Busy week, lots of surfing trying to find any mention of Sarcoidosis on Oprah since the Sarc is doing it's thing again. Turned out, my sister had thought she heard it would be an Oprah topic, instead it was just a guest had mentioned it wasn't slowing down his life, so no Oprah transcript on any recent events emerged from search.

However, MSN has an active group with recent info, and weariness,aches and pains fueled my interest. Having been diagnosed with the darling disease 5 years ago, I did 9 months of prednisone (ugh!) and then weaned my life away when it looked like it was just making matters worse  (most family and doctor weren't thrilled about this, but I did it anyway). That was 2000.

Skip through a few years and I'm still drag'n tail tired all the time, ankles still swell, funny lumps grow where there shouldn't be lumps, and a few other Sarc goodies have left me wondering if sheer will could keep the disease at bay. Since info on the net and from Doc in 2000 showed it probably wouldn't kill me and there wasn't much known to do anything about.

Good news, it appears that the cause of the disease has been narrowed down to (1) a genetic predisposition to the Sarcoidosis response to the (2) right kind of tick bite bacteria (rocky mountain spotted fever variety?) that seem to thrive on what the immune system sends out to kill the bacteria. In the mean time, vitamin D (milk, OTC vitamins, food suppliments, sun exposure, etc.) stir trouble and get toxic for Sarcoid folks at lower levels than normal folks can handle, and that can lead to a host of uglies.

Now, most wouldn't be excited to read this kind of news, but it appears that knowing the etiology (cause, background details) was enough to help the dear souls that persist in trodding the bridge to ending Sarc. The news is encouraging.

I've made an appointment with doc. I'll let him sort out the details and get back with me on the recommended action sequence. In the mean time, I'm removing vitamin-D-laced foods, D-enriched multi-vitamins, etc. from my diet and thinking long and hard about a life without too much sunshine.

No matter what, it is a life and I choose to capture every second that I can. Pain or no pain, it's a great adventure with something to learn at every turn on the path.