mercury – Jesus is for the Wounded

What you have meant to me

Published on February 23, 2021March 19, 2021 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

When I started the Quicksilver Mercury Detox Group on Facebook, I was a hurting puppy. Here’s my mercury detox story as of February 23, 2021.

In 2014, I had been sick for nearly 3 years with what had become a very serious and complicated illness. You can read more about my journey here. I had fallen into the camp of persons on the earlier side of chronic illness who see a new Doctor or get a new test, get a new diagnosis, then put all of his or her hopes and dreams into the treatment for it in hopes of finding a cure. The results of the Tri-Mercury Test from Quicksilver Scientific put me above the 90th percentile for both types of mercury. A person with mercury toxicity can display a variety of severe neurological and other symptoms. In time I would learn that he or she often has concomitant infectious, gene expression, nutritional deficiency, and toxicity issues. Although the speciation ratios of the Tri Test showed that I would need to work on kidney and liver detox pathways to make any progress, I was hopeful that I had found my path to recovery by detoxing mercury. I started the Q Group on Facebook to find like-minded individuals who believed in the work of Dr. Christopher Shade and that his protocols and products could fix us. It wouldn’t be until 2016 that I would discover other serious dental issues including a hidden amalgam underneath a crown! There were other significant medical challenges and treatments I endured along the way that required more expense than most people pay for their automobiles or even their homes! I just had to keep searching for answers big and small, learning and revisiting protocols when needed (as required so often) . . . and not lose hope.

Well it’s over 6 years later and I have indeed made much progress. But I am not cured yet and may never be so this side of heaven. There are just too many other issues for me to address not the least of which is living in a fallen world mixed with evil, imperfection, disappointment, and finite resources along with the Lord’s goodness, mercy, and grace. All are true! My total cure will be in eternity with Jesus Christ. Perhaps this realization also comes for all of us as we age and the aches and pains no longer go away? Regardless, there is more to life than what happens to our flesh for those of us who believe in Jesus Christ. He is our ultimate hope and salvation from the consequences of sin in this world, among which is chronic illness. We can live well with chronic illness, even around it. (That includes seizures by the way).

Nonetheless, the Quicksilver Mercury Detox Group and especially my Co-Admin, Marcia, and QS Practitioner Chris T who came alongside this effort early on, have meant so much to me. I can’t even number the times that I was very sick in bed with my head seizing to and fro, only to get the strength to check my phone for messages and find one from a member of the Q group. You needed hope and answers on a Tuesday, in the middle of the night. Sometimes you needed a nudge not to be a bully or a spammer; other times you were so anxious to find answers you nearly alienated yourself right out of the group! We tried to be patient and fair and understanding and helpful. In requiring a steady hand to reach out to others, your posts kept me alive at times. I hope I did o.k. Being an Admin of the Q Group gave me another purpose beyond my own survival. And I re-learned how to care for people again after losing my profession of 29 years. Surely my efforts weren’t perfect at times. Marcia and I had to play good cop/bad cop at times to calm the ruckus of some hurting members or compromise to come to an agreement between ourselves as Admins who met through this group. The membership grew just the same! People got well. We watched all of Dr. Shade’s webinars, built up our Files of resources, and tried to keep up on the latest QS products and protocols as they expanded from mercury detox to all aspects of recovery and wellness. It continues to be a tall order for sure.

An important point that I learned was that people from all walks of life worldwide have similar struggles. We all want to be well. We all have a tendency to shortcut the process because any amount of time in our lives spent feeling sick is too long. We ask “Dr. Google” for answers in addition to a number of Practitioners who we hope will help us and not harm us. We get angry or discouraged when either of them fail us or the process is either longer or more complicated or more expensive than we anticipated. But how could we have set expectations on a subject about which we knew little beforehand? Things are rarely what they seem, eh? Perhaps it is part of the human condition and especially the culture of modern societies to want it now! And what is “it?” It’s usually more than mercury detox as we want ALL of our problems to go away, especially this one.

