10 ORGANIZATION AND PRACTICAL MATTERS: GETTING YOURSELF ORGANIZED

Failing that you can go to the drug store and buy a whole bunch of cheap alarm clocks and set them one after another like this:

The old style dial clocks are more convenient because they don’t know am from pm so you only need four to do every three hours around the clock. More modern digital alarms when they are set for 9 am won’t go off again at 9 pm, so you need eight of them.

Figure 10.8. A digital alarm clock

Another good option for keeping track of your chelation schedule is a vibrating alarm watch. They can be a bit challenging to program when you are feeling addled but they have the advantage of always being on your wrist. You can set them to ring or to vibrate or both. Many are available where you can set eight different alarms a day. Watches with up to 12 alarms a day are available.

  10.2.2 Labeled pill boxes and other strategies

This is a pill box with a slot to correspond to every single alarm and every single dose. If you can’t remember what you did just check the appropriate box and if the pill is still there you didn’t take it.

  10.2.3    Paper Cups

Another good system is stacks of little paper pill cups. You can write the dosage time on the outside of each cup. (See figure 10.7.)

  10.2.4    Checklists

You can also keep a checklist to keep track of what is going on with your chelation schedule. Checklists can be done on paper or on a whiteboard.

  10.2.5 Your nighttime dose made easy

Keep your nighttime dose and a glass of water on a bedside table. This way, when the alarm goes off, you can just pop it in your mouth, take a gulp of water and go back to sleep. Be sure you arrange things in such a way that you can tell for sure whether you took that dose or not. You may need to put the alarm out of arm’s reach so you don’t just slap it and go back to sleep and forget your dose.

10.3 Keep a log or diary

An interesting phenomenon of human nature is how quickly we forget bad experiences. Keep a diary, otherwise you may not appreciate the actual progress you are making. A diary can also give you retrospective clues on things you did that hurt or helped. Perhaps you tried a new diet or a new supplement. If you have a symptom log you have some way of figuring out what happened.

Figure 10.12. This is from Rebeccas sporadic chelation diary.

Figure 10.13 More of Rebeccas chelation diary. You just need to keep basic information like this.

10.4 Organizing the rest of your life

Many people with mercury don’t have anything visibly wrong with them. There is no label that social convention accepts as “serious.” It is not like cancer that people understand. Family, friends and doctors who are perfectly healthy themselves may consider you not to be sick, but rather some kind of malingering hypochondriac. They may find you self-absorbed and selfish. In the face of this attitude you may even start to doubt yourself and think that this is really all your fault. You may think it is something you are imagining and you should just try harder and have more discipline. This is not true! You are poisoned and you are sick and are taking valiant action to get better.

Getting better is now your most important job and everything else takes second place. Realize that you have a great deal less energy and time than a healthy person. Forget about getting stuff done. Just do the bare minimum you can get away with. Your new and important job is to heal. Keep in mind the instruction from the airline stewards to put on your own oxygen mask first if the plane loses air pressure. You are no help to anybody when you are sick, not even to yourself. Worry about great accomplishments after you are better. Right now, just accomplish taking your supplements and making it through the next chelation round. Small, everyday accomplishments like this will lead to the great accomplishment of recovery.

If you have the luck, which is both good and bad, to have a diagnosis accepted as “serious” and “not your fault,” like MS, Parkinson’s disease, lupus, diabetes or even irritable bowel syndrome, you will at least have some social acceptance that you are sick. It is unlikely you’ll get a lot of social acceptance and support however when you decide to chelate and get better instead of suffering a lot and dying the way society thinks you should.

Of course, if you have any psychiatric diagnoses, everyone will think you believe in mercury because you are crazy. People may even be obstructive when you try to control your diet, take supplements and chelate. You are not likely to get much in the way of respect or support in this situation.

