Hard Week
Kerissa • July 13, 2013
This has been another difficult week. On Wednesday, my 89 year old grandpa passed away suddenly, faster than all of us were expecting. He was in the end stages of kidney failure but given 4-6 months to live. But this past Wednesday, he had a catastrophic event—the social worker thinks he must have had a heart attack or something like that. I already miss him so much. :'( This is the second family death in not even 2 months.
One of the things I’ll always remember about my grandpa is how he always made me laugh:
- When I was little, he used to call me “shorty.” That was his nickname for me. I didn’t like being called that then, but now…I chuckle!
- Ever since I started getting bad headaches last year, he always wanted to know how I’m doing and if I still have “an itchy head.” Haha!
For some reason, he got mixed up between those two things! - A few weeks ago, I wanted to take a picture with him, so I told him to say, “Cheese!!” He said, “Cheese!! Bleu cheese!!”
|
Holding me on his 70th birthday. |
One of my favorite pictures with him taken just one month ago. <3
Dear friends, At the beginning of October, I started taking a new medication for the autoimmune disease. I thought I was tolerating it just fine, but after several days passed, I began experiencing nausea, loss of appetite, weakness all over, and increased pain. 🙁 It’s like I’m experiencing another “mito crash.” I found out that this specific lupus medication affects mitochondria. That is, it causes an overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). This, in turn, causes cell damage and oxidative stress. I sure wish the rheumatologists would have known about this before prescribing. But I have to remember that Mitochondrial DNA Depletion Syndrome is rare, and they’re not “mito experts.” Anyways, the last time I felt like this was back in May.. I’m so grateful to God that I haven’t needed to be hospitalized from this, but at the same time, I’m also sad that this happened at all, especially because I had such a nice stretch of stable health. I’d really appreciate your prayers, that this muscle weakness can resolve soon, and that this increased pain all over will get back to my baseline. Every time I have a “mito crash,” it feels like I’m fighting the flu which always sucks. The pain has been hard to bear. And whenever I’m in the thick of it, it’s difficult to remember that this too will eventually pass. 😢 Pray that I will endure and follow Jesus’ example like this passage from Hebrews 12:1-2– “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross...” Thank you all so much for praying for me. ❤️
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." James 1:2-3
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23
