Living With Sarcoidosis

Living With Sarcoidosis – Part 9.

Filed Under: African American Health · Baby Boomer · Black Health · Black Health and Wellness · Black Men’s Health · Black Women’s Health · Sarcoidosis

by CK Dillon

There’s Hope Yet!

When things seemed out of control, my granddad was known to say, “There’s hope yet!”

On Monday morning my cell phone rang at about 10 am, during my commute. I like to think I was in the Caldecott Tunnel, awake, when it rang, but in retrospect, that’s more likely me trying to make my story more dramatic.

Caldecott

The caller was my respiratory specialist, who’d kind of

become a friend, and he sounded excited. He said, “Charles, I’ve got good news, bad news and good news. How soon can you be here, and which do you want to hear first?”

Swerving to take the exit, I said, “The bad news, I’d prefer to end this chat with good news.” “Ok,” he said, “here’s the bad news. There’s no cure for what you have . . .” Silence.

Surprisingly, my life did not flash before my eyes, so I said, “And the good news . . . ?”

“We’ve finally gotten a handle on what you’ve got. Your lung biopsy revealed that you have a rare disease called Sarcoidosis.” I could actually hear him smiling.

Lungs

“Say what? Leave it to me to get a rare disease that can’t be cured?”

But still hopeful, I said, “Alright Doc, what’s the other good news, this first piece does not fit with my plan to live past a hundred and ten.”

“Thought you’d never ask,” he said cheerfully. Doc knew my plan to be a hundred and ten was important to me. I promised myself when I was 6 that I’d live at least 110 years.

“I can’t promise you a hundred and ten, but I wouldn’t rule out ninety. We can get your Sarcoidosis under control with steroids.” More silence on his part, and now mine. I told you he was good.

I’m thinking, ” Sarcoidosis? Steroids?”

Ok, I was a pretty consistent weight lifter before the illness and Doc knew it. I was familiar with some of the horror stories about steroids . . .

Steroids