With or without a diagnosis, and with or without a role to play as a sufferer of a “real disease,” one thing is certain, you are sick and you don’t have as much energy and focus as a healthy person. To remain functional at all, you’re going to have to put a lot of time and energy into diet, supplements, and whatever else it takes to keep your symptoms in check. Then you’ll need to chelate so you eventually get well. When you start out you’ll be putting energy and organization into chelating as well as everything else.

Get rid of unnecessary jobs and responsibilities. Explain what you are doing to your family and friends if they will listen, and get their support. Do it anyway even if they are not supportive. Prepare to concentrate on yourself and your health for a fairly long time. If you are lucky, you will start to feel better right off, but if you are one of the legion of people who have been poisoned for decades you can expect to spend a few years at this task. If you have savings, you may need to use them. This is the kind of thing people save for.

You will make some surprising discoveries concerning who really cares about you and who doesn’t, about whom you can or can’t trust. Don’t let this upset you. Be practical and pragmatic. You are doing something unusual that doesn’t fit in with a lot of people’s lives and beliefs. You may need to distance yourself from some people you are close to. When you get better you can pick up those relationships where you left off. On the other hand, a few people whom you may not be all that close to right now will be understanding and compassionate. Let them be your friends. Let them help you. Appreciate people who are willing to give you what you need rather than what they think you need. Be glad that people who respect your real needs are around and let them into your life.

If you have any choice about it, this is obviously not a good time to change jobs or start a business or to move away from a familiar or convenient location.

  10.4.1 Some useful suggestions to make life easier

•    put all your recurring bills like electricity, cable, water and so forth on automatic payment so you don’t have to worry about writing checks all the time.

•   have a special table where you put all your bills and important business—and your vitamin minder box. Choose a place that you walk by and look at often.

•    if you can possibly afford it, get a cleaning person to come in every one or two weeks

•    get a month by month desk blotter sized calendar and put it on the wall near your phone where you can see it easily and it won’t get lost. Write your appointments on that and be sure to consult it every day. Keep two months visible so you can see the appointments and tasks due in the first few days of the next month. Don’t trust yourself to remember anything.

•    buy a beautiful new notebook and a handsome pen and keep a diary. Or do it in a computer file. Keep records of how you feel and what you’re doing with your pills and activities—you’ll need this information for problem solving later.

•    if you can’t make up your mind about something, flip a coin. Force yourself to make a decision. Few decisions are worth agonizing over. You’ll need all the mental energy you save doing this for something that’s actually important.

•    make to-do lists and keep them on your special table described above. Do the most important task on the list first and when it is done, cross it off. When the list gets too long, throw it out and start over. If you don’t remember something, it wasn’t that important. If it really was important, it will come back to mind.

11 CONCEPTION, PREGNANCY AND LACTATION

Mercury in a pregnant woman's body is a risk to her baby. She and her baby also share the same genes that made her susceptible to mercury in the first place.

If you have had your mercury fillings removed in the last 18 months, or have done chelation in the last six months, be sure not to get pregnant.

11.1 If you are pregnant

•    DO NOT attempt to detox anything.

•    DO NOT remove or have any work done on amalgam fillings

•    DO NOT under any circumstances get a flu shot or other vaccination no matter what the doctor says.

•    DO NOT use vitamin A over 25,000 IU a day

•    DO NOT use iodine over 500 mcg daily. ¹

In California, of course, the laws of nature are different and pregnant women must limit their intake to 10,000 IU daily, just like in Arkansas 71=22/7*3.14159... And of course everything the doctor wants to do to you while pregnant, or to your baby once born, is totally safe and has nothing to do with why all the kids nowadays are ADHD, asthmatic, allergic, autistic or have learning disabilities despite their grandparents all being fine.

•    DO take folic acid 800 mcg and magnesium 200 mg with meals and at bedtime in addition to whatever other vitamins you take.

•    DO make sure that your thyroid is working properly. If given therapy for this, make sure that both T3 and T4 versions of the hormone are given regardless of whether the doctor understands why this is necessary.

