[I] may have started round 22 with guns blazing, but the enemy was more powerful than expected and after four and a half days, I made a tactical withdrawal. Having intended to chelate for six nights, I was forced to give up early, saving myself for another try at the 75 mg bar in March or April.
During this ugly round I happened to read a paragraph in An Army at Dawn that struck a cord, where the author is describing a failed campaign in Tunisia against Sened Station and quotes an officer who survived:
It was the most terrible thing I had ever seen, not the bodies and parts of bodies near smoking vehicles, some sitting, some scattered, some blue from powder burns — it was the expressions on the faces of those who wandered listlessly around the wreckage, not knowing where to go or what to do, saying, “This can’t happen to us.”
I’ve often had that feeling of bewilderment, confusion and disbelief about being struck by an illness lasting decades. Especially during a difficult round, it’s easy to fall into this.
But, as intense as this round was, and as much as it was a failure, it was different from my early intense experiences – there were no sharp pains and no sudden depression, everything was kind of blunted. I did feel overwhelmed and I did give up early, but there was still a pattern of diminishing difficulty during the first three days and my redistribution day wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.
On my redistribution day I took a bunch of extra liposomal vitamin C and magnesium and it really lifted me up – too much so, in fact.
In my next round, I will repeat my DMSA/ALA combination from round 21 and then in the following round I’ll try the 75 mg ALA dose once more. Next time, I think I’ll nail it.
Round 22 (4.5 days) – 75 mg ALA every two hours, total chelation days to date: 93.5
- Saturday, February 8: this is an increase of 15 mg, a large jump for me, started at 9 AM, no energy surge but also no increase in fatigue. By two or 3 PM strong confusion / IQ drop and memory impairment – extremely slow mentally and pressure in the head but no headache. Sinuses also affected, hard to describe how, but something funny going on as if I had a cold maybe. Very common side effect. Lips are a little swollen and dry but not as bad as in my last round with DMSA.
- Sunday, February 9: very depleted at 3 PM, voice even cracking and raspy, very irritable today but overall much better than yesterday – brain much more functional again, napped, some mild lower abdomen pain yesterday and today, mild frontal pressure at times, slept poorly waking before each alarm during the night.
- Monday, February 10: two sets of stairs and three sets of 30 jumping jacks gave me brain fog right afterwards, mild headache on and off today, cramping and lower back, dry lips and hands, hard day, very fatigued but unable to nap, slept deeply at night.
- Tuesday, February 11: woke up feeling far better, like the storm had broken, but I had to take the car to the shop and walk home, then walk back to pick it up later and I think the exercise was too much for me because by evening I felt destroyed with a steady mild headache and was thinking of quitting the round. At bed time I was feeling better again and decided to keep going, thinking it was just the exercise that pushed me over the edge.
- Wednesday, February 12: feeling better again in the morning but still feel the accumulated fatigue. This round probably won’t last much longer… still functional enough to work most of the day, some tinnitus in the afternoon, strongest I’ve ever experienced although still probably mild, some strange pains in my head near the bottom of my ear, headache again in the evening, last dose at 5 PM, I’m done, I give up !!
- Thursday, February 13: first day off round – better energy than expected, took lots of extra lipo-c and 600 mg extra sunflower lecithin, 200 mg extra magnesium or so. Very warm in the afternoon and evening – methylation cranking up, must be from lecithin. Very dry lips in evening. slept poorly and woke too warm and after nightmare, all typical methylation symptoms.