Nicole set off bravely on the path of getting off dialysis with another water only fast . At the end of April I reported that my wife was on day 4 of 21 without any food, juice or broth. Since then I haven’t given an update because metaphorical boulders started falling on the path of healing.

With her previous long fast (38 days!) Nicole saw a 13x increase in kidney function. Basically her urine output went from a drop or two to a nearly half a cup. We hoped she could repeat that success.

This time, however, she was losing more blood than urine. Menstrual bleeding began early on in the fast and became more and more thick and frequent. Was this her body’s way of getting rid of toxins?

Regardless, her body’s detox system seems oblivious to the fact that people with failed kidneys have great difficulty making red blood cells. Blood tests showed that her hemoglobin levels were well below 80. With no glucose coming in and her kidneys producing little erythropoietin (which signals bone marrow to pump out red sticky blood cells) it seemed time for something a little more calorie dense than distilled water.

Thinking outside the T1D Matrix,
– John C. A. Manley

P.S. In the next couple of posts I’ll tell you about the other detox symptoms she had and improvements that came about from the fast.