YOU HAVE WHAT? SARCOIDOSIS DESCRIBED

As promised I have a quick description of this rare disease that one out of 100,000 people have. Sarcoidosis is rare and hard to diagnose. Chest x-rays, CT scans, bronchoschopies and lung biopsies are ways to get an accurate diagnosis of the disease. How can you tell if you have it before all this. Like everything else when we get sick, symptoms are usually present.These symptoms of Sarcoidosis can be but not limited to, shortness of breath, dry cough, abnormal breathing sounds, ill feeling, weight loss and fatigue to name a few.
Sarcoidosis can also affect the skin usually with rashes, also it can affect the eyes as well. Sarcoidosis usually affects the organs mainly in the lungs which is where most people get it.Tissues from other organs will gather into granules and fill the lung which will eventually disturb the breathing. The immune system also gets affected as the disease hits the white blood cells. The lymph nodes grow in the lungs and the liver and spleen can become enlarged. About 30- 50% of the people who get this disease will not need treatment. Those that need treatment such as myself go on steroids, Prednisone is the usual.
I was on 60 mg for almost two years and had put on 60 pounds. I have always had a weight problem even as a kid so the extra was not good. Yes this all sounds bad for those that get the worst of it but it can get even worse. Complications do happen, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, kidney stones and organ failure can happen. Yes I have a couple of these complications. Pulmonary hypertension and a collapsed right lung.
Who can get this disease? Well it is more common in African Americans than Caucasians, more in women than men. The cause is unknown but some thought of environmental or genetics may come to play. I have my own feeling, as two famous people have it. One has passed and one is still alive. The person who is alive his daughter has it, and before one of my cousins passed away he was just diagnoses with Sarcoidosis. So I think you can guess where my feeling is on where the disease is. My next question how many people have this disease in not only Massachusetts but in New England. Wondering where else you can learn about Sarcoidosis, it can be Googled. That's where I had gotten my information from and there are three hospitals here in the Boston area that treat it. Mike G.