Test results

Did another mini-blood test to see how things are going. I was especially curious as my blood pressure has been fairly low lately (without medication) and so I thought (hoped) that might things were improving in the kidney department.

Unfortunately it was not the case and curiously the results came back with EXACTLY the same numbers as 6 weeks ago:

Serum Creatinine 2.4 mg/dL > (normal: 0.8 - 1.5 mg/dL)

Blood Urea Nitrogen 11 mg/dL (normal: 9 -20 mg/dL)

Although it's disappointing not to see ANY improvement after so many lifestyle changes (diet and less work hours), I have to admit that I do feel much healthier for them and so should feel grateful rather than cheated... on other hand, maybe it means that indulging in some of the pizza I crave from time to time isn't going to make anything worse!

Results so far

This blog was created to chart my progress in trying to cure my chronic kidney disease, in the hope that it may help others. Three months later I really can't report any tangible improvement in my kidney function, however I can say that:

1. It hasn't got worse! And it's current level is perfectly acceptable (Serum creatine 2-2.5)

2. By adjusting my diet my general health and wellness has improved significantly, and my blood pressure has dropped dramatically (from 150/90 to 125/70).

Therefore I definitely recommend experimenting with your diet to see what works for you. For me fasting was a beneficial experience as it brought me in closer contact with my body and made me realize that many of my eating habits were just that: unnecessary habits. The general diet recommendation is:

Less: Salt, Meat, Eggs, Dairy, Wheat and other Grains, Cooked Food.

More: Fresh Fruits, Fresh Vegetables.

The big downside to this diet is the amount of time it takes to prepare and eat the volume of food required to feel satisfied! My solution has been to try and consider food preparation time as a relaxation time and turn it in to meditative experience... even so, many delicous fruits and vegetables go bad in our house because I never get around to preparing them.

I still believe that the ultimate cure (to any health problem) is in being happy, loving yourself and opening yourself up to "universal energy" (or God, or Love, or whatever you like to call it). I believe that adjusting your diet is a step on this path.

Grains

I came across this nicely researched article that outlines some of detrimental effects of the dramatic increase in human grain consumption in the last 10,000 years. While on one hand human populations boomed after grain agriculture, the incidence of many diseases and nutritional problems increased.

http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/Cereal%20article.pdf

The relevance to chronic kidney disease is that grains are also implicated in auto-immune diseases, although, as usual, nothing is very clear.

At a personal level, I had been suffering from a lot of abdominal gas and, after doing some research, decided to try cutting out wheat completely. After a few days there was a definite reduction in the amount of gas. Relevance to the kidneys? My research has led to think of the body (including the mind) as a single organ and that symptoms in any part are caused by an underlying probleming. I believe that eliminating any symptoms (even, or especially, pyschological ones), by treating underlying causes, are important steps on the path to wellness.

Cures

Not much to report by way of results but I have continued to research possible cures and continue to be astounded by the wealth of information out there (thank goodness for the Internet age!). It is also quite interesting that there seems to be a lot general concurrence in ideas about physical life, even though the terms or perspectives may change between disciplines/teachers.

The general idea that I keep coming across is that true healing of chronic illness can only come from within. There are three main, very compatible, ideas for creating the conditions for this to happen:

1. Diet: Eliminating "toxic" foodstuffs from the diet (which may be causing the auto-immune reactions which cause the chronic condition). "Toxic" foodstuffs are generally considered to be animal proteins (meat, dairy, eggs) and a bunch of other candidates, like wheat (gluten) and an excess of grains/starch in general.

2. Energy: Chinese medicine has the concept of "energy balance" and "energy blockages", which can be fixed, or brought back into balance, by nerve stimulation (acupunture, etc.) and diet. Reiki is "curing with energy". Meditation is also considered to be able to restore energy flow within the body. I think prayer is probably a form of opening yourself to "universal energy" and so could be included in this category.

3. Pyschological: Removing the pyschological issues (self-dislike, need for attention, etc.) that prevent the body from sending the chemical signals required to regenerate the needed cells, or stop the body sending the signals that are damaging itself.

All of these ideas are basically compatible and, in my conclusion, revolve around the key idea learning to love yourself (and hence avoid cumpulsive habits like eating, overworking, etc.).

Test Results

Another set of test results came back today. I don't think there are any really significant changes. On one hand this is a little disappointing. I keep hoping to see a dramatic reduction in something. On the other hand stability is a lot better than deteriation!

Triglycerides have risen beyond the target level (bad), probably due to eating more carbohydrates (maybe I should be more disciplined about avoiding wheat... it just tastes SOO good!). Uric Acid has dropped below the target level (good), probably due to the medication Xyloprim.

For those who like numbers here are the current results with (target level) in parenthesis.

Serum Creatinine 2.4 mg/dL Ideally this would be below 2mg/dL. Normal is < 1.5mg/dL

Glucose 86mg/dL (< 110mg/dL) No change.

Triglycerides 190mg/dL (< 160mg/dL). Last month 133mg/dL

Cholesterol 154mg/dL (< 200mg/dL) Last month 131mg/dL

Uric Acid 5.9mg/dL (< 7.0mg/dL) Last month 9.2mg/dL (before medication)

Hematocrit 35.1% (> 32%) Last month 36.5 %

Overall the results show a decline in blood quality (after an improvement last month). Maybe it's something that naturally varies. Or maybe it's because I've become less enthusiastic about eating fruit, drinking gallons of water, etc.

The results of the urine test are basically the same as those of two months ago. Proteins in urine was 100mg/dL compared to 300mg/dL previously but I think this number is highly variable in a single sample (which is why I've had to do 24 hour urine collections, fun, fun, fun).

Motivation to live

Today my six year old daughter, for no apparent reason, asked me "Daddy, what do you have to do to live a long time?" Delighted that she was asking me something I have been researching so much lately, I cheerfully replied "You have to be happy, always enjoy what you're doing, avoid fighting and being angry, treat everyone as your friend, get lots of sleep, and only eat good things..."

What she said next took me completely by surprise:

"Daddy, I want you to live a long time"

I told her I was going to do everything I could.

Progress

Well, two months have passed since I found out about my condition. 

A week or two after the initial revelation, I decided that to reverse the condition I would have to lead a buddhist monk existance, rising at sunrise every morning for meditation on the beach, living only in the moment, working only a few hours a day and without concern, learning to feel at one with the universe, eating only to satisfy my body and not my mind, getting plenty of rest and plenty of playtime (especially with my children), receiving psychotherapy, etc.

So how am I doing? Pretty poorly really. Here I am at 1am writing my blog and in general I seem to find it a lot easier to spend hours reading about healthy living and meditation than to spend half-an-hour putting it to practice. Although some of my diet changes have been radical, a lot of my consumption is still "comfort" snacks rather than needed nutrition. The psychotherapy is still on the back boiler (I would start if a psychotherapist walked up to me and offered his services...!). I still have trouble getting to myself to sleep at a reasonable time. I am definitely working less and spending more time with my girls but even with them, I'm still checking, and responding to, my mail every few minutes.

I feel that finding out about my condition has been a blessing because it has prompted me to reevaluate my lifestyle and realize that I would like to make lots of changes (and in fact need to make lots of changes if my body is to survive). The question is whether I really have enough desire to make them.

In some ways I feel like it's a battle between me, the Father, who would like to continue his journey for another 30-60 years, and me, the dysfunctional person, who wants to have a chronic, life-threatening, disease. My conscience mind wants the father to win but my subconscience worries me... I´m sure there is a lot of baggage in there that needs to be cast aside if I'm to stop injuring myself.