2020 has been quite the ride for me. It was the scariest health scare of my life. I’m so glad that I’m in recovery now. I never would have expected this to happen, especially not during a global pandemic, lockdowns and then some. It has been an especially difficult, traumatizing and stressful time for us. I'm finally feeling strong enough to talk about it.
Honestly, the beginning of 2020 was magic, it was full of hope and I felt really positive about having a great year! And I'm sure a lot of people felt this way. I never would have imagined that I would go from being a fit, health coach, and trainer to getting so sick and unhealthy in a matter of months and now having to rebuild myself again. I've been through a lot mentally, physically, and emotionally during this time, and as much as I am a very private person. I feel like it's important to be transparent and share my story. So here we go...It started with an unexplainable fever in March and turned into a medical nightmare. With the pandemic just beginning, doctors could only be seen online. Doctors misdiagnosed me with strep throat despite a negative test and me insisting I didn't have symptoms and took the medication anyways since they said I could just have it even with a negative test. I developed a rash on my face, and continued to have fevers at night. I was unable to sleep, I continued to feel fatigued, sick, loss of appetite and thirst, and progressively got worse as April passed. I was finally "allowed" to go to Kaiser’s urgent care where I was quarantined, and tested for Covid with negative results. It was during this stay that they found out I had pneumonia with fluid in my lungs. I was prescribed really strong antibiotics and medications that only added more side effects (especially since I don't normally take medications and not even an Advil.), feeling nauseous and even worse. I was sleeping through the day and unable to sleep at night hardly eating and drinking. In May, I was sent to the ICU for dangerously low levels of sodium and was also diagnosed with a lupus flareup. This was my first ever lupus flareup. For all my hospital visits I was quarantined and isolated and no visitors were allowed. None of my symptoms were improving, and all I had were stronger medications that made me much more sick, and my symptoms were getting worse.
Initially I thought okay, I have a Lupus flare up, yet to me it didn't feel like it was only Lupus since there needs to be some sort of trigger to cause the flare up. And lupus doesn't just randomly trigger pneumonia, the cause of my pneumonia was still unexplained. So I felt like there was still something amiss in my diagnosis. This only made me feel even more defeated and afraid because my doctors were still just trying to treat symptoms with medications without finding the real cause of the problem. It was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting and I was traumatized with my hospital stays. I was fed up with the lack of an explanation, and solution, as well as the lack of care. I was resigned to just believe that it was lupus when I felt it couldn’t just be lupus. It makes you feel like you’re crazy. Yet in your gut you know something’s wrong. (And you should always trust your gut!)
After 3 hospital visits including the ICU, 3 negative Co-Vid tests, and still feeling ill and sick. I also developed edema, which swelled up my entire body. I gained 30 pounds of water weight in a 1-month span. I could hardly walk on my own, I couldn’t lay in my own bed to sleep because I couldn't breathe, and I would try to sit up and try to sleep when I could. The nights were painful with bloating in my stomach, and constant nausea. I felt so defeated that I even turned to Chinese medicine: cupping, acupuncture, gua-sha and massage, which was excruciatingly painful. Even though it did help alleviate some of the pain and helped me to sleep a bit better. It seemed like things were not improving. And I felt even worse.
By late June, we decided to go to Taiwan in hopes of getting better medical care and diagnosis. It was difficult because literally pandemic.. and the flights were few and far between them with limited seats. Thank God and with my families help I was able to make it on my flight. I barely even made it on my flight since the night before I got a fever and felt beyond sick. This was the first time I had to be pushed in a wheelchair. It was a miracle I was able to even get on the plane, where they check temperatures before boarding. The 22 hour flight to Taiwan was so difficult, and painful especially the tail end of the flight.
When I got to Taiwan I was immediately sent to the hospital when I landed. Within several hours, they discovered I had the MRSA super bug (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria in my bloodstream along with a lupus flare up. I also took two other Co-vid tests which were also negative. My creatinine levels were at a 9, and I was on the verge of kidney failure, as well as having low oxygen and difficulty breathing with water and lungs around my heart, as well as anemia, and edema in the rest of my body. The MRSA super bug was difficult to treat as it doesn’t get killed easily with normal antibiotics. And it is very dangerous when it enters the blood stream and made even more complicated with a major lupus nephritis flareup.
