Are You Sure You Can Do That?

Sarcoidosis creates lifestyle challenges. The disease makes breathing difficult, and the treatments make life difficult. In the past couple of months I've had several colds, bronchitis and Whooping Cough (still fighting that one), not to mention the always-present soul-sucking exhaustion.

Deciding to NOT let the Sarcoid determine life choices is also challenging. My youngest daughter's third grade class took a field trip to Lassen National Park this week. As a mom, I wanted to go with her, both because she is 8 and sending her 300 miles away without me was not something I was comfortable with; and besides, I've never been to Lassen and it sounded fun!

Mount Lassen is a dormant volcano in Northern California that rises to over 12,000 feet. The plan was to introduce the children to volcanoes and to nature by hiking up and around the peak. These were not 8-year old hikes, these were serious altitude scaling adult hikes that the kids managed unbelievably well.

Because of my health status, it would have been very easy to not do the hikes. A friend on the hike was very concerned and asked me several times, "Are you sure you should be doing this?" My answer was always, "No, I'm not sure, but I'm going to try."

Strenuous hiking at high altitudes is probably not something a Sarcoid patient should do. However, my daughter wanted me with her to see this amazing place, and I did not know for certain I couldn't do it, so I tried. Did I cough a lot? without a doubt. But did I also see spectacular vistas and experience the joy of watching my girl learn about a world she never knew existed? absolutely. Am I going to pay for this choice with another cold or bronchitis or serious chest pain? I hope not, but won't be surprised when it happens. It was worth it.

It is easy to let a chronic disease become debilitating. Giving in to pain and symptoms is always an option, and one that I know no one would fault me for. This thing sucks! But I want, every day, to try at least to make the more difficult choice of finding out if I can do something. Besides, I figure if the cancer-sarcoid-whooping cough mom can do it, everyone should be able to :-)