Wilkie Wages War: May 6, 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 6, 2006

Here we go again . . . another up in the old creatinine, proving once again the kidneys are
not happy campers and are failing. That of course, is determined by the blood tests. And, yes,
PROGRESSION, PROGRESSION, PROGRESSION rings loud and clear, especially as I push
closer and closer to July 26, 2006. But I keep telling myself: HEAL, HEAL, HEAL. I’d settle
for even a little healing. I’m not hoping to be back to 20 years of age, just 68 would do very nicely..

Alas, I can’t ask my questions about fragrances and other chemical assaults without being
ridiculed by Kaiser nephrologists. I truly was hoping to learn IF most recently my encountering
fragrance poisoning at Berkeley’s Earth Day tabling event, and my perfume poisoning at
Penny’s at Richmond’s Hilltop — it’s got to be pumped throughout that store, so BEWARE! — the
Sunday before the blood draw on Tuesday, have anything to do with this sudden jump from
3.5 last month to 4.3 this month?

The good news is that my potassium is still in normal range and my phosphorous has dropped
back into normal range. (Too high phosphorous and you start leaching calcium from your bones,
so they say.)

And then, just a tad unsettling is the news of Kaiser’s nephrology department regarding
transplant patients.
(http://www.kaiserinjurylawyer.com/CM/CasesandResults/Kaiser-Kidney-Transplant-Program-Injuries.asp)

Other articles: Lawyers and Settlements, Justice for Everyone
October 15, 2006. By Heidi Turner http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/kaiser-kidney-program.html

Kaiser Permanente Kidney Transplant Program Lawsuit
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/case/kaiser_kidney_classaction?ref=article

I haven’t found any information for people such as myself, who do battle to try to
remain as healthy as possible, sans drugs, for as long as possible. My problem is that the
nephrologists are trained to prescribe drugs. They haven’t a clue as to how to deal
with a body that has already had more than its fair share of adverse reactions to
petrochemically derived drugs, which are commonly prescribed They don’t really support
health . . . Or they claim they do, but ONLY by prescribing drugs, which frankly, by now
I am afraid to take. One of the drugs that was prescribed earlier in my MCS, to help
control the muscle pain and joint ache that would awaken me in the middle of the night
and keep me from falling back to sleep was IBUPROFEN. Guess what I have since
learned: Ibuprofen works against the kidneys . . . and heart! Watch out!!!!!!!!

At least, I’ve already determined that I’m NOT going to go that transplant route. I may give
peritoneal dialysis a try, or even hemodialysis IF I can use a machine at home, And, really,
I have been thankful for having had time to get my affairs in order, while still feeling GREAT! If
we didn’t look at my blood, no one — not even nephrologists — would have a clue that I’ve got a
progressive kidney disease. At least, not as of May 6, 2006 in the morning.

You all take care of yourselves!