Chelation update, added ALA!

Round 7 for me this weekend and today began with my first ALA + DMSA dose ever!  Since I had my fillings out in early March, I had to wait three months post-exposure to add the ALA.  I used only the DMSA for those three months to reduce the body burden first.  Now I am playing with the big guns!

ALA is the only chelator that crosses the blood brain barrier.  I don't know what I expected after taking the first dose, but considering how neurologically effected I can be by mercury and chelation, I expected something more.  So far, I feel nothing different.  I started with a very low dose (only 7.5mg) so I don't make this too hard on myself and considering how it effects our kids when we increase ALA (which we did last weekend), I was sure I would feel something, anything.  Maybe it will take time and tomorrow I will be either a basket-case or a space-cadet!  I like to keep my doses manageable, because I have to consider the fact that I am still a mom of two who need me to think clearly, plus life goes on, all around me.

Speaking of life going on around me....I have been very distracted lately, by this mold issue.  It's gotten uglier and more complicated.  We found more mold while going through our basement and cleaning everything out, so now we need more remediation.  The good news is that these two spots are superficial and very minor, but we plan to treat it like we did the leaks, with containment and safety measures all in place.  And the timing of everything is SO confusing, with a different contractor for just about every step.  Test (environmentalist), put up containment areas (mold contractor), remove building materials to reach mold (general contractor), controlled mold demolition (mold contractor), rebuild (general contractor), leave containments up, clean (us and mold contractor), test (environmentalist), take down containments (mold contractor).  Plus we need our HVAC duct work scoped and cleaned and the question of whether we clean before testing has yet to be answered.  I would think we would want to clean the duct work first though, so we can have the airflow tested again as part of our clearance sampling...which means we better figure out who is doing this part ASAP, because keeping the large HEPA filters in our home is costing $200 a WEEK!

Clearing out the basement is painful, but I am keeping our goal in mind the whole way.  It is driving me through tossing furniture, boxes for my collectibles, hair dressing chairs, jewelry I have made, shoes that were supposed to be Gavin's after Grayson grew out of them (I have a shoe thing), baby things like strollers, high chairs, bassinets, bouncy seats, cloth diapers, toys, memories, all of our Christmas ornaments, and basically anything porous or would cost less to replace than to pay a man $50 an hour to clean!  It makes sense and we don't want "stuff" to get in the way of our health, so we are just tearing through it, but MAN, what a HUGE job!!  We ordered a dumpster and have already FILLED it, but we aren't done (scratching head).....and it is hot out now so the suits, goggles, face masks and gloves are ridiculously hot!  We still have some huge furniture to lug out to the dumpster, should be interesting.

Life is never dull around here!  The boys are on Diflucan for two weeks to see, if their constant coughing is a fungal infection.  So far, all it has proven to do is bloat them enormously.  They are still coughing.  So perhaps it really is just a stubborn cold, who knows.  The saga continues...

Seeing the WOWs, but what did it?

We are seeing AMAZING changes and we are even starting to see some consistency, things were all over the place before. I just can't put my finger on which was the major "wow-factor" or if it was a combination of things. Here is what we have done recently, and in this order:

1-Started Flagyl and Diflucan (based on yeast and bacteria markers in Organic Acid Test), also started SeriPhos for anxiety.

2-Added artichoke extract to the milk thistle we were already using to add more liver support (trying to address his whole body itchiness with either anxiety and/or liver stress as the cause)

3-Added OLE daily (200mg)

4-Started Nystatin once a day

5-A gland that has been raised on the side of his neck since he was a year old (and I mean VISIBLY raised) has gone down significantly, some days it's not even palpable! This is major.

6-Increased buffered Vit C to about 1000-1200mg a day to help with irritability (we had reduced it for oxalate issues and found him to become increasingly more irritable without the high levels of C)

7-Noticed his tongue was spotted and almost coated looking and pimples on rear (probably related to the die off from gut bug meds)

8-Stopped giving calcium (suspecting hypocalcemia), as a rial, just giving 360mg buffered mag oxide instead

9-Increased Nettle tea (about 1/2 cup a day) for calcium and possible allergies (we had used this before in smaller quantities)

10-Stopped first ten day course of Flagyl and Diflucan

11-Added 1/4cap of ACE (Adrenal Cortex Extract) for possible adrenal fatigue (we started seeing major changes about here, literally immediately)

12-Increased Milk Thistle by at least 200mg per day for itching, seems to have helped, but itching is still there throughout the day (still can't quite figure this out, but may be related to toxic release)

13-BMs have FINALLY gone from a very loose, strange consistency and foul smelling to NORMAL and not smelly, still undigested materials in them though (nuts, buckwheat groats and sunflower seeds seem to remain undigested)

14-OMG, as I was writing this, I noticed a crazy rash all over his upper torso! It looks like chicken pox! They are evenly spaced little pimples, he said they don't itch. They go from his collarbone and back of the neck to his mid-torso, they are not on his arms, legs or face....We just started the OLE 11 days ago (it is a top rated antiviral) and strangely, that coincides with when we saw the gland go down! The gland originally popped up right after his 12 month vaccinations, it came with what looked like a mild case of the chicken pox then too! But it also coincides with when we started the Nystatin, so it could also be from die-off of gut bugs. We haven't given him a bath, put any lotions or anything new on him either.

