I have a chest infection ... probably

[ColinJ]

Yes, good luck!

I tried alerting someone to the fact that her uncle's illness sounded remarkably like my DVT/pulmonary embolism but their family were reassured by the doctor handing out a few pills and calling it a 'chest infection'. The uncle ended up in hospital a couple of weeks later after collapsing ...



... with a pulmonary embolism!

So, yes, get nasty chest problems checked properly, and if things don't improve fairly quickly - see your doctor again, or even ask for a second opinion.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I'll second getting the cough looked at. I now need to have throat surgery to deal with the results of a long term cough... something I am not looking forward to.

Best wishes on Monday @gbb

 

[gbb]

Sooooo, okayyyyyy
Good news and not such good news, but no really bad news
Hospital today, more bloods and a consultation with the top dog.
After a longish review of my symptoms, tests, ct scans, lung wash, xrays, bloods that showed pneumonia, pleurisy, some scarring to the lower lobe of one lung pleuritic lining and some elastic matererial between the lung and diaphragm, that caused the discomfort when fully inhaling....but nothing that indicated Tuberculosis...to the doctors that were seeing me at the time. Todays senior doctor however said...'you quite clearly IMO had TB, youve healed yourself, which is quite normal with otherwise healthy people...but I want to put you on a full course of TB drugs to kill off anything that may be laying dormant in your body'

Im a bit confused, i think theyre partly covering themselves, she said if she'd seen me the first time round, she would have diagnosed TB, but they did very extensive tests at that time..but she is the TB specialist, they are not. There were several things that seemed to contradict themselves, but she was quite adamant i HAD TB..

On the plus side, ive made slow but good recovery in the lungs, she was quite pleased with that...and therefore, so am i .
So, i face 6 months of drugs, 13 a day for 2 months then decreasing for the remainder. Quite nasty possible side effects, liver and eyesight damage, vitamin B deficiency,, they monitor you quite closely for the duration, eye tests, lots of bloods etc etc.
Yesterday i did 20 miles on the bike and TBH felt cream crackered..but she said there is a good chance you can make a good and almost full recovery, it takes time. I suspect i was worrying about todays appointment, now shes given me the go ahead to push myself again..you wont do any harm she said, only good.

2 weeks off then, the initial reaction to the drugs can be a bit horrible,
no problem going to work once i feel ok...and a slow but hopefully good recovery, with a possibility of some scar tissue that may never go, but shouldnt cause too many problems anyway.
This morning, it all came home and TBH, i nearly cr#pped myself worrying, this afternoon...i feel relatively

 

[summerdays]

I'm glad that it isn't completely awful, I had been wondering how it had gone. So now you start the recovery. Does it have any implications for either work colleagues or family?

 

[gbb]

Thanks summerdays...family and colleagues ?..immediate family get bloods and xrays, purely as a precaution. I never had blood in my phlegm, they always said early on when testing last year, even if I did have TB, they didnt think it would be infective.
Work colleagues ?...thats where its come from. If you google TB Chatteris, on the BBC news page theres a whole page of it..I suspect there will be a good few more cases after the 500 have been tested. East European workers form a significant proportion of the staff, good workers, nice people generally, but some appear to have have brought TB with them, its pretty endemic in their home countries.
I suspect the media will report further, they took a keen interest when it blew up.

 

[summerdays]

Thanks summerdays...family and colleagues ?..immediate family get bloods and xrays, purely as a precaution. I never had blood in my phlegm, they always said early on when testing last year, even if I did have TB, they didnt think it would be infective.
Work colleagues ?...thats where its come from. If you google TB Chatteris, on the BBC news page theres a whole page of it..I suspect there will be a good few more cases after the 500 have been tested. East European workers form a significant proportion of the staff, good workers, nice people generally, but some appear to have have brought TB with them, its pretty endemic in their home countries.
I suspect the media will report further, they took a keen interest when it blew up.

Just looked up the page, I hope the family get the all clear.

 

[ColinJ]

Yikes - good luck with the treatment!

 

[gbb]

1200 tablets between now and the end of treatment..
Actually, thats 1200, minus 14 i took today

 

[summerdays]

You are going to rattle