GI update

Kerissa • April 2, 2015

Hello everyone!

Thanks for stopping by and for your continued prayers.  I’m so blessed!

Haven’t felt up to blogging in a while because the iron deficiency anemia makes me ever so tired, short of breath, dizzy, and pale.

I’ve been needing to breathe fast as well which makes it hard to use CPAP at night.  I messaged my sleep dr., and he called me back.  He really is the sweetest and so kind!  He’s the co-medical director at the OHSU sleep program and a Top Doctor.  Can you believe this—he’s booked out 4 months!!  He thinks a lot of new things are going on with me sleep-wise, so he’s having his office double-book to squeeze me in April 22nd.  He wants to order more tests and re-evaluate.  He’s astonished that I have to sleep 16 hours a day.

I had a good follow-up with my GI dr. last week.  He always spends so much time with me…very thankful for a doctor who cares.  For the anemia, he is having me receive IV iron infusions once a week for 5 weeks to bring my blood counts back up.  He warned me that the iron looks like motor oil….that’s gonna be interesting. lol  Some patients experience body aches as a side effect, but I hope I tolerate it well.

Still receiving TPN every day for 16 hours, but my GI is having the TPN volume/calories decreased by 20%.  We are going to introduce j-tube feeds again at a very slow rate of 2 teaspoons per hour.  And we’ll be using the elemental (broken-down) tube feeds formula.  Not sure yet how this will go as I still deal with hypoactive abdominal sounds, etc.  But I’m game to try!  I see my GI specialist again to follow up on this in 1 1/2 weeks.

This morning, I had my cardiac MRI.  It’s different—they have to capture the images according to each heart beat, and you wear EKG leads and a respiration belt.  During the scan, I was told to take a deep breath, blow it out, and hold for 10-15 seconds….this cycle repeated over and over again!

Tomorrow I have an orthopaedics follow-up, and Friday is my first IV iron infusion at the hospital.  After that, I’m done for the week!

To close, I wanted to share this with you.  My sweet aunt emailed this to me recently, and the words are so encouraging!  And perfect for this Easter!

Letter to my GI specialist 💚

By Kerissa Lee • March 31, 2026
Dear Dr. Phillips, There aren’t enough words to express how thankful I am to have had such an amazing GI doctor like you these past 13 years. I think of all the hard challenges that have happened starting at age 20 and beyond: experiencing GI dysmotility, not being able to eat “normal” foods without terrible abdominal pain/distention, only tolerating soft consistencies like baby food pouches (which was not fun as a 22 year old!), needing an NJ tube placed down my nose, having a jejunostomy tube surgically placed, then no longer tolerating tube feeds, dropping down to 77 pounds, getting admitted the day after Christmas to start TPN, being surprised by the extremely high copper levels on my liver biopsy and starting treatment for that, going through septic shock which caused ischemic hepatitis (remember when my liver function test was 1674!), having sepsis 5 other times from multiple central lines and ports, requiring urgent surgery to remove my gallbladder, needing D10 added to my IV fluids for numerous mitochondrial crashes, and much more. Through all the highs and lows, you were there for me, and I truly feel like I hit the “doctor jackpot” to have had a GI specialist as caring, compassionate, knowledgeable, and kind as you. I shed quite a few tears to my chagrin at my last in-person appointment with you in February 2026, and I still do as I reminisce and write this letter. But, they aren’t just tears of sadness. They are also tears of gratitude—I know this journey would have been much more difficult if I didn’t have your wonderful care and support all these years. I’m so happy that I was able to get off of TPN back then after 5 years of being on it. Not only that, but I’m so thankful that I can eat orally to my heart’s content without pain and abdominal distention. I know that’s in part due to you, so thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so very much for caring for me. I will never forget you, and I wish you all the best as you start your retirement. :’) With immense gratitude, Kerissa

J-tube update

By Kerissa Lee • March 17, 2026
"God is always doing more than we know, working toward a good we will one day rejoice in." -Lysa Terkeurst

Please pray ❤️

By Kerissa Lee • March 7, 2026
Hi, friends, I would really appreciate prayer. Some of you already know this, but at the end of January, I started dealing with an abdominal abscess right next to my j-tube. I looked back through my records, and that was my 6th abscess. :( Since then, it’s sadly been one issue after another. I won’t go into all that has happened, but I’d especially love prayer for my j-tube site. After the abscess, I had my tube changed to a new one on 2/27. The surgery nurse practitioner decided to try the next size up to see if it could possibly decrease some of the leakage, but unfortunately, that was the wrong decision. It’s too large, so now the site is leaking tenfold compared to my previous size. The small intestinal fluid that keeps leaking out around the tube is full of acid which is burning my skin and making it raw. 😭 If you want to know what it feels like, imagine having a bad burn on your skin…then, on top of that, imagine acid being poured onto the burn every hour continuously. That’s how much pain I’ve been in, and I haven’t been able to sleep very well until after 6:30-7 AM each night because the burn is so intense! :’( I could cry, and I have—that’s how bad the pain is… I would show you a picture of the site but it’s not pleasant. 🥺 I’ve been emailing the nurse practitioner every single day, asking to have the tube changed back to the previous size. She hasn’t been helpful. I’ve tried all of her recommendations, but they aren’t fixing the root cause. I had to get an x-ray with contrast earlier today to check tube placement. If she does eventually agree to have the tube changed, I don’t know how I’ll bear the pain of the procedure… Remember, they don’t use sedation for these procedures (my GI specialist is shocked they don’t!), and even though I’ve been asking for lidocaine to be injected for past tube replacements, how do I bear to have needles pushed into such raw tissue?! 😭 Please pray that I will be courageous and strong in the Lord. I think of the verse from Philippians 4:19, and it’s comforting: “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” He will grant me the peace and strength I need to be brave. His grace is sufficient. ❤️