Wilkie Wages War: October 2007
Wilkie Wages War: October 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.
October 2007
Well, this IS an interesting exercise. There’s a new perspective when filling in old data, for if one’s more recent numbers get even worse, one can feel thankful about previously bad numbers. That’s me all over: I’m thankful I’ve had MCS, for it’s kept me from taking the nephrologists drugs and now I’m thankful these numbers while bad, weren’t as bad as they could get. With that stated, I’m still hopeful that the magic day will arrive and my kidneys will begin to improve . . . without harmful drugs!
| High or Low | Blood checked for | Reading is: | What should be: |
| H | BUN | 52 . . . Down this time, but I’m still hoping it will drop more. (BUN increases as kidney function decreases. BUN also reflects one’s state of hydration.) | 10 – 20 mg/dL |
| H | Magnesium | 2.5 . . . Down! Not as low as I’d like it to go, but moving in the right direction. As I understand it, too much magnesium can adversely affect heart, just as can too much potassium. However, my heart is still ticking as it should. | 1.7 -2.3 mg/dL |
| Calcium | 8.5. . . Normal, but dropped .2 point so now I don’t have any wiggle room, except up. Calcium seems to be an important partner for the see-saw ride with phosphorus. | 8.5 – 10.3 mg/dL | |
| CO2 | 25 . . . Up a bunch so it’s now in the normal range. How did I do that???? | 24 – 33 mEq/L | |
| H | Creatinine | 5.68 . . . Up .20 from last test on August 28. I learned from Kaiser’s site after having this test, that one is not supposed to exercise for two days before the test, in preparation of this test. This time I did not take any huge walks, but I had eaten a little meat, having left my green diet in hopes of settling my stomach.. | <1.2 mg/dL |
| H | Phosphorus | 4.9 . . . Dropped a bit, but still registering as “too high.” Too much phosphorus in the blood and bones can be leached of calcium, causing them to become brittle. | 2.7 – 4.5 mg/dL |
| Potassium | 4.6 . . . “Normal.” I’m not quite sure what I did this month to get into the normal range for Potassium, just damn glad I got here! Beats Kaiser calling to tell me I’ll be dead on the kitchen floor in 24 hours if I don’t get into Emergency. | 3.5 – 5.3 mEq/L | |
| Sodium | 137 . . . Well, here I am at normal. How did I do this? Seems I have a history of dropping in and out of normal for this test. | 133 – 145 mEq/L | |
| L | GFR | 8 or 10 . . . Same as last month. Still doing better than I was on June 5, when I had 7 or 9 from which to choose. Like always, I’ll take the higher number. With the increase in creatinine, the GFR drops. 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, as am I. | >60 mL/min |
| L | Hemoglobin | 7.7 . . . Un, oh . . . I’ve dropped again! However, I still feel OK and am still alive. | 11.5 – 15 g/dL |
| L | Hematocrit | 23.4 . . . .1 increase over last month. Hematocrit measures the amount of space taken up by your red blood cells. So, 23.4 means that only 23.4 percent of the volume of my blood contains red blood cells . . . By both counts, hemoglobin and hematocrit, I’ve got the typical severe anemia that comes with kidney disease. And, I’ve had it for some time now. I’ve not had any other such symptoms of severe anemia. Yet. Hence, I’m not too anxious to have medical intervention with drugs that can cause my body even more problems. | 34 – 46 % |
| WBC | 4.7 . . . Down a little but well within range. | 3.5 – 12.5 | |
| L | Red Blood Cell Count | 2.41 . . . Red blood cells are down another .5 since last month. I’m going in the wrong direction here, regardless of what I do to correct the situation. Of course, I’ve not taken EPO. | 3.60 – 5.19 |
| RDW, RBC | 13.2 . . . Well, now, last month this was too high and this month it’s fallen into range. Why? I don’t know. | 11.9 – 14.3% | |
| MCV | 97 fl. . . . Up a little since last month, and still in range! “Mean corpuscular volume (MCV) is a measurement of the average size of your RBCs. The MCV is elevated when your RBCs are larger than normal (macrocytic), for example in anemia caused by vitamin B12 deficiency. When the MCV is decreased, your RBCs are smaller than normal (microcytic), such as is seen in iron deficiency anemia or thalassemias.” http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cbc/test.html | 80 – 100 | |
| Platelets Count | 247 . . . “Platelet Count measures the number of platelets, which are involved in blood clotting.” http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cbc/test.html | 140 – 400 K/uL | |
| Platelets, BLD,QL,MAN CT | Adequate . | – | |
| Polychromasia | 1+ . | – | |
| Neutrophils %, Automated Count | 59 . | 41 – 81 % | |
| Lymphocytes %, Automated Count | 29 . | 13 – 46 % | |
| Monos %, Auto | 8 . | 4 – 12 % | |
| Eosinophils %, Automated Count | 3 . | 0 – 4 % | |
| Basophils %, Automated Count | 1 . | 0 – 1 % | |
| TSH | 3.0 . This test checks the thyroid gland. However, while my numbers indicate the gland is working well, my body has told my alternative doctors that it is not fully functioning. Maybe this is part and parcel of my MCS . . . and it could have something to do with my bad kidney numbers. Who knows? So far, I’ve not gotten any info out of the four nephrologists I’ve seen. | 0.2 – 5.5 uIU/mL | |
| Tri-iodothyronine – true,Ser/Plas/Qn | 97 . T-3 test to measure bound and free tri-iodothyronine. | 70 – 200 ng/dL | |
| Free T-4 | 1.3 . | 0.8 – 1.7 ng/d |
| PREVIOUS | TOC | NEXT |
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...