[I]nstead of screwing around here, maybe I should be working now.
But I hate to leave anything unsaid when it comes to chelation and my recovery. After 12 years of being ill I think I’m entitled to indulge myself with a little obsession.
My notes for this round are at the bottom but to summarize, it was nice to chelate again after 30 days off, and especially good to go back to my old, safe dosages. I had a lot going on in addition to the chelation: started doing 3o second sprints, continued titrating up iodine and B12 therapy supplements.
I’m extremely pleased with my new exercise routine. I’ve got a strong intuition that the cardio workout was one of the missing pieces to my puzzle, even if my total sprints currently add up to 90 seconds. Also very pleased with the impact of D-Ribose right after exercising. It clears my brain quickly which at least makes me feel much better about exercising.
While I was on vacation, maybe because I had time to think, I started wondering whether or not I’m healing. I thought about it a lot and I suspect most people on the Cutler protocol think about it often at this stage in the game. I want signs. I want tangible proof that my dreams are coming true, that my investment is paying off.
For some lucky people like Patti, the minute they start chelating, they feel remarkably better. I suspect that happens more often with those who haven’t been sick for more than a couple years and whose basket of metals is not chock-full with a wide variety of toxins like mine. I’m expecting that I’ll need to chelate for three or four years.
But here’s what I think about healing. Healing does not feel like recovery does. Healing involves feeling sick and sleeping a lot. Think about the last time you had a severe cold or flu. If you’re like me, you feel absolutely miserable for 3 or 4 days and then you feel plain sick for another day or two and then you feel better and better for the last day or two.When were you actually healing? Without a doubt, you were healing during the 3 or 4 days you felt absolutely miserable. That’s when your immune system started mobilizing the troops and fighting skirmishes with the invaders.
What I’m trying to get at is that healing creeps up on you slowly. It happens invisibly at first and often surprises you at the end. You’re so focused on being miserable that you don’t easily notice subtle improvements (like needing less medication and tolerating higher doses of good things like exercise or vitamin C and D) until suddenly you wonder, when did I get better and how did I miss it happening?
I’m reminded of the remarkable pattern that I saw a reading through 1,500+ pages of the active B12 therapy forum. People deny getting better even as they mention not needing sleep medication any longer or having fewer symptoms. I think that’s because when you’re ill like I am, you’ve got a whole constellation of problems a few of which bother you so much, you can’t easily see past those ball-and-chain symptoms.
My intuition says I’m healing, but honestly, the experience I’m living is a little too chaotic and maybe it’s just too early for it to be plainly obvious. I might need 40 or 50 rounds before I get to ‘just plain obvious’.
What is healing like for you?
My chelation round notes:
Round 12 (2.5 days) – 50 mg DMSA, 50 mg ALA every 3 hours after 30 days off chelation, total chelation days to date: 31
- Monday, June 24: a little surge of energy in the early morning, a little emotional in the afternoon after doing my first 60 second workout. Some lightheadness in afternoon & evening. Woke from nightmare after only 1.5 hrs sleep (very unusual). First 60 sec run on treadmill at pace 6. Increased carnitine by 333 mg to a total of 1.2 g.
- Tuesday, June 25: second 60 sec run on treadmill using 30 sec intervals on level 8. Frontal headache in the evening. Sharp pains around the ribs when I woke in the morning. Increased milk thistle by one capsule to a total of three. Jaw/face tension after dinner.
- Wednesday, June 26: ran at 10 AM on treadmill – 3 30 second intervals at level 9. Difficulty napping after lunch: maybe too much vitamin C too early in the day. Strong lightheadedness starting at 2 PM when I took my carnitine and DMSA/ALA dose at exactly the same time. Mostly faded by 4:30 PM. My recollection is that Freddd says ALA is one of the supporting supplements for methylation. Maybe that’s the explanation. Increased evening dose of iodine by 3 mg.
- Thursday, June 27 (first day off-round): My last dose was 11 PM on Wednesday so naturally I didn’t sleep very well. Even so, this round was relatively easy having gone back to comfortable dosing at 50mg/50mg. Today I’m a little slow and fatigued but much better than I was on the rounds when I was increasing dosage above 50mg.