TB Shot

[gogoblender 3,070]

My doctor said after blood test that my liver has high enzymes , so just as precaution wants to run a TB shot, if I was exposed.

pumped some liquid under my skin on my forearm and drew a circle on it.

I'm not sure of the net info... if I do get a reaction this means I could have TB?

 

Anyone had or know about this please?

 

thanks!

 

gogo

[chattius 2,526]

Mywife is with the kids at her parents today, but what you describe sounds like a Mendel-Mantoux test.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantoux_test

 

Normally the test is followed by an intervie about trips to foreign countries, already doing a tbc test earlier in your life, possible reasons for a bad immune system, possible contact to coughing foreigners,known infections in the family,age, weight,...then a formula is used which radius of the test has to be considered as a possible infection.

 

My wife trained the test with me when she did her exam. Most positive results at her patients are old people who got the infection in the war years, the bacteria slept, and now with age their immun system is weaker and tpc pops up again.

 

For a healthy person, doing the first test, no known contacts to ill people: I had a small red swelling of 3millimetres which was considered okay.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Thanks Chattius!

It's day 2 for me today, and going back to doctor... nothing but a small weal

 

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal

 

 

gogo

[Knuckles 904]

Unfortunately I had a rather intimate experience with TB. Yup you get a little liquid under the skin and are asked to come back in a couple days. If you have a reaction it will be a red swelling. You can have a small reaction to it and be ok. Mine came back positive though, maybe an .75 inches across.

 

MY TB was dormant (phew !) but still needed to go on meds for 9 months. And those pills are horrible. After I would take one each morning I would feel like someone punched me in the stomach soon after. They said I would always test positive for it but because of the meds it will never become active.

 

No idea when/where I got it but sure it was from my time in the Navy. Went to too many foreign places not to have it been from that time.

[chattius 2,526]

.75 inches that is more than the 15mm allowed for people with no known risc factors, could still be a false positve, but with a very low positive

 

Below 5mm it is considered a negative test.

 

Between 5 and 15mm it has to be interpreted from the data of your interview and is Maths and probability depending on your risc factors.

 

If I would do the to the test now and get 7mm all is okay.

If my wife would have 7mm it would be considered a positive test because she is in a risc group as a doctor. The positive test is just that better (more expensive) tests have to be run to exclude tbc.

[Knuckles 904]

All I know is they took one look at it and got out the measuring stick....don't remember exact size as it was a few years ago...once the docs conferred I got an appointment to go on meds. No further tests were done or even mentioned so it may have been larger than that.

 

I just remember the look in the nurses' eyes when they first saw it....I instantly knew I was positive for TB....they measured of course but the idea I had TB overrode any other data coming into my brain...the .75 inches was my best guess

 

The part that really bummed me out was it was early in the morning and I had my daughter with me since she goes to a summer camp very near my work. Trying to digest all the info while trying not to scare her wasn't easy. I knew she saw the look on my face and knew it wasn't good. I was in full 'damage control' for awhile reassuring her

[chattius 2,526]

It is like: for healthy persons the radius of 95% of the population is below 15mm- a 5% chance for a false posotive

 

With aids the radius would be 5mm because of weakened immun system

With diabetis it is 10mm

 

Contact with tbc people, or been in a country with tb changes tne probabilty graph and therefor the radius for the 5% false positives.

 

2 in hundred here have cow tb from drinking milk. Mainly peope born before 1965 when the last case of cow tb was in germany.

 

I temember the signs nailed to stalls when is was a kid: cows free of tbc and Brucellosis.

[gogoblender 3,070]

All I know is they took one look at it and got out the measuring stick....don't remember exact size as it was a few years ago...once the docs conferred I got an appointment to go on meds. No further tests were done or even mentioned so it may have been larger than that.

 

I just remember the look in the nurses' eyes when they first saw it....I instantly knew I was positive for TB....they measured of course but the idea I had TB overrode any other data coming into my brain...the .75 inches was my best guess

 

The part that really bummed me out was it was early in the morning and I had my daughter with me since she goes to a summer camp very near my work. Trying to digest all the info while trying not to scare her wasn't easy. I knew she saw the look on my face and knew it wasn't good. I was in full 'damage control' for awhile reassuring her

 

 

I remember how stressful that time of your life was, and I'm so relieved it ended positively for you. I did a wee bit of reading, and TB treatment can be very very very long.

Noone likes taking antibiotics, I can imagine what it wreaks on our system.

 

 

gogo

[Knuckles 904]

Yeah the meds really suck...very taxing on your liver and, at least for me, it was like being sucker punched in the gut every time I took a pill in the morning. Least it was dormant...if it was active I think it would have been much worse.

[gogoblender 3,070]

Yeah the meds really suck...very taxing on your liver and, at least for me, it was like being sucker punched in the gut every time I took a pill in the morning. Least it was dormant...if it was active I think it would have been much worse.

 

 

Taxing on your liver... does that mean it affects other stuff? Is your liver okay now?

 

 

gogo

[Knuckles 904]

I had to have some initial blood and urine testing before I went on them and then some more testing after I had been on them. I was told it could cause liver damage/failure for some people but my liver was able to handle the meds ok. I know there was an alternative to the pills if my liver had probs but forget what it was other than it was worse.

 

Probably helped I basically stopped drinking alcohol for several years at that point, so my liver was as strong as it was going to be. As far as I know my liver worked fine the whole time while on meds, and didn't suffer any damage at all.

 

Other than my stomach cramping/knotting up for a couple hours every morning...I had no other probs (that one was enough)

[gogoblender 3,070]

It's like our liver takes all the beat ups for us taking any kind of medication

it's the poor target

 

 

gogo

[chattius 2,526]

Sauerkraut the Powerkraut !!!

Did you know that milk acid bacteria ferment the Sauerkraut? These bacteria produce vitamin B12 which is too low in only vegan food. Also the bacteria in the digesting system are destroyed by the antibiotics and eating Sauerkraut is one way to put them back.

Use selfmade or fresh Sauerkraut. Tastes better than yoghurt or whatever your doc said to eat to get the bacteria back into the digesting system.

 

Probably stomach pain was because of too low on bacteria and digesting problems, or lactose intolerant and eating too much yoghurt

 

Sauerkraut: everything what helped our ancestors to survive our mid german weather can't be bad

 

Sauerkraut the Powerkraut !!!

[gogoblender 3,070]

lol

as it happens I like the stuff

but... is it okay to add mayo to it?

 

 

gogo