Invisible Chaos
— Athena Merritt

Summer is coming Summer and my sarcoidosis don’t mix well. So when Philadelphia’s temperature soared past 80 degrees May 2, I became an amateur meteorologist. If you wanted to know the weather forecast for the next hour, day, week, or 10 days out, I was your person. The House…

Sarcoidosis: No rest for the weary Taking my nephew along on errands when he was a kid meant a race against time. I tried to finish before he uttered “home,” which was toddler speak for “leave now or be embarrassed by a temper tantrum.” That’s what daily life with chronic…

Sarcoidosis and the revolving door of doctors Getting treatment for sarcoidosis can be challenging due to the diminishing ranks and hours of physicians. It’s not likely to get any easier in the future because the demand for physicians is expected to continue to outpace supply. Going in to see…

My left leg has been numb from the knee down for months. It started with a couple of toes and climbed its way up. Every once in a while, the numbness and tingling will get ambitious and trek all the way up my left side, dulling everything along the…

Sarcoidosis: A life of no Having sarcoidosis means I must say no to many things. That is why when Cinco de Mayo rolled around last week, I was sitting in while my friends did their part to keep Americans in the lead for tequila consumption. They tried to…

Sarcoidosis 101 Have you ever tried to explain sarcoidosis to someone? First, you have to phonetically walk them through the funny-sounding pronunciation. If you still have their attention after that, it’s usually gone by the time you hit the term “granuloma.” After being shellshocked by a sarcoidosis diagnosis,…

When I left my doctor’s office with a prescription for Restasis (cyclosporine) this month, I was hopeful I would be able to afford it under my insurance plan this year. But the nearly $500 upfront cost to fill it has put the medicine out of reach again. I’m hardly alone…

As a Marvel fan, this week’s long-awaited premiere of “Avengers: Endgame” has me thinking about the sarcoidosis community’s hidden superpowers. They aren’t flashy. We can’t fly. We can’t shoot webs from our wrists and swing through neighborhoods. And we can’t transform our bodies into a hulking green beast — though…

I was thrilled to find out the television network NBC will be airing a sarcoidosis PSA this month to raise awareness about the disease, which so many fail to recognize at the onset of symptoms. I did. Night sweats — which had me waking as drenched as if I…

The thing that attracted me to a career as a journalist — the unpredictability — is precisely what I despise most about living with a chronic illness. Over my nearly 17 years battling sarcoidosis, I’ve had good and bad days, and others that have fallen somewhere in between. I…