Wilkie Wages War: March 2007
Wilkie Wages War: March 2007
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.
March 2007 . . .
March notes:
About a week before this blood test, I was put on Zeolites (Waiora). I’ve had quite a time
of it with most of my detox reactions being stomach related. Vomiting a few times,
but mostly nausea that there was little escaping, although acupuncture relieved and
so did acupressure points. Additionally, making teas of ginger helped. And then
there were the incessant burps. My doctor took me off them three days after this test
and I’ve been off them for three days now. Feeling better, no longer nauseous, no more
vomiting and the burps are fewer and further between.
Symptoms for worsening kidney disease are so much like MCS symptoms, fragrance
poisoning symptoms and detox reactions that my doc wanted to make sure it was the
Zeolites causing my reactions rather than worsening kidney disease . . . despite the fact
that my numbers have improved to some extent and those that haven’t improved are
holding their own.
So now, it is March 30. I’m eight months past my “dead”line. No new numbers, yet, but
back on Zeolites at a lower amount to avoid for the time being at any rate, the
nauseousness. But, I’ve been told that as Zeolites normalize abnormal numbers in blood
tests, I don’t want to be off them completely. IF you’d like to learn more about
Zeolites, you may wish to click out to . . .
- Waiora Scientific Advisory Board
Response to Campbell’s attack on liquid zeolite
- Rik Deitsch’s response to the Campbell criticism (Mar 06)
http://www.liquidzeolite.org/criticism/campbell.html— barb
March 2007
| High or Low | Blood checked for | Reading is: | What should be: |
| H | BUN | 49 . . .Still below the 50s that I’d been in during fall 2006; but four points higher than February. Don’t have a clue as to why. (Blood, urea, nitrogen – from the breakdown of protein. BUN increases as kidney function decreases.) | 10 – 20 mg/dL |
| N | Magnesium | 2.2 . . . Normal. It’s been a while. Did the Zeolites help? Eating fiber, as well as trying to stay away from magnesium-rich foods, is one way to bring that back into range. As I understand it, too much magnesium can adversely affect heart just as can too much potassium. | 1.7 -2.3 mg/dL |
| Calcium | 9.3 . . . Normal, and climbing — up 1/2 point. Wow! Zeolites???? | 8.5 – 10.3 mg/dL | |
| L | CO2 | 20 . . . . Still low, haven’t a clue as to why, but doctors don’t care about this number reading low. | 24 – 33 mEq/L |
| H | Creatinine | 5.10 . . . Down a smidgen — .05 — but it is down. The correct direction for this reading. | <1.2 mg/dL |
| N | Phosphorus | 4.5 . . . NORMAL!. Down, 1.1 points. Why? Don’t know. Zeolites? My diet really hasn’t changed. I know I’ve been trying to “think” my phosphorus down, but does mind over matter really work? I know that matter over mind (perfume in the air for example) works to my brain and body’s disadvantage. | 2.7 – 4.5 mg/dL |
| N | Potassium | 4.2. . . Normal. My internist said she wanted my potassium to be even below last month’s 5.0. I actually do pretty good with it running a little higher and told her so. OK . . . but then, this test shows a drop of .8 and I cannot begin to tell anyone the reason for it. Did I simply “listen” to my doctor or can we say the Zeolites had an effect? I don’t know. | 3.5 – 5.3 mEq/L |
| L | Sodium | 129 . . . Well, down two points. Why? I’ve even been indulging in some sodium-rich foods. Why? Because having followed strict guidelines to limit sodium had no real effect on me and some of my research into kidney disease shows that potassium and sodium play a delicate balance for kidney health. So, I’ve eaten some potassium foods, like potato salad this past month and sprinkled on the sodium . . . and my sodium dropped all the more, my potassium dropped and my BP during my last check in a non-scented and therefore, non-Kaiser office, was 128. Now, I’ll continue to wonder out loud . . . and the pondering I’m doing these days is that IF kidney health depends on a delicate balance of salt and potassium, was the fact that I was told to give up salt some years back, which I did, has that played a strange role in my kidney disease? Certainly my sodium count seems to always run low. So, that is what happened in March . . . Life is a crapshoot; so is living with kidney disease. | 133 – 145 mEq/L |
| L | GFR * | 9 or 11 . . . still have muscle mass so I’ll take the 11, which would put me up a tenth of a point again! Of course, this is based only on the creatinine reading, so IF for any reason that’s off, so then is the GFR. The larger number is assigned to African-American women, as they are seen as having more muscle mass than caucasians. You can see how “painting with a broad brush” can cause errors. White women aren’t supposed to have muscle mass? Ridiculous! My ethnic origins were quite muscular. | >59 mL/min |
| L | Hemoglobin | 8.9 . . . Up a tenth of a point from last month. Apparently, 8 is the magic number I’m supposed to remain above and with the help of Floradix, I’m sure trying to stay up around 9 . . . while hoping for higher readings! | 11.5 – 15 g/dL |
| L | Hematocrit | 27.2 . . This time down .1 of a point. I’m now on herbs to try to juice up the red cell production and clear the BUN. We’ll see together what April brings. (Erythropoietin is a hormone that is produced by healthy kidneys, which in essence tells the brain to tell the bone marrow to produce the necessary red blood cells. Kidney failure also means failure of the production of red blood cells, hence anemia because the kidneys are responsible for sending a hormone to the brain that sends a message to the bone marrow to kick out more red blood cells. Kidney failure is system failure. When one’s red cell counts get too low, one doesn’t get the oxygen delivered to all the organs . . . doctors have an artificial way of stimulating that hormone. I’m trying to handle all this without drugs for as long as possible. | 34 – 46 |
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