I was placed in ICU and quarantined immediately (There are 14 days of required quarantine when you enter Taiwan + an additional 7 days, making it 21 days in total). I was placed on immediate and emergency dialysis, during my entire stay I went through dialysis 20 times, and Plasmapheresis
(plasma exchange) 8 times. I was put through a lot of antibiotics, and heavy dosages of medications that continued to cause additional side effects. For those 21 days, I was bedridden and couldn't leave my bed and isolated. I tried to focus my energies on prayers/gratitude and affirmations and that really helped me get through a lot of things. I didn't even have a tv for those 21 days, only had my phone, and Ipad. I had a lot of difficulties sleeping, and eating. I also had many blood transfusions and a lot of the times there were still language barriers as I couldn't even read and write Chinese and sometimes couldn't even understand what was really going on.
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| (Collage my sis made for me while i was in the hospital.) |
After getting out of quarantine, I could finally have my family visit and I was removed from the quarantine floor. I was still undergoing dialysis and plasmapheresis. My kidneys were starting to function on their own again. I could start going outside for walks where I was pushed in a wheelchair. I had to work up strength to walk again. I couldn’t be left unattended even just standing next to my bed, because they were afraid I would fall and hurt myself. It was still a journey, constant blood work, resting and repairing. Thing started to improve, even though I was a lot weaker than I was I still felt strong mentally. I could walk while pushing the wheelchair which was major. After 2 months I was finally able to leave the hospital, I lost 50 pounds of water weight and muscle. I was no longer on dialysis, and I could finally walk again. I still had some water around my heart and lungs - that is supposed to naturally go away.. more on this later.
While I was out of the hospital. I put myself on a strict diet. I did a lot of research on what to eat and what not to eat for kidneys and based on my bloodwork. My only restrictions that came from the doctor was not eating any raw foods including vegetables, star fruit and alfalfa, watching potassium, phosphorous and protein. I'll be discussing more of these in future blog posts as its extremely important to be proactive in your health with your doctor. I'm still following my nutrition plan with my nutrient dense shake and vitamins every single day which I've been doing since I was in the hospital in July. With a lot of foods I'm trying to avoid or eat less of, it def means my nutrition gets cut so supplementation is vital for any recovery. It is/was a lot of my favorite foods I couldn't eat and it made me cry, lol, but at this point, I am not about to mess things up with my food cravings. I knew that I would need to make some changes for optimum healing, and I am stronger than my love for food. And the truth is I want to live. I started walking without a wheelchair or walker, despite my doctor saying I would need a wheelchair. Things were starting to look up.
Yet a month later I started to feel sick again, I couldn't lay down, I was out of breathe, lost my appetite and felt extremely nauseous. I didn't even want to go back to the hospital AGAIN, Yet when I started throwing up I knew I had to go back. They did an Xray and blood work to find that the water around my lungs and heart had increased an alarmingly large amount, especially around my heart which lowered my heart capacity to about 40%. I had to take an ambulance to the main hospital, and entered the ICU. I had to have the water removed. I had 1500 cc water removed from around my heart (that’s almost 2 liters of water). I instantly felt better once the water was removed.. I could breathe again. To make sure everything was going back to normal, I stayed in the hospital for 12 days in total.
Fast forward it's now been 6 months that I've been in Taiwan, more than half of that time was spent in the hospital. After my last check up in Nov, all my inflammation markers are normal, my potassium, and phosphorus levels are normal, my blood levels are getting better. There are some numbers that are still a bit higher than normal, and we're working to get them back into the normal range. Considering I still am at-risk for covid, I am still staying vigilant and careful. I'm always wearing a mask and trying not to spend a lot of time in crowded areas. Although Taiwan has been quite safe - with no new local cases of Covid for more than 200 days - and only a few cases entering the country. They're doing an incredible job to manage Co-vid. It's essential to continue to be careful and honestly it's just like learning any new habits, and implementing them.
Reflecting back on everything I knew in my heart if I didn’t get on that flight, I would probably die. That probably was a huge possibility. Though at the time I tried not to really entertain the thought that much, it has crossed my mind a few times. What-ifs like that are not helpful, yet its important to look back and see, as it makes me that much more grateful at a 2nd chance at life, and a chance to live and move forward. Everything everything was in alignment to get me here and obviously there is so much more that happened to me yet it’s impossible to even share it all - the emotions, the pain, the hopelessness, the strength, the love, everything.
