I had a bout of acute Sarcoidosis back in 1996. It started in the early Spring of 1996 and was mostly gone by the end of the year. It was treated mainly with low dosage of prednisone. Sarcoidosis usually attacks the lungs, but it can attack practically any system in the body.
It initially started in my ankles and feet -- feet/ankles were swollen so big I couldn't get into my shoes. I also initially had a mild unproductive cough and a fever of about 102. The feet/ankle swelling went away quickly with an initial dose of steroids. The sarcoidosis progressed into a more severe cough and ongoing fever, which persisted over several months, along with general joint aches and pains. I remember at times coughing my head off, and having a fever of around 100 degrees F that would occur just about every day for a good while -- and just generally feeling "crummy." Finally it all just went away with no lingering effects.
The hematologists have considered the sarcoidosis to be an underlying cause of my blood problems, but they have no real evidence to make that conclusion. Sarcoidosis is kind of hard to diagnose. It seems sort of like you rule out every other possible thing, and then you are left with the diagnosis of sarcoidosis. Actually they did do a bronchoscopy on me back in 1996, but there was no evidence (even then) of sarcoidosis -- specifically no granulomas found.
Anyway, that's my autoimmune story... and I'm sticking to it!
