Ooooooh Tuberculosis

So the main adventure in my life of late has been my excitement with Tuberculosis. Or rather, my lack thereof. A couple of weeks ago I was given a tb test at work, along with all my other fellow employees. And mine came back positive. Of COURSE this would happen to me. The silly thing is that the test was pretty much pointless. Evidently I was supposed to be given a TB test when I first started employment. Then as I was given one each year, they would know if/when I had picked up TB and go from there. Well, since my workplace is so organized, they did not give me the test when I started working there over a year ago. The last TB test I think I had was when I was 14 and volunteering at my hospital back home. But anyways, so my test came back positive. So I had to go to my primary care doctor. Of course, I don't have a primary care doctor in Greensboro. So I found one. haha. I got to go and have some chest xrays. The good part about this is that my boss let me stay clocked in during my doctor's appointment, since I convinced her that it was "work related". Long story short, I don't have TB, but sometime inbetween now and my TB test when I was 14, I was exposed. It could've been anywhere--when I was doing missions abroad, or even just someone sitting next to me on the bus. Who knows. But there's a 5% chance it will turn in to TB sometime in my life. So he put my on this medicine to cut that risk in half. Now the story get really fun. I get to be on this drug for 9 months. This medicine can kill your liver. So I have to get blood tests done each month to check my liver levers (try saying liver levels 10 times fast...I can't even say it once!). The warnings with my medicine are scary. Not just the typical side effects. Warnings about foods not to eat that can cause dangerously high blood pressure. All kinds of conditions that should alert me to call my doctor: dizziness, blurred vision, excessive sweating, dark urine, nausea, extreme stomach pains, limb numbness, heart palpitations, etc etc etc. Funtimes! Of course, he also put me on over %1,000 of Vit B-6 daily which is supposed to help with the arm and leg numbness. It's actually kind of fun though, to be really watchful what I'm putting into my body, and any side effects. It's been a little over a week since I started taking the meds, and so far so good. So, here's to me and to my 2.5% chance of developing TB. If I start hacking up a lung anytime soon, you should probably avoid my spittle.