11.2 After your child is born

After your child is born, do not let them be given any vaccinations. Have another adult with you who will follow the child around the hospital and prevent it. Write “NO VACCINATIONS” on every piece of paper they give you.

If you have a mercury problem your child is especially susceptible to vaccine injury. If any doctor pretends vaccines are safe, ask them to let you write in the chart that you refuse to sign the big stack of legal waivers. There will be plenty of time to vaccinate them later. Do not let your child receive any vaccines other than tetanus or one for a disease currently epidemic in your jurisdiction until at least age 5, if at all.

If for some reason vaccinating your child is unavoidable, make the nurse let you handle and read the vaccine vial and the paper that comes with it. Make sure it is the vaccine you were told. Make sure there is only one dose in the vial (all multidose vials are preserved with mercury, there are no exceptions). Make sure the papers and the vial state that it is preservative free. Then watch the nurse prepare the syringe and give the vaccination. Do not let this occur out of your sight. These precautions will reduce the risks to your child, but the risks of vaccinating are still quite substantial.

If vaccination is unavoidable for your child, the longer you can put it off the safer it is. Procrastinate. Delay. Raise obstacles. Stretch it out. Only let one vaccine be given at each visit. Cancel appointments and reschedule them. In most cases people think vaccination is unavoidable, but they actually can get out of it if they are creative.

If you have a little baby now and are breast feeding, continue but don’t do any chelation and don’t disturb your amalgam fillings. Even if you are very toxic your breast milk is still much better for your baby than formula. Nursing increases the likelihood your baby will remain healthy.

Be firm in your resolution not to let any doctor talk you out of anything above. If you think your life is difficult now being sick and having to take care of a baby, think about how much worse it will be being sick and having to care for a brain damaged baby. Don’t take chances. Take care of yourself and your baby properly.

Do not let anyone else take your baby to the doctor unless you are utterly certain they will not let the baby be vaccinated. Husbands and fathers are no exception. Doctors easily talk them into vaccinating no matter how many million times they’ve been warned not to let this happen.

11.3 Timetable of basic precautions

•    DO NOT conceive within eighteen months of final amalgam ) removal.    *

•    DO NOT conceive within six months after your last use of chelators.

•    from conception until weaning DO NOT do any detoxification or work on fillings. Try to avoid all mercury exposures. Be careful not to mobilize mercury from your fillings (if you have them) by getting dental work, brushing too vigorously or drinking hot beverages. When breast feeding if you do get dental work by mistake, you should “pump and dump” for four days and then resume regular breast feeding.

•    be careful NOT to get pregnant accidentally. Use all kinds of precautions to avoid this.

At a minimum of six months after your last chelation round and 18 months after amalgam removal, evaluate your health. If your symptoms appear to be stable you can consider conceiving, but there is no simple rule and everybody is different.

12 DOES YOUR CHILD NEED TO CHELATE TOO?

Susceptibility to mercury is often due to genetic factors. If you have chronic mercury poisoning, the rest of your family is at risk, too. It is also possible that you were somehow exposed at home. In this case your children are at risk since children are more sensitive than adults. You will need to evaluate your children to decide if they need chelation. Fortunately, children are much easier to chelate than adults.

People often find it confusing to figure out if a child needs to be chelated. As long as the child doesn’t have amalgam fillings, the simplest thing is to just give it a try. You will only need a few weeks to find out if they are going to respond. It isn’t very expensive, nor does it involve invasive and scary blood tests. A hair test is often informative and that just involves cutting some hair. (Information about hair tests is in section 4.2.) More information can be found in Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities along with case reports on many toxic children. If mercury is causing a problem your child will get better with chelation. If it’s not mercury, nothing will happen. You have nothing to lose but a future of suffering and grief that neither you nor your child need to experience.

If something suspicious is going on with your child, it is worth a trial of chelation. By “suspicious” we mean: being late on developmental milestones, having certain developmental or health problems, having dietary issues or being different from other children in some specific ways. All of these are spelled out below.

