Getting admitted this week.

Kerissa • December 24, 2014

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I will be getting admitted the day after Christmas.  I’m very thankful for my GI dr.—he’s working at the hospital and not in clinic all this week, but he arranged and coordinated everything so quickly!  I’m not doing very well.  The pro-motility drug I’ve been taking hasn’t helped at all, and it’s getting harder to tolerate oral intake.  All my back muscles have been getting weaker and forming tight, painful knots to compensate—my physical therapist said it’s because my muscles aren’t receiving enough nutrition.  I’ve had to sleep past 2 pm every day now because I’ve been so tired.  All this and more is going on, and yet, I look so normal on the outside!

On top of all that, I still cough and gag all day and night.  We wonder if my secretions are going down the wrong way and ending up in my lungs.  I got the overnight oxygen testing completed last week, but we won’t get results at the moment because my sleep dr. is out of town these last two weeks of December.

We’re not sure how long I’ll be admitted.  But I’ll keep you posted!  Everything is up in the air regarding how long I’ll be on TPN (IV nutrition), etc.

I hope all of you have a blessed Christmas!  I’m so thankful for you and your steadfast prayers.

P.S.  I thought this was so neat!  Last week, CNN wrote an article , and here is part of what they said: “ We know parents whose children are in remission from cancer and others whose children have mitochondrial disease. Their dream present would be an end to childhood disease. Give to their causes if your family is lucky enough to be untouched by serious illness.”

By Kerissa Lee October 19, 2025
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. ❤️
By Kerissa Lee October 4, 2025
"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
By Kerissa Lee September 3, 2025
"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