I went to my GP and had tests taken, and results indicate I have an inflammatory disease somewhere in my body. She suspects a disease called sarcoidosis so I thought I'd look it up... found a great dictionary or so I thought. Here's the explanation of sarcoidosis...

Disease of unknown aetiology in which there are chronic inflammatory granulomatous lesions in lymph nodes and other organs.


The fuck does THAT mean then?? Each and every one of the "weird" words were clickable links so I started clicking but it only got more complicated

I'm none the wiser for it but at least now I know what it's called in English

i am sure i am overreacting, but lesions, weight loss, and lymph nodes are a big red flag for something else as well.

but, i am no doctor. my science and medical comprehension is severely lacking.
[Edited 2/26/06 9:29am]

get well soon, whatever it is.

get well soon

dont know if this helps any ... you may have already found this info

hurry well

Sarcoidosis (sar"koi-do'sis) involves inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in various organs in your body. The lumps are called granulomas (gran"u-lo'mahs) because they look like grains of sugar or sand. They are very small and can be seen only with a microscope.

These tiny granulomas can grow and clump together, making many large and small groups of lumps. If many granulomas form in an organ, they can affect how the organ works. This can cause symptoms of sarcoidosis.

Sarcoidosis can occur in almost any part of your body, although it usually affects some organs more than others. It usually starts in one of two places:

Lungs
Lymph nodes, especially the lymph nodes in your chest cavity.
Sarcoidosis also often affects your:

Skin
Eyes
Liver.
Less often, sarcoidosis affects your:

Spleen
Brain
Nerves
Heart
Tear glands
Salivary glands
Bones and joints.
Rarely, sarcoidosis affects other organs, including your:

Thyroid gland
Breasts
Kidneys
Reproductive organs.
Sarcoidosis almost always occurs in more than one organ at a time.

Sarcoidosis has an active and a nonactive phase:

In the active phase, the granulomas form and grow. In this phase, symptoms can develop, and scar tissue can form in the organs where the granulomas occur.
In the nonactive phase, the inflammation goes down, and the granulomas stay the same size or shrink. But the scars may remain and cause symptoms.
The course of the disease varies greatly among people.

In many people, sarcoidosis is mild. The inflammation that causes the granulomas may get better on its own. The granulomas may stop growing or shrink. Symptoms may go away within a few years.
In some people, the inflammation remains but doesn't get worse. You may also have symptoms or flare-ups and need treatment every now and then.
In other people, sarcoidosis slowly gets worse over the years and can cause permanent organ damage. Although treatment can help, sarcoidosis may leave scar tissue in the lungs, skin, eyes, or other organs. The scar tissue can affect how the organs work. Treatment usually does not affect scar tissue.
Changes in sarcoidosis usually occur slowly (e.g., over months). Sarcoidosis does not usually cause sudden illness. However, some symptoms may occur suddenly. They include:

Disturbed heart rhythms
Arthritis in the ankles
Eye symptoms.
In some serious cases in which vital organs are affected, sarcoidosis can result in death.

Sarcoidosis is not a form of cancer.

There is no known way to prevent sarcoidosis.

Sarcoidosis was once thought to be an uncommon condition. It's now known to affect tens of thousands of people throughout the United States. Because many people who have sarcoidosis have no symptoms, it's hard to know how many people have the condition.

Sarcoidosis was identified in the late 1860s. Since then, scientists have developed better tests to diagnose it and made advances in treating it.

cborgman said:

Thanks for caring, but I am fine in that regard. There have been TONS of tests made on me and all that's coming up is a very elevated sedimentation rate and that my blood reacts like there's an inflammation somewhere in my body. I'm having a lung x-ray tomorrow.

im sorry you arent feeling well

hope whatever they find is an easy fix, and you get back to feeling well real soon

Mach said:

Thank you so much for finding that for me!! I gave up really, I looked for info in Swedish first but then gave up on that cos I still have to explain everything in English to my boyfriend so I started in on the English but got discouraged. Thankyouthankyouthankyou Machaela

cborgman said:

Whoa, you really know how to calm people down!

Teacher said:

An elevated sed rate and inflamation showing up in the blood are signs of a lot of diseases, Lupus is a possibility. These diseases are hard to diagnose but they are coming up with better treatments all the time.
I hope they pinpoint what's wrong soon so you can start feeling better.

Hope everything goes well for you.

Teacher said:

you are welcome




i am second generation swedish

my grandfather came over to the US when he was in his 20s

Mach said:

I didn't know that! We're almost related!

To all who posted, thanks for caring. My GP thinks it's sarcoidosis, that's why she ordered the lung x-ray. By tradition more than accuracy sarc is handled by rheumatologists here, if it comes back positive I'll go to one and get treatment.

Please say it's not lupus though, that's not fun.

Best to you, baby.

Mazurack said:

Thanks but who are you?