What happened last week

Kerissa • Feb 14, 2014

Last week was tough.  For once, it’d be nice to have no adventures. ;P

Wednesday afternoon, I started experiencing a bad headache, but I wasn’t too concerned because I get migraines (they usually don’t last more than a day).  So I just waited for the headache to pass.  It was still there the next day, though, and I started struggling because of the pain.  My left drooping eyelid got especially bad.  And none of my usual nerve pain meds or Ibuprofen and Aleve touched the pain.  As I mentioned in my previous post, my neurologist wondered if I had a TIA or small stroke..  And so I headed to the ER.  Because of the snow, I couldn’t go to OHSU’s ER, and I hated that I had to go to a different hospital.  Long story short, that was a terrible mistake because this particular ER didn’t know “me” and my complicated medical history.  They didn’t even do a full neurological exam.  All they did was give me one hydrocodone/acetaminophen tablet.  They sent me home.

The next day, the headache pain was so bad.  I couldn’t eat much because of the nausea.  I started having balance issues and was also dealing with new right hand weakness.  So this time, my parents and sister drove me to OHSU’s ER.  This hospital is so awesome (it’s #1 in the state of Oregon ;).  They got me a room right away.  They did labwork and gave me lots of IV pain and nausea meds.  People with EDS are prone to aneurysms and strokes, so the doctors were concerned that maybe I did have something like that.  They ordered two emergency MRIs which I had done there in the ER.  Thankfully, the scans were clean!  The doctors told us I was probably dealing with a “complicated migraine” which is not just a simple migraine.  They’re complex and can cause weakness/neurological issues.  They gave me IV toradol for pain, but that unfortunately didn’t help.  So they put together a “migraine cocktail” you could say.😉  An IV magnesium drip, Reglan for nausea, and IV benadryl which has been shown to reduce pain.  My pain went down from a 9 to a 5, and my drooping eyelid improved.  We were in the ER for 8 hours.  But we arrived home at 2:45 AM, and I slept till 4 PM the next day!

The adventure wasn’t finished. ;P  I woke up because my blood sugar dropped very low (a bad issue associated with mitochondrial disease).  My heart was pounding, I was shaking, sweating, and extremely weak.  I laid on top of our stairs, unable to move.  My mom had to quickly spoon feed me grape juice to get my blood sugar back up.  It was hard for me to even suck from a straw because I was so weak.  I had to sleep a lot after that, and it was too exhausting to even watch a movie.

That episode on top of two ER visits did me in, and I’m still trying to get better from this weakness.

So that’s what happened last week.  How was your weekend?😉

By Kerissa Lee 23 Jan, 2024
Hi, friends, I had a whole other post ready to go with some good news, but instead, I have an urgent prayer request. I started experiencing sudden onset numbness, tingling, and weakness in my whole left leg, and it’s been so scary. 🥺 It just came on out of the blue. I was doing so well with physical therapy each week (able to walk fast on the treadmill and leg press 40 lbs), and now, I have to limp because my left leg is soo weak. I really want to avoid the ED as much as possible, so I saw one of my doctors today. She’s concerned I’m having a big motor nerve issue. 😭 The plan is to see a physical medicine specialist, have a nerve conduction study, get an urgent MRI done, as well as see my PCP and pain doctor on the 25th and 29th for further evaluation/testing. I know I already said this, but it really has been so scary to lose function so quickly. Can you pray that I will trust the Lord and not worry? It’s been very hard, so I’d really appreciate your prayers and support in the coming weeks. Thank you so much. ❤️
By Kerissa Lee 01 Jan, 2024
"Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." Hosea 6:3
By Kerissa Lee 11 Dec, 2023
"This hard place in which you, perhaps, find yourself, is the very place in which God is giving you opportunity to look only to Him."  Elisabeth Elliot
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