Discussion Board

Not sure, but think I read it both here and on Dr. Furhman's site.

Big day today... saw the cardiologist. In July... they diagnosed me with beginning stages of heart failure (along with the kidney disease). Today... heart was NORMAL. Yea to the vegan diet! Of course, they felt that it was the medicine that made me better and repaired my heart and that my diet had little to do with it. (boy am I getting tired of hearing that) But... nonetheless... I liked hearing "NORMAL."

That is AMAZING. I just read your story and have tears in my eyes. I'm so happy for you!

Thank you Mrs. Doodlepunk! I really love your username. So cute! I am very happy as well. I am hopeful that as each of my body functions repair that more energy goes to my kidneys and soon I will be back to healthy!

You are still on the prednisone, right? Has the doc cut that back at all? I would think you will feel SO much better off of that stuff.

I have to tell you, I worked in an intensive care unit for many years. Many of my patients were people with renal failure and on some type of dialysis.

It really is a wonderful thing to read about someone being able to step back from the brink like you have.

The prednisone is one of my biggest frustrations right now. I was supposed to be weaning off and be done with it this month, BUT... because i am improving... he thinks it is the medicine, so he decided to keep it going a few more months. I want to just reduce it myself, but there is a bit of fear because of the nature of the drug. He wanted me to stay on 20 mgs for another month and then drop to 15 mgs for the next month. I just want OFF of it.

I am very hopeful to be able to get back up to a level of functioning that is normal and doesn't require dialysis. They said that only 20% of my kidneys are permanently damaged and the rest is inflammation... which they can't figure out the cause. I fell like I know the cause... it is animal protein. (My doctor disagrees) Dr. McDougall talks in his research about how we can develop a protein allergy. I really believe this happened to me with all my Atkins yo-you dieting. So, my hope is that it keeps getting better and better over time.

I think you're right about the protein being the cause. If you were an Atkins dieter you were eating lots of it. I have family that does that too.

Prednisone is one drug that you can't just stop one day, you probably know this already, it has to be weaned slowly.

Have you read the Star McDougaller story about the young girl with renal failure? Similar to yours.....

Yes, I did read her story and it was very inspiring because I was told that there was no cure possible. Now I believe differently. I hope to have my own story someday soon.

You have your own story right now!

I see you have RA also. I wonder if your kidney disease is autoimmune?

This stuff is all so interesting, or at least it would be if it weren't so personal.

I am not sure about the origin of the all of these sudden diseases I have, but it makes me wonder if there isn't a common thread because just over a year ago I went through a series of tests and I had NONE of them. They could find nothing wrong with me. I was having random fevers... which now I suppose could have been an indication of the beginning of something, but still... at that time - nothing came back as abnormal, but within a year I suddenly have three different major issues? Crazy at best. That is why I have such high hopes to get rid of them all with this change in lifestyle and eating. I have been overweight, but rather healthy, my entire life. The RA diagnosis is not official yet because I haven't seen the specialist. My nephrologist is the one that threw that one in. I don't have symptoms of it... I don't even really know what it is yet. I figured... why bother worrying about it at this point with everything else that is going on. However, just a few weeks ago they thought it was Lupus, so I am thinking there is quite a bit of "guesswork" going on at this point with the doctors.

One crazy thing that happened yesterday - that will stick in my head for a long time - the cardiologist was reading off a list of my "diagnosis." In that list was IBS and Reflux... neither of which have been diagnosed. I have no idea where those came from. My husband remembered that the first night in the hospital ER the doctor was trying to figure out my chest pain (which they never did figure out) and he mentioned reflux. That was it. The mention of it... and now I have it as a "diagnosis" and in fact, have been taking a medicine for it since July. I thought that the medicine (omeprazole) was to combat the nausea from the prednisone... but no.. it was for my "REFLUX" that doesn't even exist. Needless to say... I stopped that medicine on my own this morning and will see how I feel. I can't stand the thought of taking medicines I don't even need because too many people are adding their "ideas" to my case with no real facts. I hate taking pills. So far... I have gone all morning and feel fine. So... that $120.00 month med is GONE.

