What Happened - The Short Story
Written in April 2017.
What I share here is a shortened version of what happened. This by no means covers everything, but covers enough to give you a general idea of what happened and why.
My body went toxic the day following routine surgery to remove a kidney stone. Acute onset of neurological toxicity followed by a physical shut down in the weeks and months following surgery. At the time, nobody could explain exactly 'why' my body did this. We knew it went toxic - we didn't know 'why'. I went from doctor to doctor trying to get help for months. The doctors couldn't give me any answers as to what happened, let alone try to help me heal.
Traditional western medical doctors told me that I was depressed and that I took too much medicine following surgery. I took half of an over the counter painkiller following surgery. One even tested me for drug use, unbeknownst to me until I saw the lab work.
A year and a half after my body went toxic, we discovered through testing that the underlying cause of my toxicity was the neurotoxin mercury. I was full of mercury as well as some other heavy metals. The surgery was simply my 'toxic tipping point'. Mercury primarily comes from dental amalgams or 'silver fillings', and a very small portion from fish. When you have your dental amalgams removed without all the strict safety precautions in place, you load your body with large amounts of mercury during this removal process. It's actually better to leave the fillings in your mouth, than to have them removed without all of the proper precautions. I had all my silver fillings removed a few years prior to my surgery without all the safety precautions as outlined by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology who utilize the SMART technique.
In the years following the removal of my mercury fillings, I started to have some strange hormonal fluctuations, fatigue and anxiety. I just thought it was age and stress. What I've come to learn was that I was a functioning person with a higher toxic load than I ever realized. I explain how this happens in detail on the longer blog version of what happened. My body was just waiting for the final straw to be pulled to fall over the toxic cliff.
When I went in for surgery in December of 2013, I was completely unaware of the fact that my body and liver had no space to process the slightest increase in chemicals or medicine due to my toxic load. During surgery, my body was filled with large amounts of medicine and anesthesia. The day following surgery, thirty minutes after taking half of an over the counter pain pill, all hell broke loose in my body. Acute onset neurological and physical toxicity. It's not something anyone should ever have to experience.
The toxicity then immediately caused my body to have a complete domino effect of multiple systems going down and throwing my body into complete systemic chaos over the coming days, weeks, and months.
My adrenals were close to near failure.
I was almost going into hypoglycemic blackouts every morning - not having a clue what was happening to my body. Severe hypoglycemia.
With my adrenals not functioning properly, my hormones then went into complete dis-regulation, with dangerously low progesterone and severe estrogen dominance.
My liver quit functioning properly.
My thyroid quit functioning properly.
My nervous system and brain were severely compromised because of the neurotoxins and the hormone and adrenal imbalance. My brain was being taken down from every angle possible in my body.
The toxins compromised my detoxification pathways and my GI system which made it difficult to even bind and eliminate the toxins. The exact path the toxins need to take out of the body is destroyed by the toxins themselves.
With all that happened, the catch was that my body could no longer tolerate any supplements or hormones that I needed to heal. The exact substances that I needed to heal - my body could not process without severe detoxification and paradoxical reactions. The supplements that my body needed to heal actually made me feel worse.
After a long stretch of not having any doctors available to help me know how to heal, I've sought out and found some of the best doctors in Arizona and around the country to help me. These doctors are integrative and naturopathic doctors that have looked to treat the root cause of my health issues, instead of treating only the symptoms, as typical western medical doctors like to do. They have worked to address my health issues by looking at my own genetic blueprint which identifies where I have roadblocks in my methylation cycle. This is key.
We discovered that one of the reasons my body accumulated toxins was because I have a genetic methylation issue preventing me from detoxing heavy metals and medicine properly. Upwards of 40-50% of the population have some variation of this genetic issue. I have impairments in my MTHFR as well as MTRR genes. Genes responsible for many things, one being the efficient removal of heavy metals from my body.
It's been 3.5 years since I first became sick and I'm doing much better than when I first became sick, but I still have a long road to recovery in front of me. This is difficult for people to understand and to see, because I 'look' just fine. Invisible illness and chronic illness can be hard for others to grasp the complexities involved in the day to day grind of managing your health round the clock. I never know what kind of health I will have on any given day or any hour of the day. It can change rapidly.
My body is more stable at times than others. It feels like a progression path of one step forward and two steps back. I have a team of doctors, but unfortunately when you experience severe adrenal shut down as I did, and add to that severe heavy metal toxicity, there is no set prescription for the path to healing. It's painfully difficult and each person is unique in their own recovery. That's why it has literally taken help, guidance and consultations from some of the top doctors in the country. It's no joke to try to recover from severe mercury toxicity and adrenal issues.
However, I know that I will recover - even if some days it feels like I won't.
I am taking the pain of what I went through and using it for something purposeful, otherwise it just remains pain.
I am sharing my story to help raise awareness about genetic methylation issues which can impact so many health issues from depression, heart health, detoxification to so many more. If I had known I had a genetic predisposition to not detoxify properly, I could have been aware of these toxins and taking steps to properly detoxify them from my body.
There are simple saliva test and blood spot tests to take that can identify your genetic impairments on about 23 genes. Easy to do. I need to point out before some get scared off on knowing what the genetic impairments are - just because you have a genetic impairment does not mean that you will express it!
I am also raising awareness about mercury safe dentistry and how these mercury 'silver' fillings actually release mercury into the body both when in the tooth and when they are removed improperly. If I had known this, I could have made very different decisions regarding the removal of my 'silver' mercury amalgams.
Many dentists feel that rubber dams placed in the mouth are adequate protection from the mercury during the drilling out and removal process. They are not. As I stated earlier, dentists must follow the Safe Mercury Amalgam Removal Technique - S.M.A.R.T. as set forth by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, to protect patients from mercury exposure during the removal. iaomt.org has plenty of amazing information.
Unfortunately, many in the dental profession still claim that mercury amalgams are safe and that they do not release mercury into the body. It absolutely does. They also claim that mercury is 'stable' inside the amalgam. It absolutely is not. It is not a matter of if mercury will harm you, it is a matter of how much your body can tolerate before it becomes seriously ill, how quickly it can detoxify, and when you will reach your own toxic tipping point. All my scientific references regarding mercury in amalgams are provided on the main page where I share my story.
However, my own scientific proof is in my own lab work and my own illness. I don't need anyone's scientific 'proof' that mercury from amalgams is harmful! Mercury is one of the most highly neurotoxic substances in the world! It doesn't belong anywhere in the human body at any time! It's not rocket science friends....and dentists!
I'm sharing my story to help one person avoid going through what I went through and to bring hope and information for others dealing with all types of chronic illnesses. Chronic illnesses that aren't recognized by traditional western medical doctors like adrenal fatigue and the more severe adrenal exhaustion.
Many people do not survive severe mercury toxicity, severe hormonal imbalance and the severity of adrenal shut down I had.
I am grateful to be here today sharing my story.
If you are left with more questions after reading this, please see the full story of what happened.
In hope and healing,
Deanna