I submit to you that the journey of recovery from serious illness is not only worth taking, it’s worth the struggle. For it’s in our struggle that we can learn who we really are, our strengths, the nature of the people around us, and what is really important in our lives. In this regard we can almost see our illness as a type of gift: one we would never ask for but one that will give us more than we could have ever imagined. Even our suffering, in the losses that inevitably come in the form of time, relationships, jobs, pain, status, finances, physical abilities, emotional trauma, and more can be worth the gains in our character, our resolve, our coming to understand that we can depend on Someone, Something greater than ourselves Who will never leave us or forsake us. We will not get through a serious illness successfully if we are alone or bitter or defeated. Getting to a place of internal victory as our world seems like it’s falling apart externally requires supernatural strength. That strength comes from the Giver of Life who loves you so and grieves your illness along with you (ref Romans 5:3-5). I have come to know His name as my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can learn more about Him by picking up a Bible and starting to read in the book of John. I hope that you do. Please contact me if you would like to chat more about what a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can bring.

Finding renewed focus and strength in my life as unto the Lord has opened up new opportunities for which I am exceedingly grateful. It’s not that my recovery from serious illness is over yet. It isn’t. Perhaps I have a better understanding of my limits and needing to re-focus what energies I do have in other areas of my life than on my role as the founding Admin of a large mercury detox Fan Club on Facebook. I’m letting go of some limited volunteer work at my community park as well. I do so humbly with massive gratitude for all that you who have chosen to follow the Q Group have given me just by being there. You trusted me and Marcia and Chris T and others to help you, to support you. I hope we did our jobs well as fellow sojourners and unpaid volunteers! Please forgive me if I fell short. I will be contacting Marcia to problem-solve how to proceed before officially leaving the group then post an update to this blog post below.

You all and my Gentle Readers here at New Hope Beyond mean so much to me. Thank you for the opportunity to spend some time with you. To God be the glory for the good that has come from my time in the Q Group, my story, witness, failings, knowledge, experience, and now pointing each of you to the ultimate Admin: the Great Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will see each of us through it all, of that we can be sure. JJ

UPDATE: On March 19, 2021, I announced my leave-taking from the Quicksilver Mercury Detox Group on Facebook. It’s been an honor to serve you. Godspeed one and all! JJ

Coming out of shock

Published on October 28, 2020October 28, 2020 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

Quite disturbing is the realization that the consequence of serious illness

Adds damage from its own dynamics, worsening symptoms to a hellish level.

Hours of convulsive episodes reveal failed treatments intended to cure

Instead I have whiplash and the trial of convincing my Doc to test me some more.

Fortunately for me, he was willing to throw the book at me, inside and out

Not so good for my hubby who held me as I hung from his arms for my chiropractic care.

Gotta hand it to my Doc for making it all work when I could not stand

Both of them enduring the gutteral eruptions of screams when my brain is afire, nonetheless.

We all got through it, me with zero sleep from the night before

Grateful for the comfort from a local burger joint to restore our famished bodies, minds.

Oh to have respite from this waking nightmare whose root-cause is still mysterious

It’s the kind of Groundhog Day that repeats until you finally get it or maybe not.

Someday maybe . . . Lord willing. JJ

Bouncing back, bouncing all around

Published on April 14, 2019April 14, 2019 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

It’s a good thing that the Lord is great and consistent every single moment of every single day, keeping our best good in mind when we are bouncing around a bit in life. Yesterday was a day with two of those hits for me.

I recently described a dilemma I had with a new treatment direction as I trend overall toward recovery from a serious illness. I am grateful for some better days and many more better moments than most of the past 7 1/2 years. I’ve barely grasped the significance of all of the changes let alone managed the new patterns of illness/recovery/illness and so on. The following 2 pictures from my early “birthday celebration” depict this very well I think.

9:00 a.m. after my alarm went off, back to bed then after the tail end of an unexpected/long tic attack episode, and needing to eat before taking PRN medication. I can’t control my left arm and struggle to feed myself, manage dental appliances with assistance.

