Wilkie Wages War: May 30, 2006
Wilkie Wages War: May 30, 2006
Environmental Health Network leader Barbara Wilkie discovered in July 2005 that her chemical injury/multiple chemical sensitivities had suddenly manifested as stage 4 (later stage 5) kidney disease (kidney failure). Despite dire warnings of death within a year, she eschewed dialysis and Western Medicine drugs and took a route of alternative medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and strict dietary changes. She lived well for six years, far beyond the doctors’ predictions. Barb died at home, surrounded by friends and family, on May 31, 2011.
During this time, Barb documented her journey. From diagnosis through June 2008, she created one huge website page packed with details, plus some side documents on diet and other topics. We have divided these works into smaller pieces, by date or topic, to make it easier to read and find things. For dates after June 2008, we have letters, online posts, and other documents.
Barb intended her work to be read and used. We hope this presentation will help you do just that.
Wilkie Wages War on Kidney Disease
(aka Renal Disease or Failure)
OR, AS I SEE IT: Life with yet another facet of living with MCS.
I want to live life while dying.
May 30, 2006 . . . standard four-week interval for tests. However, I’d had Chinese Watercress the night before this blood test and my potassium shot up. Have to take another test in a week.
| High or Low | Blood checked for | Reading is: | What should be: |
| H | BUN | 48 . . . HIGHEST ever | < 21 |
| H | Magnesium | 2.4 A bit of a drop, but still high. High magnesium is supposed to cause low blood pressure. I should be so lucky to have my BP drop to even normal. | 1.7 -2.3 |
| Calcium | 9.5 | 8.5 – 10.3 | |
| L | CO2 | 20 | 24 – 33 |
| H | Creatinine | 4.3 . . . Well, it’s held its own despite wonderful vacation w/family. | <1.2 |
| H | Phosphorus | 5.2 . . . Down a little . . . but still too high. | 2.7 – 4.5 |
| R | Potassium | 5.8 . . . I guess the R stands for REPORT, for I got a call about symptoms of potassium poisoning. I didn’t have anything they described, although my hands cramped on Tuesday while cooking and that night I had a cramp in the muscle to the left of my left shin . . . Kaiser asked about tingling in hands and feet, difficulty breathing or speaking, dizziness, vomiting, fatigue, strange heart beat, nausea, diarrhea . . . Looking back, I wonder if my body simply goes into cramps from too high potassium, because spring 2005 I had a lot of trouble with leg cramps, which I had thought were due to the work I was doing and then to our travels and hikes. It wasn’t until July that I learned I had stage 4 kidney failure. Ah, HA! Cramps may be my body’s warning signal. | 3.5 – 5.3 |
| L | GFR * | 11 or 13 . . . | >59 |
| L | Hemoglobin | 9.9 . . . up ever so little, nonetheless, UP! | 11.5 – 15 |
| L | Hematocrit | 31.1 . . . up a little | 34 – 4 |
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