When I Found My Life Resembling an Episode of 'House'

My husband Brian and I are TV people. I’d like to say we’re nature people, health food people or workout people, but we’re not.

We’ve been TV binge watchers since before there was a name for it.

One show we used to enjoy watching together was “House.” The show featured antisocial doctor Gregory House and his team of residents as they worked to solve complex medical mysteries.

As regular watchers, we realized that one diagnosis Dr. House’s team always threw out as an answer for their mystery patients was sarcoidosis. This happened so frequently, in fact, that being the fun, childless 20-somethings we were, we joked that a fun drinking game would be to take a drink any time sarcoidosis was mentioned during the show.

Fast forward 10 years, and Brian sat by my hospital bedside as we found ourselves living out our very own “House” episode.

A migraine weeks earlier had evolved into symptoms of numbness, pins and needles in my arm and leg, and balance issues. Test after test had been used to rule out diagnosis after diagnosis and my doctor came in to discuss my very own mystery disease.

And then he said it: “Sarcoidosis.”

Brian and I looked at each other, and did the only thing we could.

We couldn’t drink, so we laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

My very own medical mystery drama’s episode ended with a diagnosis of not one, but two chronic illnesses: Lyme disease and multiple sclerosis.

While that’s nothing to laugh at, laugher has kept Brian and me grounded as we’ve started navigating life with the double diagnosis I finally received.

Laughter and TV binge watching, of course.

Image provided by the “House” Facebook page