Hi.
The treatment of sarcoidosis generally depends on symptoms and the risks imposed by the disease on vital organs.
Based on your description, there are two scenarios that come to mind:
Not all patients with sarcoidosis undergo operations on the lung – I am assuming that you had localized disease and that it was completely removed. If this was the case – the collapse may or may not herald relapsed disease. If you’ve several scans, then it may mean that your pain is not related with the sarcoidosis but merely due to the expected damage sustained during the surgery.
The alternative scenario is that you had Sarcoidosis and a complication of disease was the lung collapsing in 2006. Such a condition does not always mean that you would need continuous treatment for sarcoidosis after addressing the lung collapse. I’m assuming the surgery performed was an attempt to re-inflate the lung in which you may have had a tube on your side which may be attached to a suction apparatus. If this is the case, then if the repeated scans were considered non-significant by the doctors – then there probably isn’t enough inflammation to warrant some drug treatment for sarcoid. At most you may need medicine for pain control.
As to how well the lung is healing? And the seeming over-emphasis on the sarcoids. This point is a bit difficult to explain because there is an intimate correlation. Sarcoids generally cause damage because the body’s immune system reacts against them, at tuimes to a level that can be harmful when the amount of sarcoids is too great. Imagine a small area of lung, in which the body reacts and hence, that small area will form a nodule – an area of lung that is no longer functional. If there are too many sarcoids, more and more lung becomes non-functional – drug therapy will involve suppressing the immune reaction so as not to compromise the lung. In your case therefore, lung healing from the surgery is an issue that will largely depend on the status of the sarcoids, if the sarcoids are doing well, then the healing is presumed to be doing well too.
I hope this post helped.
Happy Holidays.
Thank you so much for your reply to my question. Your insight is quite refreshing. It was the second scenario. It least it gives me other means of looking at why I still feel the way I do, again thank you, and Happy Holidays to you, And Gods continue blessings to you and your family.
You're welcome. Blessings to you.