The flu
Kerissa • January 13, 2013
Thank you everyone for your love and support! I can tell you are praying cuz my fever broke last night. 🙂 The ambulance ended up taking me to OHSU yesterday cuz my heart rate was so high from my condition POTS, I was dizzy, and my fever was 103 even with Aleve. They gave me lots of fever medication and an anti-viral called Tamiflu. Oh yes, I tested positive for Influenza B. Not fun at all. The doctors and nurses said I’m one of their sicker patients.. I had 2 EKGs, 4 chest x-rays, and lots of blood work. They wanted to check my lactic acid levels, heart enzymes (since they said I was having sinus tachycardia), and inflammation in my body. My oxygen sats keep dropping even tho they are giving me oxygen through a tube. My sats dropped to 77 one time (it should stay at 100) and the alarm went off…that was a little scary. I’m currently in the observation unit in the ER. Everytime I stay here, The Bourne Identity is always on TV…now whenever I watch it, it brings back bad memories. 😉 Waiting for the doctors right now… If they want me to still stay at the hospital, then I’ll be admitted to a “real” room. I’ll keep ya updated!
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