The point we are at now....verbal stims are almost non-existant except when he seems to need some OoO (3 drops), Biotin (20mg) and 1 No Fenol for yeast, we give this 2-3 times a day, we haven't had any meltdowns in DAYS, the anger is gone, the anxiety is non-existant, he is silly and talkative, almost hyper, but more appropriate kid stuff and he is listening well when we ask him to calm down, defiance has subsided. He must be feeling good. He goes to bed around 8pm and wakes no earlier than 8 or 8:30am, even 9-9:30am some days (and this is a child who used to wake a 5:45 before chelation!!). He is still itching, but now I can't tell if it's habit, a stim, yeast, related to allergies (he has no other signs of environmental allergies), or just plain die-off side effects. Between cleaning out the liver, killing off the gut bugs and chelating metals, he has a lot that could be coming from his pores. This is the first time in almost a year that we have had consistent days like this. We will be going onto another course of Flagyl and Diflucan. Once we go off the Flagyl, we will retest with another OAT (Organic Acid Test) which our DAN! might have actually gotten covered by insurance!!! WOO HOOOOOO!! (happy dance)

These have been the biggest WOWS we have had. In fact, yesterday we had a play date with two boys we haven't seen in ages, he was FABULOUS the whole time, playing nicely, sharing (wow), laughing. The play date we had before this last one was one disaster after another, he hit the boy, he cried, he lost his temper, screamed and had no patience the whole time, grabbed toys left and right, but this was just a few days into his meds so I am sure we were dealing with die-off.

More questions, as usual

Another new layer unfolds. It always appears that with our gains, comes the confusion of additional changes. We have been seeing major gains in Grayson lately, he is just flourishing in between rounds of chelation, but with each round we unveil yet another new possible problem. It seems like we change his supplements monthly....talk about heavy on the wallet? And with each new issue comes the recommendation of more testing...also out of pocket expenses for us. We just can't keep going at this pace or we will be out of a house in no time! We are trying to pace ourselves, but this is something that is very hard to do. A parent wants to do EVERYTHING possible to help their child, NOW, not when the paycheck allows it. It is painful to know that we need to be doing more for him, but we are forced to decide on what is most important at the time...ya know, like eat dinner or try a new supplement that MIGHT work...pay the gas bill or run another test to see how his liver is handling the chelation. How does one prioritize these things when they don't have a decent flow of income, is beyond me?? I am grateful for our ability to at least do what we can.

So the antifunal and antibacterial meds worked wonders, wow, what a difference!! We see such marvelous gains in him, he is calmer more regularly, he is waking in a GREAT mood, sleeping well and until after 8am every day (heaven!) sometimes I even have to wake him after 9:15am! The down side to the meds is that they put additional strain on the liver, which mercury and chelation also do. This is such a balancing game. We have increased the appropriate vitamins: vitamin C, B and E three times a day, plus we have added an additional liver support, artichoke extract. We also figured out that he probably has adrenal fatigue, which would cause the severe mood swings so we added Adrenal Cortex Extract, perhaps this is the cause for our recent wows. He has been pretty amazing for the past three days or so...hmmm, yes, it might be the ACE after all! BUT....isn't this always the way, with all these great changes we have seen a significant increase in itching. Crazy, frustrating, nonstop all over body itching!! He uses the back of his hands rather than fingertips, he rubs under his chin, across his forehead, along the sides of his head and ears, up his forearms rubbing them along the sides of his body, then he truly itches in the classic sense, his shins and ankles, both sides at the same time. This goes on all the time lately and it has been irking me trying to figure out the cause. We have spoken with Dr. Woeller and Dr. Schmidt. We have considered allergies, although it's not consistent with anything in particular (we tried removing foods and using Benedryl, which interestingly sometimes helps for a while) but nothing seemed to be addressing the root cause. I posted this concern on the Autism-Mercury Yahoo Group site and one person struck a cord. He said that liver stress can cause whole body itching. Between chelation, heavy metals moving through his body and then taking the additional medications, this makes complete sense. Of course, he recommended more testing, but he also said that if we increase his liver support and the itching subsides, we have our answer. I tested this tonight and it seems to have actually worked!! Although, only for about 2 hours or so. I am going to work with his Milk Thistle (which I don't think I have been dosing enough daily) and artichoke extract and might even add in another liver support, maybe going back to the liver life. Even with this newest event, we couldn't be happier with the results of the medications! We have to go back on them for one more round, to be sure we got all of the spores in every stage of their life cycle. Then about 7 days after we stop the Flagyl this time around, we are going to do another OAT test and see how his levels have changed. This is all fine and dandy, but what I am really curious about is how we will keep them down naturally, after we have stopped all of the meds. That is yet to be determined and only time will tell, but for now, I am enjoying the ride!