For quite a long time, and to be exact over 15 years I had not had any health issues. At least I thought I did not. I was living the healthiest way of life: eating healthy, drinking mostly water and some other healthy drinks, maybe some red wine on weekends, didn’t eat cane sugar for many years, doing yoga, running… Seemed like I should be living till the end of my life happy and healthy.
But life proves it wrong… every single time. And it surely did this time for me, after having a pretty tough year already. Read “Living Yogi Life Through the Hard Times.“
Funny, that when I originally started my blog, I was sure to talk about healthy living, healthy eating and how to prevent diseases in life by staying on top of your health and all that good stuff. But it keeps turning differently for me so far. I feel like my blog becomes more of a personal journey through life. But I surely hope that it will help someone to get through hard times in life easier and be inspired to live a better life, a more compassionate and loving life. Because life is truly all about that.
How Sarcoidosis Happened to Me
I have been struggling with allergies this year. Pretty badly, like never before. Honestly, I was able to deal with the symptoms. But I decided to go to the allergist and once and for all resolve this issue.
Read: How to Clear Your Body From Allergy?
I did blood tests for all possible known allergens. And here is the funniest part- it turned out that I was allergic to almost everything. I am not kidding: cats, dogs (I have three dogs, and was living with them without issues for the last 12 years), birch trees, celery, potato, carrot, almonds… You name it, I had an allergy to it. But my allergist said: “Even if you stop eating everything and drink only water, you still gonna have an allergy.”
Well, that did not sound good. She surely prescribed me some medicine to control the symptoms. And that helped a lot. But something was telling me that was not the whole issue. (Thank God for yoga and meditation!)
Getting X-Ray changed everything
Considering all my allergy symptoms, plus difficulty of performing some physical activity lately, I decided to do chest X-Ray to make sure everything is fine with my lungs.
But that’s where things went south. I was told that I had some kind of an issue with my lungs. I went to a million doctors, no joke. Did lots of tests, X-Rays, CAT scans. Eventually, they sent me to the Hospital of Pulmonology to do further research because they could not quite put a correct diagnosis.
Shocking News
Coming over to the hospital I would have never thought in a million years that they would suggest a lung biopsy. WHAT? A healthiest person alive needs a biopsy? And not just a biopsy, but probably the hardest one existing out there.
I was quite shocked. But here is the thing. Sarcoidosis is very hard to diagnose. First I was told I carried flu on my feet. Then I was told that I probably had allergic pneumonia, then it was some kind of another complicated lung disease… Long story short, there is a list of more than 100 diseases that are seen the same as sarcoidosis on X-Rays and CAT Scans. This list includes oncology. So I decided not to take a risk of guessing and find out what is going on. Therefore agreed on a biopsy.
Lung Biopsy
In short, a lung biopsy looks approximately like this. The day before the operation they are doing a blood test to make sure all is good with your health and your body can handle the procedure. Eating and drinking pretty light, taking any medicine if needed. Day of the operation: no food, no water. Two painful injections and after 15 min, you are on the surgical table. During the biopsy, you are under general anesthesia. The doctor is doing three small cuts on the side of the chest, getting in between the ribs with camera and tools, checking on the lung and getting a piece of tissue while the LUNG is COMPLETELY COLLAPSED! Once this is done, they are filling the lung with air, stitching two of the cuts and inserting a drainage tube that comes out from the lung to the external box that you carry for the next at least 3 days.
Waking up after the surgery was the worst! On top of feeling bad after anesthesia, the cuts were hurting for sure. But Gosh, how painful it was to breathe! Every single breath was agony. I even thought: what can I do to breathe with just one lung… And also that drainage tube… it was a killer! With every breath, I could feel that touching the lung and creating a burning pain.
