this is too intense, I’m done.
- Thursday, November 28: Slow and fatigued in the morning and feeling better and more relaxed in the afternoon. Have broken through to the other side! Switched from Isocort to HC (12.5 mg) after tapering down to 5 pellets.
- Friday, November 29: Some euphoria and emotional in the morning on the drive to Frisco. Continued chelation and all supplements while tubing, awesome!! Exhausted in the afternoon. Felt onset of migraine but may have stocked it with cold headband, ibuprofen and ACV.
- Saturday, November 30: Feeling worn down and headache all afternoon after getting tired out by family activity. increased SAMe by 200mg to 800mg total. heartburn at night resulting in poor sleep.
- Sunday, December 1: Slow, fatigued in the morning from bad night, unable to nap because of some stressful situations. Oddly enough feeling somewhat energetic and better than I should in the afternoon. Inclined my bed 6 inches at the head. Slept well finally.
- Monday, December 2: Somewhat fatigued in the morning. Restarted DHEA with 10 mg at breakfast hoping it will raise my low blood pressure.
- Tuesday, December 3: Generally worn down but still productive, unable to nap, exhausted in the evening. no headache or other noticeable effects other than fatigue after last dose.
- Wednesday, December 4 (off-round): Fatigued but still getting a nice pickup from supplements and feeling productive.