[R]ound 19 was a real pain in the ass, as is every round I do with DMSA. It seems 50 mg of DMSA is the maximum recommended by Dr. Cutler and I had done that much and more on a three-hour schedule before, but this was the first time I did it on a two hour schedule, which I find more intense. Over time, I’ll probably increase the amount of ALA that I combine with my DMSA, but for now this particular combination is not fun.
As usual, after three days it gets a little easier, but then my sleep debt starts to accumulate and after a few more days, I’m totally ready to quit.
I made the terrible mistake of increasing folate ( an additional 200 mcg) on my first day off round thereby combining side effects from folate with the redistribution day and it was ugly! Lesson learned.
This overzealousness came about because I want to reach 4 mg of folate by the end of the year. A totally arbitrary goal, but one I am going to hit. I’m more and more convinced that folate and methylation is really central to my recovery…
In other news, in my search for migraine solutions, I came across magnesium threonate which is the only magnesium that crosses the blood brain barrier. I’ve been taking it for a few days now and feel more relaxed. I’m sleeping better too! All the other magnesium types I’ve tried energize me instead of relaxing me, so there really is something to the MGT/blood brain barrier thing.
I should mention also that I still fret often about whether or not I’m healing. I have difficulty knowing because, first, I’m always pushing my limits and feeling crappy as a result, and second, there’s always some crisis in my life disrupting my routines and causing stress which leaves me feeling crappy too.
I’ll start my next round ALA only this coming Sunday. My round notes:
Round 19 (4.5 days) – 25 mg ALA & 50 mg DMSA every 2 hours, total chelation days to date: 78.5
- Monday, December 9: This is the first time I’ve done 50 mg DMSA every two hours. Started with 9 AM dose after sleeping very well last night. a mild headache for an hour or two after first dose. Reasonably good energy which led me to run a couple earns but very slow mentally, slower then when I use ALA only. Slept reasonably well, woken by first and second alarm ( I never sleep through to the third).
- Tuesday December 10th: An unremarkable day. Enough energy to be productive but enough apathy to prefer doing nothing… a little bit of frontal pressure in the head. Still, this feels better than the 25 mg ALA / 25 mg DMSA round that I did as I seem to have a little more energy. May want to try 50 mg ALA with my 50 mg DMSA next time in January…
- Wednesday, December 11: Mentally slow in the morning. Slow and fatigued in the afternoon. Exhausted and wanting to quit this round in early evening but feeling remarkably better around bedtime.
- Thursday, December 12: Mentally slow in the morning. Slow and fatigued in the afternoon – strong sleep debt. Remaining mostly productive but feeling crappy on this round most of the time. Really don’t like DMSA, wish I could quit this round already.
- Friday, December 13: Very happy to be ending the round this evening. a little bit of headache/frontal pressure in the morning. Increased DHEA by 5 mg because I ran out of 10 mg pills which I was previously dividing between breakfast and lunch. So today I took a 25 mg at breakfast. Pulse and blood pressure have been low during this round as usual.
- Saturday, December 14: