This post could save your life!

Recently I was not my usual perky self and noticed that my legs had swelling under the knee one night. Not overly bothered I thought I had better go for a check up as being a big girl I thought I might have diabetes. While talking to the nurse and having a blood test for some reason I asked if she could do a urine test while she was at it. Next day a scary call from the doctor who told me that I had a urinary tract infection and how important it is to get these things treated as it could lead to kidney damage.  Thankfully, it was all quickly sorted out with a course of antibiotics. I have not taken antibiotics for years and have always avoided them like the plague.  Although I’m a firm believer in and big fan of alternative medicine, sometimes it’s important to see a doctor and be treated with conventional medicine or at least get the diagnosis and make an informed decision.

As synchronicity would have it last night I nearly fell out of bed as I read an article in Oprah Magazine, The Quiet Killer, that was all about how up to an estimated 20 million adults in America were probably walking around with kidney infections and kidney disease without knowing they had them, that it was more common than diabetes and is twice as common as cancer!  Absolutely stunned and amazed at what was beginning to feel like a lucky escape, I was talking about it with a friend who told me that she’d been hospitalised twice with kidney infections that had started out as urinary tract infections that she hadn’t got treated in time – and that someone she knew had actually died from the same thing!

I had no idea it was this common and two things totally stopped me in my tracks.  The first was that I’d barely noticed any symptoms other than my leg swelling up and going to the loo a bit more, and the second was, in talking with my friend, she remarked that she’d ended up in a critical condition by trying to treat herself with herbs and positive thinking.

I totally, one hundred per cent believe in the power of the mind and I also use alternative or complementary medicine. I also look at any issue holistically – in my instance, I was very mindful of Louise Hay’s suggestion that urinary tract infections are based on being ‘peed off’ at someone or something and problems with anger!

Alongside that, I’m a huge believer in ensuring that I also talk to my doctor and follow their advice too. Sometimes it is essential indeed lifesaving to do so. It’s so easy to put these things off as they are unpleasant but looking after ourselves is incredibly important. It sends the right kind of message to the Universe. Putting things off can literally be fatal.

I am both glad and grateful that the tests done through my doctor caught what might otherwise have turned into something chronic and, frankly, lethal. I don’t want to make this about any one condition, but I do want to say if something small is bothering you or you feel you have a health condition or you haven’t had your blood pressure tested for a while simply go to your doctor and check it out.

As the old saying goes, let’s trust in our God and tie up our camels!

And please share this with everyone you know.  You never know, it could save someone’s life.

Much love, Michele x

Find out more about Chronic Kidney Disease

PS Having just written this I was stunned to learn that from April 1st 2011 many herbal remedies and vitamins will be banned by an EU directive. We need balance in our health and freedom of choice. Please sign the petition here and spread the word