July Update

Hello, friends, I just wanted to share a blog update and thank you all so much for your prayers these last several weeks. ❤️ They help me to persevere! I previously posted that the interventional radiology team said my old port needs to be removed because of the site being too exposed from skin breakdown. Well, on May 19th, I had a virtual appointment with the IR nurse practitioner. To my great disappointment, she didn’t want me to get a new port and said I need a central line instead. I tried explaining to her that all my previous central lines always got infected and caused sepsis, but she still wouldn’t budge. 😞 I left that appointment and cried. I kept reciting Romans 8:28 (“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”). I knew that God was in control, but I was still so sad.. The next day was my port removal surgery and central line placement. Many of you already know this from FB/IG, but I wanted to re-share the following here on my blog as well! When I met the attending physician who was going to do the surgery, I told him my whole story and asked if he could please consider placing a new port instead of a central line. And do you want to hear something soo amazing?! He nonchalantly said, “I can place a port!” I was so shocked! 🥹 I immediately felt God’s mercy and kindness in sovereignly arranging this specific doctor to be the one to care for me. Both surgeries were back to back, and everything was much more difficult than he was expecting! In his chart notes, he stated that it took “more than twice the usual time, an unusually large amount of materials, and required a very high level of technical expertise and skill.” It was a great challenge removing my old port because of scar tissue and because it was so embedded to my chest wall. 😥 He had to yank, pull, and manipulate a ton—all of that caused a huge bruise to form over my chest. When he used fluoroscopy (moving x-ray), he also saw on x-ray that there’s a 7 mm cylindrical foreign body in my chest (pictured below). He assumes it’s a retained port fragment from an old port surgery that happened years ago. We’re just going to leave it there.. 😟 I was awake the whole time because none of the sedation meds worked! I’ve unfortunately had more than 20+ surgeries/procedures, so my body has become immune to certain sedation meds. The team recommends that I have much stronger anesthesia next time.. So thankful that the Lord helped me through this painful process! In other news, I finally get to have this temporary, bulky j-tube replaced with a low-profile one on the 23rd! My GI surgeon was hoping that the temporary tube would give the site a break and help heal all the inflammation (which was caused by buried bumper syndrome when the balloon got stuck in the abdominal wall 2 months ago). And I think that did the trick because the site is no longer leaking a ton! 🥲 Praying that switching back to the low-profile tube doesn’t cause an uptick in pain/leaking.. Last week, I had a bit of a scare when blood started coming out of the j-tube stoma (hole) for several days. We don’t exactly know what caused the bleeding, but thankfully, it stopped! If it does happen again, the GI nurse practitioner ordered an abdominal ultrasound.. If you made it this far, I’d so appreciate continued prayers for my sleep. Still experiencing bad insomnia as a side effect from an important medication that I need. It’s so hard when I can’t fall asleep until after 5:30-6:30 AM every single day. 😔 I don’t know what else to do except take each day as it comes and lean on the Lord for endurance. 💚 Aside from this, still so grateful to God that I’m doing really well mitochondrial-wise! For those who may not remember, my naturopathic doctor at the OHSU pain center started me on 2 very strong antioxidants last year: liposomal glutathione and n-acetyl cysteine. When I started taking both regularly for several months, the neck weakness resolved and the overall muscle fatigue improved a lot. By God’s grace, I’ve physically been very stable which is a huge answer to prayer!! 🥹 P.S. It’s taken me a while to share this, but a few months ago, I added 11 new card designs to my shop. Here are some of my faves. ☺️ I’ve sadly run into another unfortunate predicament with the e-commerce site I sell on, but I’ll try to share that story another time.. 😕 

Hi, friends, Last week, I unfortunately caught norovirus from my parents who caught it most likely from a wedding. 😞 All the vomiting caused dehydration, and my heart rate was high (up to 150 bpm). Every 30 minutes, I kept getting a notification on my Apple Watch saying that my heart rate was too high. Thankful I didn’t have to get admitted and could infuse the rest of my IV bags here at home. My neck is showing signs of weakness like after the time I got sick in Hawaii. 🥺 Really praying the muscles are just trying to recover from the vomiting/dry-heaving.. On top of that, the skin at my port site has sadly been breaking down over time. My dr. ordered a PICC line for me to let the port site heal. But the IR (interventional radiology) team said I need to have my port surgically removed because the site is “too exposed.” Definitely wasn’t expecting that! 😥 The IR team wants me to get a central line instead of another port, but I tried explaining to them that I’ve had sepsis too many times from multiple central lines. Plus, my quality of life is so much better with a port because I can shower when the needle is de-accessed. That’s just one of the reasons.. If I had a central line, I’d have to cover it and put tape all over which is not fun. I have a virtual appointment with someone on the IR team this coming Tuesday. Could you please pray the radiologist will be understanding, compassionate, and willing for me to have another port placed? I know this is in God’s hands regardless of the outcome. 💚 Surgery to remove my port and place something new (whether it’s a port or central line) is this coming Wednesday.. We’ll know the time the day before.. I’ve been reading a memoir by a young mother named Amber Emily Smith who tragically lost her 3-year old son to drowning in their family’s pool. In her book, she shared the story of the poet Annie Johnson Flint who developed a severe arthritis that left her hands disfigured and also caused her unable to walk. It was in the midst of her suffering that she became a poet. I’m sure many of you have read this poem before, but it’s such an encouraging one, and I hope it fills your heart with hope. ❤️ “God hath not promised smooth roads and wise, Swift, easy travel, needing no guide; Never a mountain rocky and steep, Never a river turbid and deep. But God hath promised strength for the day, Rest for the labor, light for the way, Grace for the trials, help from above, Unfailing sympathy, undying love.”