Hello, my name is Marie-Noël. In February 2021, my daily life changed dramatically after receiving an intravenous injection of gadolinium, a rare heavy metal used as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). At that time, I was not informed of the constituent of the injected product or of any potential risks. According to recent studies, gadolinium-based contrast agents cause gadolinium deposits in the brain, skin, bones and other organs of all patients (see Gadolinium section). In some cases like mine (1/10,000 - probably underestimated), these deposits trigger the disease of gadolinium deposits whose severity depends on the amount of metal deposited in the body after imaging and the person’s immune response to this toxic intruder. This condition compares to a gadolinium allergy and can affect all organs of the body depending on the location of deposits. The body can naturally eliminate only a tiny amount. It is therefore essential to obtain care to promote its elimination and control the associated syndromes in order to regain a certain quality of life and avoid irreversible bodily damage. 

After my MRI, I began to experience occasional and random pain to my muscles and spine, an intense burning sensation on my skin and I had difficulty swallowing. After a few months, my symptoms multiplied and intensified and within a few weeks my condition deteriorated to the point of moving from a physically active life (tennis, hiking, jogging) to an inability to move and perform my daily tasks. I had the horrible feeling of being intoxicated. I was bruised at every level of my being: physically, emotionally and spiritually. I was then forced to interrupt an industrial master’s degree in molecular medicine and my professional activities as a nutritionist to devote myself entirely to my health and try to understand the origin of this widespread failure of my body. 

I first experienced a radical muscle and fat melt (weight loss of 17 pounds in five days). I also had, for several months, the extremely painful feeling that thousands of needles pierced my organs to which were added different types of pain: electric shocks, stabbing, burns, cuts. I had paralysis, muscle spasms, internal vibrations, tingling, numbness and sometimes even the feeling that my organs were becoming rigid. My mobility was greatly reduced. I spent and still spend the majority of my days lying in pain that I still have difficulty describing, because the words do not seem strong enough to me. I started to have cardiovascular symptoms, breathing difficulties, skin problems. My head was greatly affected having had a brain MRI, gadolinium settling mainly near the targeted organs during imaging: head pain, blood slides on my face, headache, tinnitus, cognitive disorders, hair loss and many problems in my mouth (gum pain, metal taste, spontaneous movements of my jaw, burns, bleeding, bruises, ulcers)etc. I also became disabled in my arms and upper body (shoulders, spine, ribs) due to severe pain in my bones and joints, stiffness, crackling and instability of the joints and I sometimes feel like my bones rub together. I am constantly tired, in addition to having sleep problems and I sometimes experience constant anxiety and general discomfort. I also now have significant gastrointestinal problems and multisystem symptoms triggered by food, water, chemicals and body hygiene, medications and supplements, etc. 

I went to the emergency room three times and started an endless and hopeless medical wandering in the Quebec health system: ENT, internists, nephrologists, immunologists, hematologists, neurologists, rheumatologists, dermatologists, psychiatry (!) etc. A one-year medical course without concrete help, most specialists disbelief in my condition. I was still diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, malignant pre-cancerous cells in my bone marrow that can evolve into multiple myeloma in the long term, as well as multiple chemical sensitivity, a very disabling syndrome that medical authorities in Quebec wrongly attribute to psychological problems... My medical results also showed transient abnormalities in my kidneys.

It is only one year after my MRI, that I FINALLY discover the cause of my health problems through a young woman afflicted by the disease of gadolinium deposits for several years who knew how to recognize the obvious signs of this disease in me. I then saw a huge release, but it dissipated as soon as I realized the severity of this condition and the treatment options limited or even nil in Quebec, the practice of functional medicine being violated. Then I get a diagnosis from an American radiologist, a clinical researcher, and a global authority of that entity, and I do tests in the United States. My first urinary gadolinium tests after intravenous injection of a chelating drug that clings to gadolinium and eliminates it through the kidneys indicate gadolinium excretion 5 times higher than normal reference (3.1 vs 0.6 ug) more than a year and a half after my MRI. Without taking chelating agent my excretion is zero, demonstrating the sequestration of gadolinium in my organs and that this metallic contrast was not eliminated 24-48h after the examination as alleged. 

Two years later, I managed to get the follow-up of Quebec doctors grateful that the problems I am experiencing stem from my MRI. I am being diagnosed with severe mast cell activation syndrome (SAMA) with dysautonomia and bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine (SIBO), suggesting some treatment options. At the moment, I have almost no social life and my outings are very limited. My pains and immune reactions are daily, permanent and uncontrollable. Gadolinium is mostly deposited in the upper part of my body, causing me a musculoskeletal disorder that limits the use of my arms, associating a motor problem with horrible pain: I feel like thousands of splinters planted in my organs and I often feel like I’m being cut or torn off my arms. Unfortunately, I can’t use any medication to calm the pain that has become intolerant, as these only worsen my symptoms. 

Through this chaotic journey, I become aware of a great injustice. Traditional medicine offers no treatment for chronic heavy metal poisoning even if it is the cause! Yet functional medicine is proving effective (see Dr. Neil Nathan’s book Toxic: Heal your body…). For example, intravenous nutritional therapies and chelation therapies have helped many people with heavy metal poisoning. Chelation is the administration of a chelating agent that binds to a metal to remove it from the body. This medical approach is prohibited in Quebec unlike other provinces and countries in North America. In Quebec, traditional medicine dominates the medical industry. There are very few functional physicians and they have their hands tied in their practice. In Québec, a physician may be sanctioned for having treated a patient with means that do not comply with the regulations of the Collège des médecins and the Québec medical law. In short, cases of chronic poisoning are ignored, tests of heavy metals not recognized and treatments prohibited, even in private! Furthermore, the most stable and safe gadolinium chelating drug (DTPA) is not approved in Canada. 

