The past few weeks have been so busy for me that I’m only now coming up for air. Going through my list of to do items that had been piling up, I chanced to put in a Google search in an effort to see what my New York illness episode potentially had to do with Gulf War Illness (GWI). A search for “gulf war” and “capillaries” brought me to an online announcement of a recent research study that links GWI to something called mitochrondria disease.
Reading about mitochondria disease was both a revelation and … well, a bit anticlimactic. Checking off the list of symptoms that matched what I’ve had it just seemed like well, of course you have mitochondria disease. While this does give me satisfaction in knowing what I have, simply having a name for what I’ve been suffering from doesn’t bring me any closer to a cure. But at least there are some strategies for mitigating it. I haven’t been officially diagnosed but I’m going in to see my doctor as soon as I can.
Lately it seems my symptoms are getting worse. Lately I can barely keep my eyes open after lunchtime. The red eyes I once thought were due to my growing intolerance of contact lenses have appeared even without my wearing contacts. I wonder if damage to my circulatory system might be starving my eyes of oxygen. Also within the past few weeks it seems I’ve had increasing difficulty with my hearing, particularly my right ear. I read with concern that deafness is one possible side effect of mitochondria disease.
Mitochondria disease is most often a genetic disease, inherited maternally. With the recent study showing the disease associated with Gulf War service, speculation now falls on the experimental vaccines that were given to servicemembers. Some vaccines can interfere with mitochondria function, from what I’ve read.
I hope this leads to a better understanding and treatment for my increasing lethargy.