A few years ago I went to visit the doctor to have an Ultra-sound and MRI performed for a typical procedure like most women, to deal with some fibroid tumors in my Uterus and make a decision on what measures should be taken to deal with them. A few days after my MRI was performed, I received an urgent phone call from the doctor stating that they would like for me to come in so that they could perform the MRI again, on my upper chest. They asked if I had failed to take off a necklace or something, because the pictures revealed that something was on my lungs. I went in again for another MRI to be performed on my upper chest only, and the pictures revealed the same findings.
I was devastated when I was told that I should have a biopsy performed on my lungs as soon as possible. I had always dealt with a lot of congestion, however I thought that it was just something that was caused by sinus and periodic chest congestion from colds due to changes in the weather especially during the Spring due to pollen, although I would sometimes have pains when I would breathe deeply in my back under my shoulder blades. However, I would just treat it with the usual over the counter cough syrups or sinus medications, that would give me some relief. I decided to have the biopsy performed as recommended for the purpose of early detection or prevention of an oncoming lung issue, and tissue was taken, and the results revealed that I had a disease called Sarcoidosis in my right lung. "Sarcoidosis can affect any organ in the body, however the disease usually starts in the lungs, skin, and or lymph nodes, especially the lymph nodes in your chest," and is a "disease of unknown cause that leads to inflammation" (www.nhlbi.nih.gov).
After the biopsy was performed, I really feel that the problem escalated even more. The disease became very severe over the next two years and I was unable sometimes to sleep lying down especially on my right side or back because I felt like I was suffocating at times and would have asthma like symptoms and a constant hacking cough accompanied with thick phlegm that was sometimes hard to cough up, and a loud wheeze that I could hear constantly from my own chest. I was placed on an internal steroid called Prednisone which was filled monthly, went through a moon face stage, and gained a lot of weight. I went from a size 10 to a size 18, and I also used two inhalers, one of which was Symbicort of which I had to use twice daily, and the other was an Albuterol inhaler which was only to be used if I had severe breathing problems for a quick fix. I was also devastated because I loved to sing, and now lacked the lung capacity to do so as well as I had in the past, not to mention the fact that I could not walk up stairwells very easily, nor hilly inclines without having to stop for a few minutes due to lack of oxygen once I had made it to the top of either of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment