Tuberculosis (TB) Part One
Crappy life experiences prime us to read (has anyone else gone through this?) and to want to write (well, let me tell you!). I was eighteen and moving from college in Rochester NY to another one in Haverford PA. I needed a physician's exam, and I thought it'd be routine because I'd had one a year earlier and that one was routine. I sort of remembered the pin prick test for TB, and it didn't register with me the second time.
Until my lower arm swelled up with a lump. So another TB test, but this one was an injection, and boy, did it react. Next stop was a fast trip to radiology where I had my lungs x-rayed. There was no active infection. This meant I'd been exposed to TB, possibly infected, and needed to take medicine--it's when I learned the word "prophylactically" (what a mouthful). Because the medicine would head off any TB infection if I had it.
The medicine was called isoniazid. I can still picture the white bottle with red-orange lettering on it. The pills were unfortunately meant for a horse. Plus, "to be on the safe side" (the doctor really said this), I had to take them for a year. Three-hundred sixty-five pills!
I was about six feet tall and weighed around 135 when I headed off to Haverford. I noticed after taking "the pill" for a few weeks, I was constantly getting nauseated and my appetite took a dive. Two months later, I was in the gym and weighed myself. 130. Uh-oh, I thought.
Then the cramping started. I was sitting in French class and I was "maux d'estomac", as my teacher later told me. I made it to the bathroom before I barfed. I saw the doctor on my Christmas break for another x-ray (again, no active infection) and I told him about the cramps and nausea. He said, "You'll adapt. Don't worry about it." I weighed 127.
More to follow....
Until my lower arm swelled up with a lump. So another TB test, but this one was an injection, and boy, did it react. Next stop was a fast trip to radiology where I had my lungs x-rayed. There was no active infection. This meant I'd been exposed to TB, possibly infected, and needed to take medicine--it's when I learned the word "prophylactically" (what a mouthful). Because the medicine would head off any TB infection if I had it.
The medicine was called isoniazid. I can still picture the white bottle with red-orange lettering on it. The pills were unfortunately meant for a horse. Plus, "to be on the safe side" (the doctor really said this), I had to take them for a year. Three-hundred sixty-five pills!
I was about six feet tall and weighed around 135 when I headed off to Haverford. I noticed after taking "the pill" for a few weeks, I was constantly getting nauseated and my appetite took a dive. Two months later, I was in the gym and weighed myself. 130. Uh-oh, I thought.
Then the cramping started. I was sitting in French class and I was "maux d'estomac", as my teacher later told me. I made it to the bathroom before I barfed. I saw the doctor on my Christmas break for another x-ray (again, no active infection) and I told him about the cramps and nausea. He said, "You'll adapt. Don't worry about it." I weighed 127.
More to follow....
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