Given this limiting context, I must obtain medical follow-up in the United States to reduce the load of gadolinium in my body until my symptoms disappear, that is, until my immune system calms down and my body is able to manage residual toxicity. A two-day IV Calcium/Zinc-DTPA chelation protocol removes about 10 times more gadolinium from my body than my natural excretion. I have already received five treatments under the supervision of Dr. McCloy at the Maine Integrative Health Centre in Cumberland, USA. Given the severity of my condition, I can only receive low doses of DTPA (< 50%). According to my specialist it is difficult to estimate the number of treatments needed. The medical center is located at a distance of 5 hours by car from my home. Accompanied, I arrive on the scene the day before my treatment and I leave the next day which implies renting a home for three nights. The cost is $1,800 for each treatment including medical ($700), accommodation ($875), gas ($225) and heavy metal testing ($200). Obtaining treatments in the United States requires good logistics and generates significant expenses. 

Gadolinium is a heavy and rare metal used in recent years by the pharmaceutical industry as a contrast agent to improve the quality of medical imaging by about 30%. This contrast agent contains a chelating agent bound to metal ions, such as gadolinium. For many reasons, once injected, metal ions can break away from the chelating agent in the patient’s body or even in the vial where it was stored. In its free form, gadolinium becomes highly toxic. It is considered by specialists as the most toxic and foreign element of the body ever studied. In recent years, an increasing number of gadolinium toxicity symptoms have been reported. The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has recently issued alerts about potentially serious adverse reactions that occur even after a single dose is given to a healthy person. According to her, there is no safe level of body gadolinium. Recent studies reveal that the use of these contrast agents leads to a greater or lesser retention of gadolinium in the body of all patients and that it remains in the body for much longer than what pharmaceuticals claimed a priori, years rather than hours. In some, this retention triggers the disease of gadolinium deposits and more rarely nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (FSN), an incurable disease characterized by extensive fibrosis of tissues. Symptoms of toxicity usually begin after the injection, but can also occur after several months, reducing the chances of linking this medical examination. Gadolinium has been shown to be toxic to mitochondria, cells and tissues. This is the most powerful calcium channel blocker ever identified. It causes a variety of metabolic problems, including glucose metabolism, glutathione regulation and mineral function. It accumulates in the brain, skin, connective tissues, muscles, kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, digestive system and other organs. It causes: severe bone and joint pain, connective tissue dysfunction, skin damage, alteration of the immune system, autoimmune diseases, fibrosis of the organs, systemic damage, renal and liver failure, cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal disorders, damage to the central nervous system, neurological damage, polyneuropathy, motor sensitivity, neurotoxicity, brain disorders, encephalopathy, encephalitis, cognitive disorders, anxiety, depression, multiple chemical sensitivity, multiple myeloma and even death. The disease of gadolinium deposits is killing more and more people all over the world due to an increasing number of imageries performed and complex medical conditions increasing the risk of this examination going wrong. In Quebec, there is no awareness of the risks associated with the injection of gadolinium and very few physicians understand this type of toxicity, suggesting that adverse reactions are undervalued and often wrongly attributed to other health problems. Patients should be informed of the risks before obtaining such a medical procedure and doctors should only prescribe it as a last resort."

July 2024: My request for medical assistance in dying was refused because for an unpredictable death one must be sure to have tried everything and that the decline in my health is advanced and irreversible. The doctor in charge of the evaluation says he is not convinced at this state of the irreversibility of my condition (little known). I have the opportunity to apply again in the future. At the same time, I don’t get therapeutic help in Quebec and the CLSC cuts my services at home because I don’t fit in any box of the system, despite the recognition of my disability by the state and the advice of doctors who supervise me. In this context, I plan to reassess my health in the fall. Until then, I try different things, a little left to myself, based on books, presentations by medical experts abroad and exchanges with other people living the same problems as me. I am shocked that our system goes so little and I hope with all my heart to continue to have the support of the few people around me and the public. Despite my limitations, I still want to talk about my story and denounce the obstacles I encounter.

February 2024: Through my journey, I was lucky to have the support of friends, acquaintances and strangers in different forms, which allowed me to continue my fight still incomplete 3 years after my MRI with gadolinium (heavy metal). This generosity is precious. My case is severe. I live a daily suffering that I have more and more difficulty to endure. This MRI stole everything from me: my body, my passions, my social life and my career. I confess that I have less and less hope of getting better by seeing resources run out and by having a state of exhaustion that settles. So I recently started a process of medical assistance in dying because I am there. I can’t imagine going any lower, or going through this ordeal for a long time. During this process, I still have a glimmer of hope for miraculous help from the health care system and another wave of public generosity. Your donations will be used to pay for the analysis of biological samples that I must perform in a private laboratory, to pay for medications not covered and to continue my follow-up for gadolinium deposition disease with my functional doctor in Maine, Dr. McCloy. I had the immense privilege of having the support of the Fondation Normand Brie, which paid for my medication during a predetermined period, but it ends in March. I also want to be able to buy a promising new experimental drug. It is a gadolinium chelator that seems to give good preliminary results. 

Environmental diseases caused by heavy metals or other "toxins" are very real complex conditions that are treated over the long term and do not integrate well with conventional medicine generally not focusing on the cause of health problems and offering brief visits with as a solution a prescription of drugs to treat symptoms. Unfortunately, I no longer tolerate the vast majority of drugs and gadolinium deposition disease is not treated this way! The real cure is to get this poison out of my body and with your help I may be able to do it before it wins..