I was very lucky when I got sick. Not lucky to get sick! That was a terrible experience! But I was lucky to have received exactly the right education before I needed it – a PhD in chemistry (Princeton, 1985) – close enough to medicine to be able to read physician’s textbooks, but not close enough to share all the myths and be sure of the things “everyone knows.” I was lucky to have had some business experience so I viewed physicians as professional service providers and knew how to get the services I needed from them. This made me comfortable enough to browbeat, wheedle, sweet talk, and cajole physicians into helping. I had the right political experience to realize I could get lots of valuable information by just talking to enough people and I learned lots from fellow patients. I also learned how much people suffer from this terrible condition. I learned how poor the understanding is of how to diagnose and treat chronic mercury poisoning. I wanted to write this book so that other people don’t have to do all their own detective work when they get sick. So that people could start with the best information I could find. So that future victims of mercury poisoning won’t have to suffer unnecessarily because nobody really knows what to do.