Childrens growth and development are very well regulated, reproducible processes. Each normal, healthy child develops and grows just about the same way as all the others. That’s why the CDC can provide checklists that chart which behaviors will begin at what ages.²

Children will not complain of even severe disability until at the earliest 5th or 6th grade. They assume that everyone is just like them. Doctors wait for the parents to complain, then make the diagnosis by asking the parents questions about the child. A mild disability like ADHD won’t be detected until adulthood unless you, the parent, figure out what is going on.

We have developed some charts from a variety of sources and put them in a form that is easy for you to use. If your child is not following these charts, or if he or she is not developing like the neighbor’s kids, or like grandma remembers you developing, something is wrong. Too much mercury is usually the problem. Normal development will resume as soon as you get the mercury out.

The charts show deadlines. Your child should do each thing listed on the chart before the age given. If it hasn’t happened by then, something is wrong and you need to follow up. If a lot of the milestones are late, or haven’t happened at all, it’s a big problem, and usually a mercury problem. If it’s not mercury, it could be lead, antimony or arsenic, but all of these are chelatable.

If you have a baby book or a diary, refer to that to get dates for milestones. If not, go over your photos, videos and emails. If you know your child has missed many milestones, stopped progressing or regressed, it is definitely time to chelate.

Following the charts is a discussion of other issues that may come up if your child has too much mercury and needs to chelate. There is no schedule for these issues as they can come up at any time.

The figures above is a timeline for when children's teeth should come in and fall out. Figure 12.1 shows what your baby’s teeth should look like as he grows. The left side of the figure shows when each baby tooth should come in (in months); the right side shows when each baby tooth should fall out (in years). Figure 12.2 shows when the adult teeth should come in (in years).

If your baby’s teeth come in or fall out earlier than the time shown on these charts, that is just fine. If your baby has more teeth in his mouth than shown in Figure 12.1, that is okay, too, The teeth may also show up in a slightly different order. The problem arises if some teeth do not come in by the correct age. That’s not normal and you need to find out what is wrong. If anybody tells you, “It’s normal, it’s nothing to worry about, some kids are just like this,” they’re wrong.

One thing to look into if your child’s teeth are not coming in on time is low thyroid hormones. Low thyroid hormone levels need to be corrected early. Low thyroid can cause delayed teething as well as failure to thrive (delayed growth, walking and talking). It can also cause a permanent IQ reduction and lifelong bad teeth. Mercury and lead both impair thyroid function.

Another warning sign of low thyroid levels is a child who is contented, sleeps through the night, is not fussy and seems like a “good baby” before the age of four months.

12.2 Timeline of developmental milestones

This timeline shows a large number of things children start to do as they develop. Every sentence is one milestone. The times are the age by which your child should already have done this. If it isn’t happening by the stated age, something is wrong. If several milestones are missed, it’s usually mercury. If it’s not mercury, it is usually some other toxic metal.

If your child was a premature baby, you need to calculate a corrected age to use with these timelines. These charts are for a child born at 40 weeks of gestation.

Table 12.1
Timeline of developmental milestones
Age	WHAT YOUR CHILD SHOULD ALREADY BE DOING
2 months	•   smiles back at you
4 months	•   should NOT be sleeping through the night until now  •   enjoys eye contact
5 months	•   smiles spontaneously
6 months	•   smiles and shares enjoyment
7 months	•   sleep-wake schedule has become predictable
8 months	•    sits without support •    turns towards a voice •    smiles often
10 months	•   says “mama and “dada” but often not to the right person •    becomes shy of strangers •    clings to mother
12 months	•    stands with assistance •    babbles and points •    responds to name •    looks you in the eye •   knows a word beyond “mama” and “dada”
14 months	•    crawls on hands and knees •walks with assistance •    stands on his own •    uses “mama” and “dada” for the correct person
16 months	•    stacks 2 blocks •    uses single words
17 months	•   drinks from a cup
18 months	•   walks on his own •    points to things to communicate •    imitates others •   plays by pretending to do everyday things the parents do like talk on the phone, open the door, do dishes

