The ultimate professional

I saw the top lady today and have been reassured by her..... What a very nice person she was. I was told by one of my relatives who works just around the corner at the same hospital that she could be very difficult if provoked.

She answered all my questions and said due to the fact that I had extensively researched the problem of TB I was right in respect that it can reemerge at any time. She told me that for the future she will look after me in the event that if I do have symptoms she will check those symptoms out. She will scan me SAP in any case and to top the good service she has ordered a check on my eye in case it is TB that has affected it.

I am profoundly grateful that at last my GP has referred me to the very top eminent doctor who knows TB inside out.

Incidentally I told her the advice I got from a so called TB nurse specialist =Leicestershire area who said that Ciprofloxacin does not come into the TB equation

which was contrary to what I had learnt from reasearch.

My specialist doctor said she was wrong in her knowledge and that Ciprofloxacin is very much in the TB equation. I said why on earth do these so called specialists not read more to gain what they should know?

[HelenC Partner TB Alert]

Dear Micklemus,

I am glad that you have finally found a consultant who can give you the answers you need around TB. I do hope your symptoms aren't a result of TB, and relate to something more minor - but either way this gets you closer to an answer and possible treatment.

Best wishes,

Helen

[Hidden in reply to HelenC]

Thank you HelenC I've always had a suspicion since 2015 since no doctors and even urologist could not resolve my infection. The TB specialist told me yesterday that the cut off date to prescribe the TB antibiotics was 35 but the 'goal posts' have been moved to 65 due no doubt to research that even 65 year olds can take the antibiotics side effects on the proviso re the liver etc.

I am confident that I would have been given the choice had I been in the younger age group but as I said I took Ciporofloxacin which TB is susceptible to in 2017 and the discussion yesterday covered that regarding the fact that all my symptoms were eradicated. The doctor yesterday said that most certainly I have the TB bacteria within my body but she feels it is in a stable dormant form. I felt however that

although she did not confirm it she is aware that the tuberculosis bacteria has been active at times gone by. Feeling it and proving what it was is difficult but if 'they' could not confirm what my infection was since 1978 it must have been insidious to have not found what it was. On the other hand did 'they' carry out the correct tests? She rightly says that my private Quantiferon gold test 2016 confirms I have the antibodies but it does not confirm yes or no if a person has TB. As soon as a test is available to confirm the TB is active in the blood especially I should like to know about it. It appears that the active bacteria are killed better than the dormant type by the antibiotics?

In any case it is only 2018 that my medical history has been looked at so is it any wonder regarding the important subject matter of TB no one will admit to not observing my medical notes apart of course from me. It was not until 2015/16 that I myself through research discovered that the damn bacteria can come back and this she also did confirm as fact with no time scale either. I would wager there are umpteen levels of resistance to the bacteria as well which no one as yet even though they are trying hard have resolved that anomaly. I firmly believe the problem is massive and as complex as can be.

Now that I am 'under her wing' I feel she knows as well as I do that I have missed the boat in terms of treatment for TB a very long time ago. In 2017 I was annoyed to be told by a urologist "you can't prove you've had an infection". I took that as a challenge and I have not done with him quite yet and he may well have to apologies because without the additional data I will receive I have the evidence he's wrong already to hand in writing.He is the type of person who does not have the decency to reply to a letter I sent him but those who know full well when they are wrong or have made a mistake that is their way of responding = nothing to say. This astounds me about any profession no one is'man enough' to admit a mistake being made & yet we all make them!