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.

Barb’s Original Documents:

Wilkie Wages War on Kidney Disease (aka Renal Disease or Failure)
The “Low Sodium, Low Potassium, Low Phosphorus Grocery List”
Links for Kidney Disease

Table of Contents:
Wilkie Wages War on Kidney Disease

In breaking up Wilkie Wages War on Kidney Disease into smaller posts, we have preserved Barb’s order.  Some parts she rewrote later and some were added from memory after the fact.  Dates, when known, are noted.

2005-2006 (and sections mixed in)

Introduction (overview & pointers to different sections; written at different times but revised June 2008)
January 2006 (about her diagnosis July 2005, with an overview to date)
First Experience with a Nephrologist (visit July 2005, written January 2006; includes information about kidney failure & doctor freakouts)
Creatinine readings 2005 (July-December 2005, with some thoughts about why they have changed)
Creatinine readings 2006 (January-February 2006, herbs, diet, methods for blood creatinine testing, testing creatinine levels in urine)
March 7, 2006 (Precautionary Principle in the workplace, labs (first set that is more than creatinine), food affecting creatinine tests, hypothyroidism)
April 4, 2006 (labs & some commentary)
Visit with Second Nephrologist (written April 2006. Doctor calls her “unfortunate woman” & does not believe chemicals play a role, Barb gives evidence to the contrary; discusses exposures from house rewiring/rehab project, how she might have gotten kidney disease, benign tumor, her workplace from hell, fragrance exposures at Kaiser.; cites government statements & toxicology studies about fragrance; Clean Med 2006 conference happening then, where Kaiser employees were given info about fragrance written by Barb and Betty Bridges)
May 6, 2006 (Kaiser’s transplant program gets in trouble, Barb discusses not wanting a kidney transplant but is open to home dialysis & gives an update on her status)
May 2, 2006 (labs)
May 30, 2006 (labs)
June 5, 2006 (labs)
June 25, 2006 (update & thoughts about chemicals & kidneys)
June 27, 2006 (brief comment on seeing Third (or is it Fourth?) Nephrologist)
June 30, 2006 (labs)
July 2006 (labs & schooling a phlebotomist about wearing perfume)
August 2006 (labs)
September 8, 2006 (Kaiser offers to pay Barb to take drugs, jade ball healing)
September 2006 (labs)
How’s this for Stage Five Renal Disease Numbers? (picture of Barb taken 10/8/06)
October 14, 2006 (thoughts about her disease & treatments, the uselessness of nephrologists, jade ball healing, exposures at her workplace, & fun stuff she’s been doing instead of dying)
October 2006 (labs)
November 2006 (labs & update)
December 2006 (labs)

2007

January 2007 (picture of Barb from December 2007, loving the Cardinals (baseball), growing up, labs)
February 2007 (labs & update)
March 2007 (labs & zeolites)
April 2007 (labs + a 10 chapter saga including deodorizer put in her car, her husband Bill reacting to air freshener, hysterical summons to ER over a bad lab test, Betty Bridges visits, and more)
Friday, April 13, 2007: Emergency Room (potassium goes down, tests show heart problems)
Wednesday, April 18, 2007: Main Lab Re-test (potassium back to normal)
May 2007 (labs & update)
June 2007 (labs & her 50th wedding anniversary)
June 2007: A scary venture — Flying in the face of medical “wisdom” (eating potassium & sodium-rich foods and drinking “tons” of water; living through “Kaiser scentitizing experiences”; Bill is battling prostate cancer; microscopic test of live and dried blood cells; bad diet advice by doctors, Himalayan salt; pH balancing (alkalizing) diet, greening, blood pressure drops closer to normal)
July 2007 (labs show drop in BUN, potassium, creatinine & increase in hemoglobin & hematocrit on new diet)
Mid July . . . birthday time and also second anniversary of my first “dead”line. (3 weeks of serious Parkinson’s Disease symptoms; lays down the law: NO MORE NEPHROLOGISTS)

I’m sticking with the holistic approach and I’m able to enjoy life on my level. So far, so good. I’d not be able to say that if I took all the drugs the nephrologists tried to push. Now, all that stated, IF there is a nephrologist out there who does know how to help the already chemically injured, I might change my tune. I’d love it if maybe that profession just might learn a little something from my experiences so they can help rather than more quickly harm others who are diagnosed with kidney disease. And of course, in doing it my way, one has to keep in mind that one has alternatives to dialysis and transplant. That alternative is to ride out the health of your kidneys as long as possible and then die. Simple. Just prepare your family for what you might be like your last couple of weeks or so of life. None of us lasts forever . . . I just want to last as long as possible as healthfully as possible and so far, so good, with minor ups and downs along the way. But it sure beats poisoning my body with drugs.

July 31, 2007 (labs & update; numbers start to worsen)
August 28, 2007 (labs & update; numbers continue to worsen)
September 2007 (labs worsen, develops aversion to green diet, nausea & hair loss, doctors give her new “dead”line of December 2007)

I sure hope my experience lets everyone know that one does not have to take the drugs that make them even sicker. I’ve had a healthy-feeling two plus years now since diagnosis and for that I’m extremely thankful. I would not be able to make that claim IF I had gone on the nephrologist’s drug regime. Please know that one can choose to go drug-free and dialysis free. We can choose death instead of agony of surgery that may or may not work the first time, or repeated times, for dialysis, which can be in an area a loaded with chemicals one cannot be around in the first place.

Time passes . . . (September 2007-February 2008) (overview of last 5 months)
October 2007 (labs & update)
November 2007 (labs)
December 2007 (labs)

2008

January 2008 (labs)
February 2008 (labs)
March 2008 (labs)
April 2008 (labs)
May 2008 (labs)
June 2008 (labs & 51st wedding anniversary)

More

Additional information that may prove of interest (July 26, 2006; links & commentary about Teen Fights Cancer Treatment, Hoxsey Herbal Therapy, Kaiser’s poor kidney transplant program, Losing Weight Could Prevent Deadly Kidney Disease, medical guesswork; thoughts on weight gain, the drug culture around kidney disease, acupuncture)
So, you’d like to learn more about . . . (CoQ10, cordyceps, creatinine, cystatin C blood test, dialysis at home, diet for renal patients, fish peptides, GFR calculation, glomerulonephritis, high blood pressure medicines/diuretics, himalayan salt, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, animal chronic renal failure (CRF), kidney physiology & more, pH blood, qigong, kidney stem cells (renal regeneration), when to start dialysis, zeolites (Waiora))
Barb’s Footers (mostly internal links to Barb’s favorite pages)

START HERE