Table 12.1
Timeline of developmental milestones
Age	WHAT YOUR CHILD SHOULD ALREADY BE DOING
20 months	•   runs
22 months	•    stacks 6 blocks •    can take off clothes you unbutton
24 months	•   knows what a brush, fork, spoon and phone are for (but cant use them) •   knows 50 words •    talks using 2 word phrases •    points to an object or body part you name •    a stranger can understand half his words •    can walk up stairs slowly and deliberately •    looks when you point at things •    pretend play extends to things like feeding a doll
30 months	•    can pedal a tricycle •    can use a spoon •    can verbally identify a picture when you show it to him
36 months	•    can walk up stairs one tread per pace •    can use a fork •    can follow 2 step commands •speaks in 3-4 word sentences, of which a stranger will understand 3 words in 4
39 months	• uses plurals
42 months	•    can put on pants, but not do snaps or zippers •    does not stutter
45 months	•    gives first and last name

Table 12.1
Timeline of developmental milestones
Age	WHAT YOUR CHILD SHOULD ALREADY BE DOING
4 years	•    puts on a shirt or blouse but can’t do the buttons •    can hop •    interacts with people other than family •    engages in imaginary play •    can describe his emotions and what are causing them •    makes jokes, teases, engages in word play •    uses “me” and “you” properly •    can recite a favorite story •    can use sentences more complex than subject/verb/objects
4 years 2 months	•    can hold a pencil adult-style
4 years 4 months	•   can catch a ball
4 years 6 months	•    washes and dries hands well
4 years 10 months	•    can skip
5 years	•    has friends outside the family •plays boy’s games for boys and girl’s games for girls •    knows difference between real and make believe •    tells stories that have a plot •    uses the future tense •    can pay attention to 1 task for 5 minutes •    a stranger can understand every word •    can dress without help •    can do a sit-up
6 years	•    plays with same age (or older) children •    can focus on one task for 15 minutes •    responds appropriately in conversation and takes speaking, using sentences of 5-7 words
9 years	•    can pay attention to one task for 1 hour

12.3 Growth charts

Children grow in a very reproducible manner. That’s why there are growth charts! When you go to those “well baby” visits, your doctor is supposed to be filling them in, although almost none of them bother. However you can get those charts and use them. The World Health Organization charts are best for breast fed babies, the Centers for Disease Control charts are best for formula fed babies³. A normally growing child will follow along parallel to the growth percentile lines. If they’re average, tall, or short, they stay that way all along unless something is wrong.

The plotted line on these growth charts⁴ show children with developmental problems. Once you see that your line doesn’t match up with one of the lines on the chart, figure out what is wrong! Even pediatricians who keep these charts seldom bother to do anything when a problem shows up. This usually leads to the problem becoming far more severe than it would have been if timely action had been taken

Figure 12.3 Height!Age Curve for Girls. Notice that the dots are not following any specific curve, implying abnormal growth

Girls Weight-for-age percentiles

12.4 Medical diagnoses

There are a number of diagnoses that go along with mercury and lead poisoning in children. If your child has any of these you probably need to chelate him.

•    autism spectrum disorders, ADHD or social communication disorder

•    epilepsy, mood instability (e. g. bipolar disorder), schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, anorexia, bulimia, anxiety

•    dyslexia, sensory integration disorder, convergence insufficiency, accommodative insufficiency, strabismus, amblyopia (lazy eye)

•    need for vision therapy, as diagnosed by an eye doctor

•    asthma, terrible allergies, dangerous food allergies

•    hypothyroidism

12.5    Food and diet

Mercury affects peoples reactions to food. Some signs that you need to chelate your child are:

•    his cheeks turn red after dinner and their behavior changes

•    he self-limits his diet

•    his behavior changes after eating colored prepared foods like red or green gelatin, Mountain Dew soda, pickles or canned orange juice concentrate