As soon as I woke up I wanted water so badly, but all I could drink is just one sip. The whole body was exhausted. I could not stand on the feet and felt dizzy right away. In couple hours after the operation, they brought dinner… Food? No, please. Take it away from me. But there also was a warm cup of sweetened chicory. And that was like heaven at the time. After that, I became a huge fan of chicory root. It tastes almost like an instant coffee but does not have any caffeine and packed with a bunch of health benefits.
The days after the operation.
Standing up was still extremely hard. I almost fainted when tried to go to the restroom. They brought me from resuscitation to my room in a wheelchair and said I had to move as much and as soon as I can, otherwise pneumonia could easily develop. And that’s the last thing you want after this type of procedure.
Little by little I was able to walk. But I had to push myself and felt like I was the oldest person in the world. Although after a couple of days I started to feel a little better, especially when they removed that drainage. And was able to take longer walks with my friends who I met at the hospital, my family members and then even by myself.
But then the stress started to come from the waiting of the biopsy results. Although I took a position not to worry until the results came, my whole family was going crazy during that time. So not only I had to deal with the physical pain but I had to come everyone down and convince that it all was going to be just fine.
The Biopsy Result: Sarcoidosis
When the biopsy result came, everyone was relieved. It was just sarcoidosis. Or was it JUST? Well, there was no oncology or something like that. That was the good news. But after some research I found out the following about this mysterious and pretty rare disease:
- Sarcoidosis is a condition where small bead-like patches of inflamed cells, called granulomas, show up in the body. They usually appear in the lungs and nearby lymph nodes. Sarcoidosis can also affect other parts of the body, including the heart, liver, muscles, eyes, and skin. (1) It can actually affect any part of the body.
- Sarcoidosis is an autoimmune disease, which means abnormally low activity or overactivity of the immune system. In cases of immune system overactivity (which generally happens in sarcoidosis), the body attacks and damages its own tissues (2).
- Many people have no symptoms at all, while others may have the following: shortness of breath, fatigue and weakness, weight loss, chest pain, dry cough, enlarged lymph nodes, red bumps on arms, face, buttocks, fever, swelling and pain in the ankles and knees, infections of the eye, including pink eye (conjunctivitis), enlarged or inflamed liver.
- There are no known causes of sarcoidosis.
- Sarcoidosis is most common in women ages 20 through 40.
- Sarcoidosis is usually discovered by accident, through chest X-Ray that is done for some other reason. In 90-95% this disease affects the lungs.
- There is no complete cure from sarcoidosis. It means it is a chronic disease. It can go in remission but can come back at any point in life and affect any part of the body. And once diagnosed, one must be doing constant check-ups even when the disease in remission to make sure it did not become active again and did not affect any other organs.
- In severe cases, some people require surgery, such as a lung or heart transplant.
- Almost half of all people with sarcoidosis get better without any therapy. Treatments used today, such as corticosteroids, often help ease the inflammation associated with the condition.
Suggestions about the Lifestyle with Sarcoidosis
- Eat lots of fruits and veggies
- Avoid meat
- Avoid dairy products (Calcium makes the condition worse)
- Avoid sugar and other refined foods
- Avoid caffeine, tobacco, alcohol
- Include healthy oils like olive, avocado, flaxseed
- Drink at least 6-8 glasses of water a day
- Exercise! At least for 30 min a day
That seems to me like a pretty healthy vegan diet with lots of physical activity. 🙂 Honestly, I loved it when I read all about this, because now, as funny as it might sounds, this disease perfectly fits into my current lifestyle.
For more information on how to be a healthy vegan, please visit the following article: “Unhealthy Vegan? What Really Means to Be Healthy Vegan”
What has changed since the diagnosis?
I decided to increase my running up to 10k (it is about 6.2 miles) every single day. Seems that physical activity like running helps to heal and recover lungs quicker. I surely could not run right after the operation, so I was just walking 10K every day. Day by day I was able to jog and come back to my yoga routine, although from the beginning every single pose caused a lot of pain in the body.
I have not changed my eating habits. I am still a strict vegan, I do not consume coffee, alcohol or refined sugar. Looks like yoga brought me to this lifestyle for the reason my body to be able to heal itself.
