Posted: October 01 2009 at 12:27pm | IP Logged

Hi, I am Debra.  I have fibromyalgia.  I am here for two reasons actually.  One reason is that my doc has decided he wants to do chelation on me.  The second reason is that I have a 7 year old boy who is precious and has a learning disability on the far left of the autism spectrum.  If not for the learning disability, he would really have no sign of autism itself as far as I can tell. 

I am also an RN.  I want to ask some questions about chelation.  I will be paying for it out of pocket without any insurance.... I don't have insurance.  Anyway, I want to speak with someone whom has had or has known someone who had chelation therapy. 

I want to know if you veiw it as dangerous, what side effects you have seen, and how did you feel after the first treatment or so.  I must continue to work and cannot miss weeks of work in order to recuperate from chelation.  Hopefully, there is no need to recuperate.  I have heard many sides of the story.

Thanks much,

Debra (a.k.a. learnFMnow)

Posted: October 01 2009 at 2:22pm | IP Logged

Hi Debra.  I have been dx'd with fibromyalgia and CFS, but later found out I had lyme.  I have done a little chelation myself and had no effects of exhaustion or pain.  I discontinued when I found out that it's not the best idea to undergo chelation if you have amalgams, and can actually be harmful. I have a mouth full of them, so no more for me until I can afford to get them out.

Both of my boys are undergoing IV chelation now, and after each IV they are both back in school the next day.  We have seen only positive results from it.  If you would like to PM me, feel free.

Posted: March 21 2010 at 9:03am | IP Logged

I would like to ask Julie  or any other mom regarding the chelation (Mom's that already done chelation with their kids). To parents or other people that against IV please do not say bad thing about my decision going through chelation. It is my decision to do chelation for my better son, i dont need criticism.

Julie, you mentioned that your boys going for chelation. I am sure you've done it many times and you already knew what best for them. I've just started with DAN doctor here in Pleasanton. We started one week IV EDTA and one week EDTA suppository. We use EDTA purely because his blood test showing high level of aluminum.

We've done it for 3 weeks already (2 IV so far), should I see improvement? what kind of improvements? he is hyper after the IV for sure, more calm after the suppository. He will be 4 on 3/22.

Should I do another challenge test with DMPS and DMSA? should I keep going with EDTA - if i do have to keep going with EDTA, for how long?

I wanted to make sure that I dont jump to a diff. medicine too quickly and missing the improvement just because i dont see anything for few weeks.

I do notice he sits better and understand more to what i've said but he still not carrying one on one converstation like typical 4 year old (ie. not responding to my questions such as : how are you, how is your day at school etc, etc).

Please let me know, Thank you very much!!

Posted: April 16 2010 at 10:05am | IP Logged

Hi all,

I am the mother of two kids and I had no idea that there was such a problem of metals in the blood. How do you think this is happening? I now that there has been a push lately in regards to getting lead out of kids things, but how do you think you or your kids were exposed to such as level that it became a problem?

Posted: April 20 2010 at 9:53am | IP Logged

I have spoken to four parents at our local autism society who have tried chelation from a DAN doctor in Melbourne, Florida.  In two cases, they said it helped, and the other two said it seemed to help, but not so much that they continued the treatment. 

A few bits of advice they offered:

1. Read "Children With Starving Brains" ("CWSB") by Dr. Jacquelyn McCandless.  She researched it in detail, and has a lot of good advice. 

2. Take Zinc and Magnesium ahead of time, for months if you can.  Chelation depletes these minerals from your body, as well as vanadium and selenium.  If you don't have enough of these, the chelation will not work as well.

3. You can do some chelation at home using vitamins, minerals, DMSA, and a combination of other over-the-counter supplements.  The book (CWSB) describes this as well. 

Good luck

Posted: April 20 2010 at 10:26am | IP Logged

You have to do what you have to do to make your kids feel better.  Nobody should ever judge.

I have been wanting to ask but don't want this to sound negative.  Just truly curious as chelation may be something I consider down the road.  Do you have to hold your kids down to do the IVs?  I can't picture being able to do it any other way.  My kids can't even handle a finger prick let alone a full blown iv regularly.  Do the kids get used to it?  Once again, I'm not asking this to sound harsh, I just want to be educated better.

Do you guys have your kids get that numbing cream?  where does the iv go, arm, hand?  Sorry for my ignorance.

Thanks,

Shanda

Posted: April 20 2010 at 11:17am | IP Logged

Shandalyn -

We may be about to start chelation, but it won't be IV in our case - it will be suppositories.  They're small, absorb really fast, and can be done while the child is asleep (I hope!).  I haven't done this yet myself - just wanted you to know that there are alternatives to the IV.

I should add that because of where we live, we don't have the option of the IV method, so it's not that there's a problem with it or anything.  We just live too far from our DAN to try it.