Wilkie Wages War: September 8, 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.

Sept. 8, 2006–Latest thing from Kaiser . . .They don’t seem to GET IT that I don’t want to
take drugs. Now they are after me with a money-making offer. I could earn stipends of $30, nine
times; $45 once; $50 once; $75 twice; and $100 once. Which, if I’ve tallied that up correctly
and added correctly comes to $615. Now, the kick is: Join the study for FibroGen’s
experimental drug called FG-2216.

Kaiser staff just doesn’t get it. I don’t want drugs . . . not until it is the very last of choices
to make. I’ve looked up some side effects on MedlinePlus regarding drugs to boost my
blood’s ability to make red blood cells. I don’t want the drug and certainly not an
experimental drug. No thanks!!!

I’ll hope that my healer’s “heaven connection,” plus his jade ball rolling, will truly
unblock all the blockages he says I have to get the blood flowing again. (The magic comes
by way of a taoist jade ball healer, whom I’ve been seeing since early July. I’ve got the name —
“very non-mechanistic view of the cosmos” — from a Kaiser nephrologist, so thought
I may as well play the game. This healer has gotten down the edema, so I don’t have a
problem there anymore. Edema, I might add that wasn’t seen by a nephrologist just
four days before I met my healer, who saw it at a single glance at my legs and then
proved it by pressing and leaving “pits.” It certainly feels as though he has released
blockages. Everywhere. I hope another blood test or two will start to show real gains,
including in the kidneys so they can release the hormone that tells the brain to
tell the marrow to kick out red blood cells so my heart and other organs can continue
to function properly. Sounds like The House that Jack Built.

The hormone is: Erythropoietin. And if my kidneys don’t start producing it, there’s always
a drug. But that will be for later. As long as I still have energy, I don’t want it. And
certainly NOT an experimental drug.