To be able to live again... and all while during a global pandemic.. is a blessing beyond anything.
All I know is I didn’t do it alone.
I’m so grateful for my doc, Dr. Tu and his team at Chung Gung Hospital. I can’t thank him enough for saving my life. During my time at the hospital he never made me feel panicked. He had a plan from the start that he implemented with confidence and that gave me confidence in the process. My case was pretty complicated and had to make constant adjustments. It’s important for a doc to tell you the truth and also not make you feel like you’re a crazy person. And he never made me feel like that. His still the doc I follow up with and I’m so lucky to have him through this process of healing and recovery.
I can’t say enough thank you's to my family, my mom, my uncles, aunts, cousins, sisters, brother in laws, and nephews. Who all pulled together for me. I couldn’t have done it without you. They were my light when I thought I couldn’t go on. It was hard on them too, unsure what would happen, worried and tired. And trying to stay positive and strong for me. Taking turns to watch me at the hospital. Their patience and love when I felt like I lost it. All the tears shed, all the fear we felt. I’m also super grateful for my friends that stuck through it with me. So grateful for those who prayed, continue praying and for checking on me, for sending me music, pics and, for the brief moments taking me out of my pain. It's scary when someone you love gets sick, it really affects your whole entire village.
I’m so grateful for my doc, Dr. Tu and his team at Chung Gung Hospital. I can’t thank him enough for saving my life. During my time at the hospital he never made me feel panicked. He had a plan from the start that he implemented with confidence and that gave me confidence in the process. My case was pretty complicated and had to make constant adjustments. It’s important for a doc to tell you the truth and also not make you feel like you’re a crazy person. And he never made me feel like that. His still the doc I follow up with and I’m so lucky to have him through this process of healing and recovery.
I can’t say enough thank you's to my family, my mom, my uncles, aunts, cousins, sisters, brother in laws, and nephews. Who all pulled together for me. I couldn’t have done it without you. They were my light when I thought I couldn’t go on. It was hard on them too, unsure what would happen, worried and tired. And trying to stay positive and strong for me. Taking turns to watch me at the hospital. Their patience and love when I felt like I lost it. All the tears shed, all the fear we felt. I’m also super grateful for my friends that stuck through it with me. So grateful for those who prayed, continue praying and for checking on me, for sending me music, pics and, for the brief moments taking me out of my pain. It's scary when someone you love gets sick, it really affects your whole entire village.
I have a really different perspective on life now. Though I’m doing much better on all levels, I’m still recovering, and healing, and still needing to do my due diligence to remain healthy. To regain the muscle I lost. I feel really relieved now that I'm posting this because I found it hard to talk about because it was pretty unexpected and I experienced a lot of things I hope no one has to ever go through. I was such a healthy and active person before all of this, and to all of a sudden have that be taken away really really humbled me. Nothing is really guaranteed and it's important to stay ready for any possibility even if you think oh that'll never happen to me. It’s still going to take some time to fully process and move forward. Yet I know if God puts you through it he’ll pull you through it. I had to lean on my faith and trust in the process. And I know I could not have done any of this without God/ Universe and all my angels in heaven.
There’s so much more I can say, and explain yet I feel these will come over time. I’m thinking I’ll be answering questions on my Instagram stories, since so many people have been asking me questions and wondering what’s been going on. I haven’t really done videos in a while bc I’ve been kind of afraid to talk about it, kind of afraid I'll cry. And I’m feeling strong and putting myself back together. The come back is going to be/ is already so incredible. I'm ready for what 2021 is going to bring. Thank you soo much and love and gratitude to you!! Remember, whatever you're going through is just making you a more resilient and strong person- you might know why its happening for you at the time, but it'll make sense later. ( I still have no idea but it'll come lol.) At least that is what I believe with all the pain and loss we have felt this year, the darkness will open up for more light.
XOXO
Kelly
PS, I also created >>this video<< a while ago and didn't really have the courage to share it until now. So if you're inclined go watch it you can get a brief visual glimpse of what happened to me you're more than welcome to watch it!
