Prayer request
Kerissa • September 7, 2020
Friends, could you please pray for me? After spending 10 long days in the hospital, I was finally able to go home on Friday.
But it’s been very hard—I’m extremely weak all over, and I’ve also been having these horrible episodes where my heart rate shoots up, I feel hot and cold at the same time, have chills and teeth chattering, sweat a ton, and just feel plain awful.
We thinks it’s due to my dysautonomia (autonomic nervous system dysfunction from the mitochondrial disease), and it really scares me.
Please pray that I will stay strong and trust in the Lord.
It’s hard not to lose heart from all of this.
But I’m trying to focus on God and not my fears.
Thank you for praying for me.

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. ❤️