Update on Rachel’s health.
May 12, 2012 I was hospitalized, critically ill. It all happened so suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere.
The diagnosis was end stage kidney failure, with 15% kidney function left. If I had been given the diagnosis of cancer, I would have been more prepared. But what did one do for end stage kidney failure? There was no charted path to follow. I was too sick to study or even read anything. I lay in my bed, prepared to die, comfortable in the fact that I knew Jesus and had served Him to the best of my ability by His grace. I was too weak to even fret about it.
But my family was not so contented. When discharged from the hospital with the command to go on dialysis, I was appalled. To me that was a death sentence. When I found that the cost was somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000 yearly, I knew I would not be doing that anytime soon. No matter how much I loved my family it simply did not seem like an option. I prayed earnestly for the Lord to direct our next step, too tired to even do any research myself. Then my oldest son called me from MI and told me that I should go to Wildwood, GA. He said he had investigated and they had sometimes helped people who were on dialysis. This was a real answer to prayer as I already knew this clinic. I had spent two weeks there with our daughter who needed physical help just 9 months before.
A month there, some time in the hospital and the rest of the time in the lifestyle center, gave me some improvement in my health and confidence that I could fight this battle.
It has been a long 4 months but I am slowly gaining strength. I can do some housework if I rest in between. My blood levels continue to improve slowly, very slowly but I am making progress. My family is incredibly supportive and as we work together I make it through each day. I would ask for your prayer support for continued healing. The medical world says that it cannot be done! But perhaps they are wrong. I have chosen to count each day as a gift from God and to be thankful for the time I have with my family.
This illness and my diagnosis has given place to rumors. There are stories circulating, by mouth and in print that my remedies and tinctures caused my kidney failure and I am now on dialysis. To clarify – I am not on dialysis and I am sure it was not the “stuff” I took. I have been so thankful for good health and the seldom need to take “stuff.” The doctors cannot be sure what is the cause but it may have begun with my hospitalization 12 years ago. I had systemic e coli that cause poly-nephritis and that may well be the place where it started. I had no symptoms whatsoever until the six weeks before I crashed. This is common for kidney failure. And those symptoms were not really traceable to my kidneys. I was simply fatigued and very nauseous.
I will try to keep this site updated every two months or so to let you all know how I am. Thanks for caring and suggesting that I post here.
My new books that I was working so hard to finish when I crashed, will hopefully go to press at the end of the year.
Backyard Pharmacy and Be Your Child’s Pediatrician will be companion books to Be Your Own Doctor. Neither of them will take the place of that first book but will cover things I did not get to say there. I tried not to repeat myself but to present new information in the same format and story telling as I did the first book. We will post them here when we are ready to ship.