Due to three building code violations our landlord is no longer permitted (never was, actually) to rent us our apartment. He’s compensating us three months rent. By August 31st we have to be out of here.

The timing couldn’t have been better. Nicole and I have decided to move to a smaller rental unit in the center of town. We are doing this because we believe it’ll help Nicole get healthier, quicker.

First of all, a smaller rental unit will cost less money. About $200 less per month. That’s an extra $2,400 a year.

In addition, being downtown, will save us another $600 a year on transportation. We’ll be in walking distance of stores, parks and the library. So that’s an extra $1,800 a year. Plus, our cleaning bill will be reduced slightly with the smaller unit. Maybe another $300 less a year.

So we’re looking at saving $3,300 each year.

What are we going to do with that money? We’re conducting a new one-year experiment with Dr. Lawrence Wilson’s Nutritional Balancing Program. We hope it will reverse Nicole’s kidney failure and eliminate the type-1 diabetes. Here’s how the costs breakdown:

• Pam Marshall-Neil, a Nutritional Balancing practitioner. She works under Dr. Lawrence Wilson. Her consulting fees include a hair analysis test every 6 months. This will cost about $300/year.
• Supplements. The Nutritional Balancing program involves a custom supplement plan. It adds up to about $150 per month or $1800 per year.
• Sauna and Coffee. The two main detoxification methods in Nutritional Balancing our infra-red sauna therapy and coffee retention enemas. The organic coffee beans are an incidental cost of about $20/month. We’re purchasing a sauna that fits in the bathtub. It’s a one-time purchase of $400. It’ll cost $60 to replace all four bulbs each year or so.

Living in a smaller place will enable us to afford the Nutritional Balancing Program. We see it as Nicole’s best hope at this point. We are more or less continuing with the GAPS diet. Likewise Nicole continues to follow a slightly higher carbohydrate version of Dr. Bernstein’s diabetic program. But these two approaches alone do not seem adequate to reverse Nicole’s situation. I’ll talk more about why they don’t seem sufficient in a future article.

We considered scaling back to an even cheaper apartment. But we didn’t want to put ourselves in an unhealthy environment. The 24-unit low-rise building we settled on is non-smoking, in good repair and has a nice garden. The landlords live across the street and seem to really care about what they are doing.

Still the place is a sacrifice. We’re going from 3.5 bedroom house to a two bedroom apartment. The office and the master bedroom will become one. I’m buying a loft bed to use in the living room. (Sharing the same bed as a diabetic wife never helped either of us sleep.) The laundry drying rack will go in Jonah’s room when it’s too cold to go on the balcony. (Jonah’s blind, so he doesn’t have to look at it.)

Some may think we are crazy putting money into an alternative healing program and not getting a nice house with a fat mortgage. But what’s the point of having a house if the body is falling apart? I lived in Italy for two years. I saw wealthy families of four in a two bedroom apartment. Their relaxed Italian DNA didn’t want the stress of paying big bills. Neither do we.

A lesson that living with chronic health condition has taught me is to be ready for the unexpected. The more money we can save, the better. You never know when tragedy will strike. Living on the financial edge is just a time-bomb waiting to explode. You know something is going to go wrong, some time.

Bombs have already exploded in Nicole’s life plenty. Diabetes. Inflammatory bowel Disease. Kidney failure. A still birth. Temporary blindness. Gastroparesis. Heart failure. Brain seizures.

A fat mortgage would be suicide.

When we first heard about Dr. Wilson’s program we said: “We can’t afford it.” That was our first reaction. We’re already paying for organic food. We don’t have a TV, cell phones or mobile devices. We don’t go to the movies or restaurants. We buy all natural hygiene products and cleaning supplies. And with Nicole’s health the way it is, it’s hard to earn enough money.

Well, it’s just about priorities. In the last year we’ve made improving not just Nicole’s health, but also mine and Jonah’s, a priority. Life is undeniably better in every way (even financially) as a result.

Nothing would make Nicole’s life better than healing her kidneys. A close second would be curing diabetes. Failing that, at least getting it under very tight control. So let’s minimize life’s distractions and achieve that goal. Even if Nutritional Balancing doesn’t succeed in Nicole’s case, it’ll still be big a step closer to a solution.

She’s already been following the program for over two months now. Her physical and mental health have shown definite improvements (which I’ll elaborate on in a future column). No matter which way we look at it, investing in Nutritional Balancing is a better use of our limited resources. No point struggling with a mortgage if she’s not going to be alive to see it paid off.

To follow Nicole’s progress with the Nutritional Balancing program, you can subscribe by email at: https://diabeticdharma.com/subscribe

You can find out more about Dr. Wilson’s views on treating type-1 diabetes at: https://diabeticdharma.com/infected-pancreas/