Well, by now, you have been sick and getting sicker. Doctors have been telling you that it was one thing or another. But you have had your doubts. Something just doesn’t feel quite right the diagnosis. Your gut feeling is really wrong.
But now it seems that the doctors seem to believe you. They are starting to question what is going on with you. They are scratching their heads and asking you questions about your health and your family’s medical history. You know the ones that I mean. They ask you about cancer, heart problems, tuberculosis, and genetic diseases like Cystic Fibrosis. It seems like they are going through a process of elimination. Maybe you get subjected to blood tests. The attention is nice but what a way to get it. There must be an easier way.
But now the doctor wants to go farther. He wants to schedule a series chest x-rays, which your doctor can see the effects or changes in your lungs. So you go to radiology, change into a non-form-fitting gown that is ventilated down the back that shows your business or at least the backside of it.
The lung function tests can be an experience all by themselves. What happens is that you go into this room with a respiratory therapist who administers these tests. In this room is a booth that looks like one of those parking enforcement carts with a meter maid that gives out parking tickets. When I went through mine, I first thought my doctor had a sense of humor but when I was done, he was the biggest sadist that I knew. Don’t get me wrong. I really do like my doctor. I just didn’t think too highly of him right then at that particular moment. If I had been allowed to write a few parking tickets, maybe I would have been all right with it.
After the results are back from the lung function tests and the chest x-rays, the doctor wants to a broncoscopy. With this procedure, the doctor inserts a thin, flexible tube into the airway to see inside air passages and get a tissue sample (also called a biopsy) to examine. Prior to doing, you are given this breathing treatment to freeze your throat and give you anesthesia to put you to sleep. When I went through this, my doctor came into talk right before doing this. The last thing that I remember is being in the middle of talking to him and BOOM! Out went the lights.
Sometimes a tissue sample is taken from the skin, lymph nodes, or the eye’s outer membrane to be examined for granulomas, if these areas seem to be affected. I haven’t gone through this myself so unfortunately I can’t give you an idea of what it is like.
The screening and diagnosis phases of finding sarcoidosis can be a rough, harrowing experience in itself but it has its interesting moments.