4:30 p.m. celebrating at the Chit Chat Tour of social media stars Diamond and Silk before dinner along the riverfront.
JW Marriott, Grand Rapids, MI

With the blessing of an incredible local endocrinologist (that I miraculously got to see in record timing) I am free to make my own changes with new medications (this time covered by insurance, yay!). Her intervention has led to both successful and sometimes confusing experimentation. I’ve consulted with a local compounding pharmacist, prayed and landed on a plan that includes returning to mercury detox. Mercury can be sequestered in the tissues of the thyroid. I suspect that Hg is getting stirred up, even dumping as I transition from suppressing the thyroid: Docs prescribed high doses of meds for decades but an Endo at the Mayo Clinic recommends drastically titrating them down. I can’t seem to go fast or slow enough to cope with the outcomes each day. Hg as a mitigating factor seems the only plausible explanation to me right now given that I was doing so well initially then the seizure attack episodes returned. And mercury binders, minerals affecting the thyroid inversely affect the pattern of episodes. Mercury showed up again in recent blood work . . . Gratefully I have the best tools around now for both of these avenues.

I felt really beat up and exhausted as we left the house later today yet rallied for the cause of celebrating my upcoming birthday none the less. The tickets were already purchased for a show that is a long car ride away from home and my beloved Steve would be doing all of the driving as usual. It was a good decision to go. I had a really nice time with Steve. Then I took my Hg binder supps too close to bedtime and have been awake all night. Well crapolaski! (That’s Polish, of course.) This time at least I was able to get some correspondence done as the night broke into day. Crying and weeping really take the life out of you for a time, then joy comes in the mourning.

But social media stars Diamond and Silk are exactly the rescue remedy that I needed today. They are a hoot! Don’t follow this link if you aren’t open to other political viewpoints in our hotbed of political correctness in the United States these days. These sisters are polarizing! Kind of refreshing for me: a gal who has chosen to be transparent with the real ups and downs of overcoming a serious illness. The straight scoop is just alright with me. “Don’t sugar-coat it baby! That’s right!” And so is the Word from Lord, Jesus Christ, that sees me through it all. I hope He will do the same for you Gentle Reader. Have you trusted in Him no matter what? JJ

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

1 Peter 5:10

A Well Worn Path

Published on November 9, 2018November 9, 2018 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

If you travel the same way and expect different results they say it is the definition of insanity. I get that so I resist the same.

If your baseline shifts and you take the same precautions against a disastrous outcome, you might say you are taking a chance that you might get different results. I usually control the factors I can and go with the new direction . . . when amnesia sets in from the last failed effort and something new looks promising.

If you smash into a devastating blow anyways and have to retreat to combat the devastation, you might say that you were more rolling the dice than making a reasonable plan for success.

If you add too many factors in any plan, precaution, retreat and come up against a surprise attack from an unforeseen foe then you won’t know what hit either one of you until the smoke clears along with your heads. Me: hours of violent convulsive episodes and the aftermath. Him: heartache, exhaustion, and no peace.

And if you are me in the latter years of battling a complex illness, you live in shock from the blows of what hit you in the last 24 hours when it is after 6 days of relatively few symptoms. The new treatments did look promising. They did not hold off the onslaught, however. And you paid one of the highest prices once again this side of heaven.

And if you are the beloved husband trying to navigate these landmines, help fight the war while carrying on with the normal and fun activities of life . . . you will have to watch the horror of your beloved get tortured on the battlefield. You try. Success is elusive or temporary. You fail. Again you grieve and so does she.

And if this well-worn path brings despair then so be it. Tomorrow is still another day. As for me, I’m still here and so is my beloved. Most importantly, I know that my Lord sees my waterfall of tears lain at His throne of grace. Life will go on somehow as it always does; I have more responsibilities now. The despair will give way to some sort of hope in due time; the Lord will add His grace and strength to see me and my beloved through once again.

For today, I am like a beaten puppy on this well worn path of life. It is tough stuff indeed.

Dang! JJ