Have you gone gluten free? I hate to mention one more thing to pile on, but this is starting to sound real familiar. I have done a lot of reading lately on gluten sensitivity and celiac. Gluten issues can cause all kinds of weird symptoms including almost everything you've mentioned.

I was thinking the same... after some of the things I read - going gluten free. Hey... I might as well do it right. Whatever will help... I am willing to try. Honestly... I don't eat that much variety because I am trying to be so strict with my diet and have SO many things to keep track of. I have slipped a bit this past week, but up until then I was eating only rice, veggies and fruits with three different sauces I used on the rice for variation (low sodium soy, sweet & sour, and salsa). That is it. I tried adding in oatmeal this past week for breakfast, but I really don't like oatmeal. I know it is probably good for me, but I can't eat it without brown sugar and I didn't figure that was such a great thing to do. Thank you for all of your input Mrs. Doodlepunk I really appreciate it. I really, really want to do the right thing and it can be difficult to sift through all the information and get it right.

You might be interested in what a poster here, Burgess, has on his website. He has beaten several "itis" type things with diet and does a very restricted subset of this program. http://anti-itisdiet.blogspot.com/
in case you haven't already run into him!

Thanks for that info. I actually had run across that before. Very interesting.

I am having all sorts of issues today. Go figure. A couple really great weeks and now I hit a wall of frustration. I may have joined the no-processed foods challenge too soon, but it made me aware of some glaring mistakes I am making. I get so excited to do things... but geez, this is tough. I can't help but go back to the thought that people need to get healthy BEFORE disease strikes because trying to do so after is a challenge.

In keeping my potassium under 1700 mgs a day, it is almost impossible to eat a variety of vegetables, fruits and grains that will keep me satisified. It looks like most people eating the McDougall way are in excess of 4500 ms of potassium a day, which looks to be the norm. *sigh* I need to take a step back and re-work the numbers and find what works. I probably should go back to what I was doing this past couple weeks so I can get back on track and then go slowly forward again.

So, in case anyone wonders... or has advice I am open to suggestions. My renal diet requires me to keep my potassium under 1700 a day, my phosphates under 700 a day, my sodium under 2000 a day, and my protein under 30 mgs a day. (all numbers I have figured out from my own research - I do not have a dietician and my doctors have no idea what those levels should be... the cardiologist suggested I keep my sodium below 2500, but I was already doing 2000 so I stayed with it)

So, to incorporate that with McDougall eating and the things I enjoy... I am eating:

1 cup rice / 1 cup veggies / 1 fruit (breakfast, lunch, dinner) In addition, I was adding one of three toppings to my rice - low sodium soy sauce, salsa or sweet & sour sauce. I typically save the fruit to eat for snacks so it isn't so long between meals. I have to stick with very low potassium fruits and veggies as well, so I have about 5 of each of them that work with my menu.

My husband joined me in doing McDougall this week and I was trying to make recipes he would enjoy, but that threw me totally off course. I can't make recipes... there is wayyyyy to much in them and I go over my levels each time. Back to square one!

Life is rough. I can understand how those recipes won't work for you. You diet is close to mine, but I can have more potassium because I'm in the earliest stage. But I've been told my several doctors to keep the sodium below 1000, due to kidney disease. I'm concerned about the phosphorus. Do you have to watch phosphorus?

As far as legumes go, if I have any, it's generally green peas and limas. Once in a while I'll toss in some other beans into soups, but almost never have split pea or lentil...way more in protein.

I focus on grains of brown rice and hot gf high fiber cereal--with a corn base. This is how I keep protein grams lower. Oats kick it up there faster.

I don't do much with nuts or even nut milks. But I do have a little avocado each day with my salads, make my own dressing from juice of one lemon with quarter avocado. Very creamy; you can thin it down with more lemon juice. To this I'll add a variety of spices for flavorings. I like Mrs. Dash Southwest and Mrs. Dash Caribbean Citrus.

What fruits can you have? Maybe you could try cooking some of them to get some different flavors. I like to freeze fruits in chunks to eat frozen. Tastes like sherbet.