Sickness is As Sickness Does

This last task had me a little thrown as I was wondering what the hell I could write about. It's good to write about things that are important to you or going on in your life, so I decided that my first 7 post would be about the biggest headache in my life. I am 'battling' with an illness or what I should actually be referring to as a disease, sarcoidosis. I finished a year long course of steroids just as I started Big Blogger, and since then after a brief period of feeling ok-ish, I am becoming unwell again. So this post is about 7 things about sarcoidosis and me.

1. Walking - the steroids meant that I could bade adios to most of these pains but after a few weeks being steroid free, I started to find that when I get out of bed in the morning, I find it quite difficult to walk for a bit. I have the same difficulty after being in the same position for a period of time.

2. The Lump - I found a lump in my neck on my 28th birthday (28th July) which explains the horrid pain that I have had in my neck for the past couple of weeks. I have since found a lump just below my knee.

3. Arms - I couldn't swim or use the gym after my first couple of days on holiday in Egypt due to excruciating pain in my arms. It suddenly disappeared but has returned again meaning that I wince pretty much every time I move them.

4. Fingers - When I wake up in the morning, my fingers hurt when I move them from my joints being inflamed. Since my neck and arms have got worse, I now have jabbing pains in my fingers.

5. Fatigue - I have felt quite energetic and it's suddenly plummeted. Now there doesn't seem to enough hours in the day for me. The feeling of tiredness is behind my eyes and a general listlessness which has swept over me for the past few days. I had the option to take long term sick due to all of the problems, but I went to work because I think staying off work would have made me feel worse.

6. Weight - During the worst of my illness, pre steroids, my weight plummeted to just over 6.5 stone. I had always been quite small but apparently I just looked very bony. Then I went on the steroids and it shot up to almost 8.5 stone. All of sudden I was super body conscious and I still am, but to a lesser extent as my weight has settled down quite a lot.

7. Eyes - My immune system was attacking my eyes which is how I found out that I was unwell in the first place. If it wasn't for the fact that I kicked up blue murder, my doctors would have kept telling me I had a 'mild eye infection'. I am scared of going blind or having reduced eye sight since this. My eyes are ok now although for some reason I can't read road signs very well at the moment.