rubenpants.com - a journey…

Chelation is apparently a dirty word now since the death of little Tariq. Now people say “metal removal” or “detoxification.” Anyway, it’s about taking all the mercury and other heavy metals that are stored up in the human body and getting it out. Easy, right?

Wrong. Turns out that mercury is rather stubborn. It gets comfy when wrapped inside all that fatty tissue (the brain is particularly tasty), and it doesn’t like being told that it’s overstayed its welcome. In fact, this squatter tends to get pretty goddamned ornery when you try to evict it.

We’ve been chelating on and off for a good nine months now, with precious little to show for it. Why? Because mobilized mercury creates all manner of havoc, especially when you’re really toxic, as I suspect is the case for my son. He’s either stirring it up and not getting it out, or there’s just so much of it that even if he’s getting it out at a fair clip, there are still those straggler mercury molecules that are left behind. And they’re really pissed about having been separated from their buddies. Or perhaps it’s just that his little three-year-old liver has been in crisis mode for the last two years, and the chelation is stressing it out more. I certainly know that feeling. It’s possible my liver does as well.

Now, when I say we have little to show for it, that’s not entirely true. We do have a lab report that states that my child is peeing out mercury. A fair amount of it, too. We’re just not seeing the clinical benefit to go with it. You know, all those lovely behavioral changes you see when your kid is getting demonstrably better.

We’re in a bit of a catch-22. We know we need to get the metals out, yet any chelator we’ve tried to date (and we’ve tried three) produces such profoundly negative responses that we’re forced to back off. This naturally raises the dilemma of whether we ought not proceed despite a potential worsening of symptoms (”push through it”), or whether we should simply chelate on baby doses to minimize this “healing crisis.” Both Maria Jose and I agree that not chelating at all is not the answer.

We are doing homeopathy right now as well in an attempt to keep our intervention as natural as we can. But we’re not seeing a lot of results from homeopathy yet, and as the days and weeks tick by, it’s getting harder to strategize your intervention with a cool head. You want to execute. You want to try something, anything, that could conceivably bring about some positive changes. In short, we’re getting antsy. I often feel that we’re changing things around too quickly, that we don’t give certain interventions adequate time. But there’s always that pressure from the next big thing that promises to recover your child. Mostly, there’s pressure from the passage of time. The longer this goes on, the slimmer his chances get for a full recovery.

Wow, I just reread the above paragraphs. It’s very doom-n-gloom, not at all how I wanted to return to the journal. But I had to get it out there. I’m nervous. MJ is in what one could pretty safely call a dead panic. But hope is not lost. July (his best month to date) saw him joyfully interacting with us and even approaching other kids. If we can figure out the secrets to his detoxification, I know we can get him back.

Oh, and since I haven’t updated in a while (I know, I know…), here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Rubén at his desk. He's been going to an ABA-style school for an hour a day, and has learned to spend extended lengths of time sitting at a desk. Doesn't do it much at home, though...	A morning moment with mister and his mommy.
Eating buckwheat pancakes.	Table-length shot of Rubén at the breakfast table.
Rubén in his "baby" (pronounced BAH-bee), a smock for wearing to pre-school.	Smiling boy.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 5th, 2005 at 9:52 am and is filed under Miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.