Kris Aquino reveals she now has five autoimmune diseases
A month after she said doctors have found treatment for her condition, Kris Aquino gave another health update, saying she now has five autoimmune diseases and is now taking a new medicine.
On Instagram, the Queen of All Media shared a Reel of her visit to the doctor. She said she had just started taking a "baby dose" of methotrexate, a drug that treats rheumatoid arthrisis, cancer, and psoriasis, "roughly 13 hours ago."
She shared that when she arrived in the US last year, doctors said her autoimmune conditions have become four from three, which are: "chronic spontaneous urticaria, autoimmune thyroiditis, and Churg Strauss or what’s now been renamed EGPA—a rare and life threatening form of vasculitis."
Despite taking "biological injectable[s]," her IgE (or the number of allergens in her blood), "remained very high." It didn't help that her blood panel numbers were bad, too, that Kris couldn' help but cry out of frustraion, she said.
She continued that her doctor had been convincing her to take methotrexate, but she wouldn't because she knew her "immunity wasn't ready."
"I won’t bore you with the details but my chest CT scan showed scarring & micronodules in my right lung, my lead Dr. in UCLA, Dr John Belperio had a difficult time convincing me about methotrexate because physically I knew my immunity wasn’t ready," she said.
However, upon discovering that her inflammatory numbers and antinuclear antibody test results were getting higher, she decided to give it a go.
Kris said that her autoimmune diseases have grown to five, with a possibility of another one.
"For now it’s definite I have 5, possibly 6 autoimmune conditions," she said. "I bit the bullet and started my baby dose slowly increasing the dosage to 7.5 mg per week."
The actress and host said she "badly" wanted to keep the news to herself because her supporters might lose hope for her.
"How badly [I] wanted to keep this private because [I]’m scared baka mawalan kayo ng gana to keep praying for me & my doctors, my sons, and my sisters. Hindi ako sumusuko, sana wag rin kayo sumuko? Please? My gratitude post will follow," she said.
Previously, Kris shared video clips and pictures of her getting her medications and tests. She also thanked her "excellent team of doctors" in the US.
"You deserved a health update because you've been with me in this journey, sana ibalato nyo na lang ang private life during my journey of healing," she wrote.