What changed is the direction of my blogging, my views and my understanding of life. They became so much deeper. I see problems from a different perspective and able to appreciate more simple things that seem to be ordinary, like being able to take a breath and being able to walk.
Don’t Just Google your Symptoms. Go to the Doctor!
The operation discovered that I had sarcoidosis for quite some time- there was the scarring on my lungs. And now knowing all about this disease I realized that I had the symptoms (and most possible the disease itself) for the last 10 years. I just always assumed it was something insignificant. The two symptoms that actually bothered me were rash on the skin and I was getting fatigued pretty quickly. Although this year I noticed the shortness of breath as well.
Therefore, when noticing any symptoms that do not seem right for you, please don’t just google your symptoms, but go to the doctor, find out what is going on. It is better to know and treat the correct disease than guess and mistreat the incorrect one.
If your doctor prescribes you any medicine, you should be following the directions precisely. Because an innocent disease at first can cause a lot of damage to the body when not treated correctly and on time.
Conclusion
One and a half months passed since the biopsy, but I am still recovering. Just 2 weeks ago I was able to start running at a slow pace. And only last week I was back teaching yoga (I missed it so much!).
I know, this disease will most likely stay with me because it is already here for such a long time. So I decided to look at it as my dharma, something I have to deal with to be able to help others.
A couple of great websites will help you learn more about sarcoidosis:
Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research
Stay happy and healthy!
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Thank you for sharing this. Something I really appreciated reading, and needing right now. I wish you well.
Thank you so much, Michelle for stopping by and reading! And thank you for the support!
Wow, Anna! I had no idea what was involved with sarcoidosis. I knew from a friend on Twitter that the biopsies weren’t very fun. Makes my bone marrow biopsies look like a piece of cake. It still seems so strange to me that with your yoga and healthy lifestyle, you would be dealing with this, but maybe it is, like you say, dharma. Maybe mine is too. In any case, looking at it that way helps us grow in ways we would never have imagined. So glad I met you. You have always been one of my biggest supporters, and I will always be one or yours.
Thank you so much, Ramae!!! I also appreciate so much meeting you. I really hope that we will meet in real life sometime soon 🙂
I was diagnosed with neuro sarcoidosis which caused 13 strokes in 3 separate episodes. I’ve been trying to learn more about sarcoidosis but there is really not a lot of information that I am finding. Thank you for sharing your story. It’s been helpful.
[…] living with sarcoidosis I am falling into one of these categories, actually two- chronic lung condition and compromised […]
Sarcoïdosis is equaly spread in both man ánd woman. Avoid meat is not always an good advice. due to complications with your illness you can suffer from a dangerous lac of ferritine ( iron) wich i learnd the hard way… Some people are to weak to exercise. Or just in to much pain Dont just follow any diet, Go see a specialist involved in Sarcoïdosis. Lots of pulmonists just don’t know enough for the right treatment
Thank you, Silvia, for your comment.
I must say that I have been a vegan for quite some time now, before that I was a vegetarian. And I have never suffered from the lack of iron. As a matter of fact, iron does not come only from the meat. There are lots of other sources: lentils, chickpeas, beans, tofu, cashew nuts, chia seeds, ground flaxseed, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, kale, dried apricots and figs, raisins, and quinoa. And my most favorite one is dark vegan CHOCOLATE! These are all packed with iron. If you have been eating enough iron and your body does not absorb it, you might want to add extra Vitamin C as it aids in proper absorption of iron. For more information on how to be a healthy vegan please visit the following article: https://www.livingyogilife.com/healthy-vegan-diet/
As for an exercise, it does not mean you have to pull 100lb dumbbells or run a marathon to exercise. 30 min walk can be quite sufficient for many people and pretty doable even for 90 year old one. Choose whatever you like to do: walking, swimming, biking, hiking, yoga… There are so many options.
I hope this information helps.
Please stay safe and healthy!