Anyone else here battled Tubercolosis?

[Gibbo]

So I'm about 1 month away from completing my 6 months treatment for Tubercolosis. I was first diagnosed with TB back in July 2019 - through a sputum /spit test that I took after experiencing low grade fever for 3 weeks. When I was first told about the results, I was surprised that TB has not yet been eradicated. I live in a first world country as well.

Although they managed to catch the disease early before any damage was done to my lungs, I still had to undergo the full 6 months World Health Org TB tretment program. Which meant that I had to take a heavy dosage of antibiotics every day for 2 months - and then 3 times a week for 4 months.

Medicine side effects were quite brutal initially. Bad rash, body aches and nausea, breathlessness. They slowly go away overtime. More importantly, your life schedule gets turned upside down. Medication is issued under direct observed therapy, which means that you have to take this under supervision of a nurse.

I'm glad this is almost over- and thankfully, this is a disease which is very treatable. But dealing with this is no fun at all.

So as a public service announcement- if you anyone you know if coughing for 3 weeks or more, just get yourself checked out!

 

[Mr Swine]

Wow that sounds bad op, really glad you got help early before getting irreversible damage. Hope you make a full recovery soon!

 

[texhnolyze]

Not me, but my mom.

She also has diabetes, which made the treatment much longer and more tricky. She had to take a full year of treatment instead of 6 months for full recovery from TB. It was rough, but I'm glad it's over.

 

[Murasaki]

Forgive me OP, may I ask where you live?

 

[Gibbo]

Forgive me OP, may I ask where you live?

Click to shrink...

No worries - I forgot to mention it. I live in Singapore. I traveled quite extensively in 2018- but I'll.never know how or where I caught this!

 

[Murasaki]

I'm just glad you're on the road to recovery <3

 

[Deleted member 48434]

I was about to post something relevant regarding a recent piece of media only to realize it'd probably lead to spoiling a few people.

But yeah, that's brutal. I'm really sorry you had to go through that.

 

[Jason Frost]

I was about to post something relevant regarding a recent piece of media only to realize it'd probably lead to spoiling a few people.

Click to shrink...

I'm afraid.

 

[Gio]

I currently have it and am getting treatment for it, but there's a possibility that I was misdiagnosed since the cavities in my lungs have not shrunk at all since their discovery (about 8 months ago).

 

[Gibbo]

I currently have it and am getting treatment for it, but there's a possibility that I was misdiagnosed since the cavities in my lungs have not shrunk at all since their discovery (about 8 months ago).

Click to shrink...

To be honest there is a part of me that thinks I've been wrongly disgnosed as well. My X rays have been 100% clear since the beginning. So my treatment was based on the sputum results alone.

 

[Gio]

To be honest there is a part of me that thinks I've been wrongly disgnosed as well. My X rays have been 100% clear since the beginning. So my treatment was based on the sputum results alone.

Click to shrink...

Oh there are many different types of TB, and the sputum test is reliable so I wouldn't worry. I happen to have cavitary TB so in my case it does appear on an x-ray. I'm having a lung biopsy to be sure since my situation is a little unusual.

 

[SilentSoldier]

To be honest there is a part of me that thinks I've been wrongly disgnosed as well. My X rays have been 100% clear since the beginning. So my treatment was based on the sputum results alone.

Click to shrink...

they didn't do other TB tests like the skin one, Or the gold standard for TB diagnosis, the quantiferon gold test? Because the sputum test isn't very specific for TB

 

[Corncob]

I was rushed into hospital a couple of years ago with severe chest pains and I was initially diagnosed with TB and kept in quarantine for a week. It was odd because I was told I was immune when I was a kid and didn't need the immunisation injection.

They tried to do a phlem test but it didn't work so I had to have a biopsy on my chest which was awful. It ended up being sarcoidosis that I had and I had to have steroids for 6 months which didn't really help. It doesn't really go away and causes me lots of random issues and constant shortness of breath and dizziness.

Kinda wish it had been TB in the end since it's treatable but I'm sure that's awful too. Glad you're recovering OP.

 

[Zeroneo]

I did when I was 18. Lived in Europe and was as surprised as you. Are you doing/gonna do physiotherapy for it? I had to for 6 months after leaving the hospital.

I wasn't under supervision while taking medicine though. I just got it from a pharmacy and took it at home.

 

[aBathingApe]

I had tuberculosis when I was 14. It wasnt in my lungs but in my bones on my lower back. I took medicine daily for it for 1 year. No side effects. Aside from the medicine, I lived a pretty normal teenager life.

 

[EYEL1NER]

I didn't really have it hit me hard or anything but I was diagnosed with it while stationed in Korea. I had been coughing up a little bit of blood for a while and was ordered to go to the clinic. They administered a TB skin test, said it was positive, and I had to undergo the INH treatment for 9 months or however long.

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Here in the UK we all get vaccinated against TB (BCG Vaccine) at the age of 15/16 at Secondary School.

 

[obin_gam]

Very unfortunate. One would think in 2020 TB would be extinct world wide...

 

[Gibbo]

Here in the UK we all get vaccinated against TB (BCG Vaccine) at the age of 15/16 at Secondary School.

Click to shrink...

We were vacinnated against tb when we were 12. That was in 1994. However, I believe this was proven to be ineffective. Thus I don't think the BCG vaccine is being administered these days

 

[Deleted member 4367]

My wife had latent TB, had to go through the 6 month pill process. Biggest effect on her was no drinking.

 

[impingu1984]

No but my wife's grandfather was a desert rat in WWII and was captured by the Germans. He was a POW for over a year and was only released when he got TB. He survived it but a few years ago just before he died he had a X ray and the doctors where very concerned about his lungs... Turns out it was scarring from all those years ago...

I wish you well TB doesn't fuck about.