The Summary of One Month after Confirming TB

After meeting with the doctor in a Chest Clinic, he said that I had to go to the hospital to find out whether I had TB or other problem. So on Apr. 20, 2009, I was taken to the Grantham Hospital.

This started my first encounter with western medication and experience in a hospital. All doctors and nurses were nice and friendly. At first, it was arranged for me to take a bed in the open room. Then after consultation with a doctor who indicated that I was 90% TB, they moved me to a room with five beds, all patients had TB. That was great; much better then the noisy open room. Afterward with unknown reason, they moved me again to another room. The bed was closer to the door and with better situation.

The next day, Apr. 21, 2009, the doctor, Dr. Gill, checked my case and had not yet sure whether I had something more than just TB. But that day, the chief doctor, Dr. Yew, came later. He said that since a big area of my lung had been infected, it would be better to start the treatment and checked the other problem later. Therefore, the next day, after the morning consulting by Dr. Gill and Dr. Fung, I was given the 1st line TB treatment, a composite of four medicines.

As usual, they needed to watch my condition for the next two weeks to be sure that there was no side effect of the medicine especially the liver problem. Fortunately, all went well. But Dr. Gill said that since my affected area was huge, they needed more time to watch. That was the reason of not releasing me after two weeks.

On May 19, 2009, I told Dr. Gill that I must be released from hospital because I could not stand the heat and already had not slept for two nights. He agreed because my conditions were OK. This started the rest of the nine months' medication. Daily visit to Chest Clinic with occasionally visit to doctor.

This time, I really astonish to know that TB is not far from us as I thought. After researching related information, it seems that anyone with old age and has diabetes, the body will be highly possible infected by TB.

Both doctors surprised me with their frankly and sincere manner, a great contrast to what we have known before. .

With a number of roommates, I found out that there was something we needed to know. A very high percentage of them did not know to have diabetes until check up after admitting to hospital. Not old, just between 40 and 50, it is quite sad because at such age, they still need to take care of their children etc.

I shall review my case and prepare something about TB here later. I believe that anyone should know about the dangerous of ignorance or misguided information. Just like what I was. I believed that if one had TB, he should have fever and chest pain. I was wrong. That mistake let me missed earlier treatment. As Dr. Fung said, my affected area indicated that I was 70% from the maximum. Perhaps any more delay would lead me to the coffin already.

One more thing, it is said that the TB medicines were hard to swallow leading to a lot of giving up cases that created drug resistant TB germs. The number of pills and famous big size of one would not be easy for anyone to take for months. Not so now, the total number of pills is just ten and the biggest one is 13 mm dia. 5 mm thick. Of course, the DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy, Short-course) is still enforced and it is easy for me to adopt because my work is not bound by office hours.