Thankful for medical care :)

Kerissa • September 17, 2012

So exhausted.  Since Saturday morning, I’ve gotten like 1 hour of sleep!!  My pain dr. and spine surgeon’s resident dr. on call told me I’d better go to the ER again yesterday.  I was in the ER for about 12 hours!!  Didn’t get my own room till 3 am in the morning.  I ended up staying the night on the neurology floor at the hospital.  Never knew I’d have to get so many diagnostic tests in only one day!  And to my great surprise, I had to get 4 CT scans, 2 on Friday and 2 on Saturday….!!  I also had to get 2 chest x-rays….a urinalysis….3 neuro exams….2 IVs in my right arm….and, if I’m correct (I kinda lost count ;), 13 tubes of blood drawn!!  I think my right arm has just about had it!  I don’t think it can take anymore trauma, and I was afraid the CRPS was gonna spread there!  As I read what I just typed, I see that the Lord sustained me through EVERYTHING.  I couldn’t have made it through the weekend without Him!  The next few weeks are probably gonna be tough ones…  I see the orthopaedics spine surgeon tomorrow, my eye is still drooping, my headache’s still there, and recently, my whole left side of my body has become weak and “lazy.”  My neurologists are really hoping I don’t have something called Myesthenia Gravis where basically my nervous system gets attacked.  That’s bad.  And I have to wait about 2 weeks till I hear the results of this important blood test I had which will show whether I have MG or not!  Please please pray that this is not what’s going on.  And I have to admit, I’m a little nervous and scared.  But I just have to remember that I’m in the Lord’s hands.  This weekend has kinda been a blur, but I have to say, if all this didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have met such amazing people who cared for me in the hospital!  Plus, it was super fun seeing my pain dr. 2 days in a row!  In his own words, his second visit today in my room was kinda like a “social visit.”  That made my day!

Thank you so much again for your prayers!  You are an encouragement to me!

October prayer request

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. ❤️

Thank you! (+ a prayer request)

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

Praises & Prayer Requests

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