•    he is gluten intolerant or has celiac disease

•    he craves and only wants to eat sweets and starches

•    he is gassy and bloated after meals

•    he has frequent stomach pains or digestive problems

•    he needs to be on some kind of special diet

12.6    Common sense

The genes that control your child’s development are the same that controlled his ancestors’ development. His ancestors nursed, played, learned, grew and matured in a consistent pattern from the Stone Age through ancient and biblical times, through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the last century right up till now. Normal healthy development has been crucial to the survival of our species for thousands of years and its clear almost all children will develop normally if nothing interferes. If a child is not developing normally, it should ring alarm bells regarding toxicity.

Examples of abnormal behaviors are:

•    your baby has difficulty nursing and cannot learn to suckle properly, resulting in formula feeding.

•    the things you remember doing as a child at the same age just aren’t appropriate for your child. You can’t just send them outside and expect them to come home at dark the way your mother did with you. They will dart out into the street, run off or get lost.

•    other people act like or tell you that your child is weird, needs evaluation, can’t behave, etc. People insinuate that your children are spoiled because of poor parenting and lack of discipline.

•    your child acts odd in specific locations and you’ve learned not to take him there, e. g. the laundry detergent aisle at the grocery store.

•    grandma, aunt or great aunt talk about how different your child is from how their children were.

•    you (this more often the mother than the father) are not having the same kinds of experiences with your child that your friends with small children are having and talking about.

•    your child needs pills (whether prescription or not) routinely.

•    your child has needed antibiotics more than 3 times by age 6.

•    the doctor needed to put in ear tubes.

•    your child qualifies for special remedial assistance in school.

Other things that should make you consider chelation are:

•    your child has temper issues, meltdowns, tantrums, anger outbursts and is often defiant (compared to other children).

•    if you leave your child with neighbors or relatives for a few days (or if you are divorced and they go on visitation), they come back a mess and take several days to recover.

•    your child cannot maintain a stable sleep schedule, cannot get to sleep at bedtime, or wakes in the middle of the night.

•    your child is frequently ill or unable to recover in a reasonable amount of time.

•    your child is overly sensitive to smells, textures, tastes, sounds, touch and/or pain.

•    your child has white patches in their mouth or a white coating on their tongue.

•    you know what “biomedical” is and are doing it with your child.

•    your child will not look you in the eye (at any time, not just when they’re lying).

•    your child has a high pitched, nasal, flat or odd voice.

•    your child’s writing and drawing is very poor.

•    your child often toe walks.

•    your child does not parallel play at the appropriate age. They often play by lining toys up in rows.

•   any loss of previously acquired skills or developmental milestones is a substantial concern. This does not normally occur.

If you are concerned something is not right but the doctor says everything is fine, the doctor is wrong. You are right—and fancy medical studies have discovered this to be true. It’s also what you’ll hear from the parents of most autistic children who have spent a year or so trying to get their doctor to pay attention.

A parent, particularly the mother, is far more sensitive to her child’s state than any doctor can possibly be. Most doctors don’t study child development any more than a parent nowadays, anyway. The doctor relies on you to recount your experiences with your child. No matter how marvelously expressive you are, it is simply impossible to convey the richness and complexity of having shared your child’s entire life in an appointment that lasts half an hour—if you’re lucky.

If you think something is wrong with your child after reading this section, try chelation. Just do it. The instructions are the same as for an adult. Only the dosing is different.⁷ In a few weeks it will become very clear whether your child needs to chelate. If something happens, they need to do it. If nothing at all happens on round or afterwards, they don’t. It won’t matter how much chelator you give them. If there are no metals to chelate, the chelators will have no effect at all. If something happens, it’s because there’s enough toxic metal present to be a problem.

2

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/checklists/all_checklists.pdf

3

   www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/who_charts.htm,www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/clini-cal_charts.htm

4

   We have used excerpted portions of the CDC growth charts for girls for these examples.

7

For instructions on how to chelate children: Fight Autism and Win (second edition)