Wilkie Wages War: January 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.

January 2006
Looking backward over the past half year . . . And forward — how long is anyone’s
guess. The nephrologist guesses another half year. At this point, I remain asymptomatic.

I’m posting my information here because, in the first place, there is precious little research
available on kidney — renal — disease being treated without drugs. At least, I’ve found
zero, zip, nada. None. So, for people living with the effects of chemical injury, who
cannot take pharmaceuticals, there is a horrendous dearth of information. Feel free to
learn with me as I try to dodge or delay mainstream medicine’s pharmaceutical,
dialysis and transplantation approaches. Follow along with me on my new journey:
Empirical evidence (observation and experiences), if you please.

The kidney news hit me like a bomb in mid-July 2005, when I learned through a routine
blood test, and repeated tests, plus sonogram, that I was into Stage 4 kidney disease.

Hell, I didn’t even know I was in stages 1, 2, or 3 . . . or that I was capable of jumping from
an earlier stage to Stage 4 in one fell swoop. But the sonogram showed my left kidney to
be 9.6 cm (3.77952 inches) and my right kidney to be 9.3 cm (3.66141 inches). According
to what I read in a book by Mackenzie Walser, kidneys are about 5 inches long. As I’ve
not had a baseline kidney measurement — at least not that I know of — I have no idea
if I was born with smaller kidneys or if my kidneys have shrunk that significantly. I
was told the sonogram shows that my kidneys have shrunken to the size associated with
a nearly 90-year old individual. I was just 67 at the time. And feeling better,
MCSwise, than I had felt in years. How ironic.

My info will be in chronological order, so the latest info will be below. You can jump to
the latest numbers if you’ve been all through this before.

Let’s start with a couple of definitions:

ARF. Acute Renal Failure. Or in my case, diagnosed as: “acute on chronic renal failure.”
CRF. Chronic Renal Failure.

 I’ve got it! Or so say blood tests taken two days after my 67th birthday. I feel too good! Can’t be.

I didn’t even know I had chronic kidney disease. I have since learned that if you are supposed
to be under 1.2 in a creatinine reading but IF you are 1.4 in a few readings over a couple of years,
you are considered to have chronic renal disease. So while I feel very good, the bad numbers
are there. Kidney disease is serious. Kidney disease sneaks up on too many people. I’m fortunate
to have an internist who keeps close watch on my overall health. I’m fortunate that she requested
a blood test before a year was up. I was able to mend my ways before any more time passed. Was
it soon enough??? Only time will tell.

So, despite how great I feel — and 2005 dawned with me feeling better MCS-wise than I had in
20 – 30 years! — I do heed the advice to seriously limit foods rich in protein, potassium,
magnesium, phosphorous and sodium.

What I couldn’t take seriously was the two-paged food list from Kaiser, via a well-known
lab. The problem with the food suggestions given me by a Kaiser nephrologist is that I couldn’t
and wouldn’t eat half that junk in the past. It listed too many mainstream items that were too
heavy on the petrochemical-derived flavors, dyes and sweets. Alas, for whatever reason,
I could not convince the doctor that while it was good to have a list of vegetables and
fruits from which to choose, I was not going to eat the named main brands that carried
synthetic ingredients. Period. Also, Kaiser recommended eight ounces of meat a day,
which, I’ve come to learn by other standards, is too much. Way too much. By year’s end,
I began following Mackenzie Walser’s plan that strictly restricts meat protein and
supplemented my diet with amino acids, as suggested. See reference below.

ARF. “Tain’t funny McGee!” (Those in my age bracket will remember that line from a popular
radio show, Fibber McGee and Molly.) But, as some diabetics can live shot-free by
regulating diet, I hope to live longer — and dialysis-free for an extended period —
by controlling diet, despite the dire prediction by the first nephrologist I saw.