Tag: testing

Not much over the course of a chronic illness wreaks havoc on your ability to cope, like discouragement. For me this came on Christmas day of which I spent half of sleeping or passed out. Was it from too much spiked eggnog? I think not. Succumbing to unconsciousness is involuntary in the “post-ictal” period of a convulsive episode. Yes, still dealing with that Gentle Reader along with the familiar foe of discouragement. At least the latter dynamic doesn’t stick around very long anymore.

February will mark a full year since the discovery my lead toxicity per bone lead testing. Most sojourners of chronic illness venture at some point into testing for heavy metal toxicity. I did so in 2013 via blood, hair, and urine testing from a few different companies and ordered by a few different Doctors. Chelation and detoxification protocols subsequently yielded impressive reductions of both kinds of mercury without a significant correlation of improvement in clinical symptoms. I returned to the detox protocols periodically over the past 10 years; having clean binders to use when exposed to a new toxin in my environment has been a very helpful tool to have and process to know. I am grateful for the knowledge and experience.

Flash forward to earlier this year when the Lord showed me that I had been exposed to lead in my childhood and that this might be something to address specifically. I would come to understand that blood testing for lead shows acute or recent exposures, not ones from years ago. Only bone lead testing will show latent exposure and the body’s way to deal with it is by storing Pb in one’s bones. So where or how does one get this tested? My research yielded two places to contact in the United States, one at an integrative medicine clinic at John Hopkins Hospital in New York and another possibly by researchers at Purdue University in Indiana. The latter had tested children poisoned a few years ago in Flint, Michigan and West Chicago but would they test me? I contacted an Assistant Professor from the bio of his published research which led to an email, a phone call, and a long car ride to his laboratory in West Lafayette, Indiana. Dr. Aaron Specht had one of the few handheld XRF Fluorescence devices in the country and offered me pro bono testing. What a fascinating experience!

My bone lead was high. Bone lead can be elevated for many adults of Baby Boomer age and older from marked exposures in the environment of our childhoods: leaded gasoline and paint. Lead was removed from both by the 1970s but not before wreaking their havoc on the generations poisoned by them. An Aunt recently told me that we were likely also affected by pollution from steel and manufacturing plants in what is called the downriver area of Detroit, not many miles from where we all grew up. But the kicker for me was the home of my childhood. Every day from birth until I went away to college was spent breathing secondhand smoke. Cigarette smoke contains many toxins, not the least of which are lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury. (Further mercury toxicity for me came from a mouthful of amalgams and weekly consumption of tuna fish!) Then there were about three years when my Dad and his teenage employees used lead solder in our basement for his business rewinding slot car motors. I remember watching the smoldering lead up close, playing with the rolls of lead, chasing mixed metal shavings with magnets, and thinking nothing of it at the time. No one did.

My Dad was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, likely Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type, during those years in the late 1960s. He would later contract Parkinson’s Disease. We don’t have a family history of either of those; both can be correlated with heavy metal toxicity in the research literature. My Dad’s longest employee, a teenager named Billy, also developed a psychotic disorder but it was shrugged off at the time as related to his drug abuse. Probably so. He later committed suicide. Flash forward a few decades and I am the only surviving member of my immediate family who all lived for years in that house, all deceased due to various medical conditions. I still wouldn’t make a correlation for me between heavy metal exposures and serious health issues, even with an objective finding of high bone lead, until the Lord showed me a timing clue: the Convulsion Disorder started around the time of menopause and a diagnosis of both osteopenia and osteoporosis. I was losing bone with the drop in estrogen associated with menopause; lead displaces calcium and is stored in the bones often for decades as the body’s own protective mechanism. Studies have shown elevated bone and blood lead for women with certain difficulties during all stages of menopause and this can include onset of seizures.

Shortly thereafter I began a course of chelation with various types and forms of EDTA. Turns out that after some concerning side effects that I would need to switch to calcium disodium EDTA which Dr. Charles Beck had compounded for me. After 6 months and consultations with several different Doctors, I was still struggling. “It can take a year” they told me, for the natural process of bone re-modeling and chelation to make any difference. Then I remembered a compound I had discovered in 2013 that had unique properties to bind heavy metals, most notably mercury then lead, but was no longer readily available. OSR#1 had been removed from the market by the FDA despite phenomenal success forming strong bonds with heavy metals and chelating it without side effects. I did more research. One blogger said she had a legitimate source for the original compound, not the imitation supplement sold in Europe, that was now made by a new company who sold it as a water purification product. Downside: it’s extraordinarily expensive! The new owner of the company producing what is now called by it’s chemical name, NBMI, was a retired Dentist and former president of the major professional organization that trains dental professionals in biologic dentistry (aka mercury-free dentistry). I’ve been using NBMI for 4 months now and have had remarkable breaththroughs in my worst symptom: daily convulsive episodes after eating a full meal. Holy cow, a real and welcome change at last!

So Lord willing in February, my beloved Stevers and I will head back to see Dr. Specht to re-test my bone lead level. Will there be change? Will there be an explanation for why I have had a series of severe side effects during the chelation process with EDTA then NBMI? (Examples: four types of mouth sores at once at the same time as two skin conditions, one of which was shingles. Yeah, December has been pretty rough.) Was there still mercury lingering in my tissues despite testing suggesting levels were low and now NBMI is binding and chelating all of it? Can the body hold lead in other tissues over the years besides bone? What is the association between convulsive episodes and eating a full meal for crying out loud? Could lead toxicity and possibly lingering heavy metal toxicity in general explain my rap sheet of literally 200+ diagnoses over the past 13 years of serious illness? In truth, I may never know the answers to any of these questions. The setbacks are incredibly discouraging, disheartening, devastating. The road to recovery or some semblence of it just seems to get longer with more potholes. The “ROUGH ROAD AHEAD” sign seems more like my experience than anything else. But as long as it’s not the “ROAD IS OUT AHEAD,” there is hope, right?

Forgive me Gentle Reader, for this long blog and update of sorts. If you’re still reading this, thank you and I want you to know that I haven’t given up yet and neither should you! Please don’t give up on either of us getting answers when it seems like one more thing is going wrong. Neither of us is at the end of our road yet, right? The road very likely can be repaired or go a new way instead that ain’t all bad. As long as we can do a little that is good each day then a little is what we shall do. We’ll do more when we can as unto the Lord. As long as there is a little hope for a better tomorrow then going forward with a positive expectation for same is what we shall do. The God we celebrate on Christmas day is the symbol, author, and Master of the good that is to come for those of us who believe that Jesus came to save you and me. We shall overcome the discouragements of this day, this life as promised in His Word. Get with Jesus and let the leading of the Holy Spirit see you through it all. He loves you so Gentle Reader. Always. JJ