Another new member....

[Guest guest]

Hello

This is my first post - I'm Elaine, and I live near Bern Switzerland

with my husband and my dog. I'm from the US originally.

I think my EN is related to stress/new environment/infections....

When I was 35, I had a routine chest x-ray and they found that I had

sarcoid (bilateral lymph nodes), and I had bronchoscopy, to verify. I

have no idea if I had EN at the time. I've not had any symptoms from

sarcoid. This was also the summer before my mother's death - she died

of breast cancer and I was very much involved in her care.

In 2004,we moved into a brand new house - in November and that spring,

my first noticeable incidence of EN (the spring of 2005). I wonder if

it was the stress and the environment - new carpet, stuff like that.

So that lasted through the summer. I diagnosed myself - as I'm sure

many of you have - went to my doctor who agreed. The only possible

treatment was steroids, and I agreed to wait it out. It had cleared up

mostly by September.

Now, it's 2008, I'm 53 and last summer we moved from the US to

Switzerland. We've also had a stressapalooza - last year my husband

had a detached retina, my father died, we sold our house, I quit my

job, and we came to Switzerland (my husband took a new job here). I

was exhausted, and I was rather ill throughout the autumn - various

colds, infections and so on. So in April again, it's back. Lumps, some

red, some not, most not painful, but swollen knees, painful joints,

and swollen ankles. Anyway, I showed it to my physician, he agreed

it was EN, but since I didn't have severe pain or mobility issues, we

agreed not to go down the path of steroids. I'll see him again in a

few weeks.

But I love Switzerland, and I'm hoping that as I continue to acclimate

to the environment, and as my stress levels out, my EN will subside.

I don't know if I've had a low level of EN going on, with 2 or more

flare ups or just the two incidents. If I can wear compression hose,

if the pain isn't bad.

I realize I must be older than the average person in the literature -

I see, however that the literature gives very little treatment to

recurrences - I had to search pubmed/medline high and low for anything

about recurrent EN.

Anyway that's my story.

Hope to meet many of you - online, at any rate.

Elaine