One of my most favourite Romantic poets is Keats. His ‘family disease’ tuberculosis killed him at the very young age of 26 and I, hate the disease. I have never ever smoked tobacco or consumed alcohol. My family also has no history of having TB patients. So, I never thought that the bacteria could attack and transform me into a victim of the disease. I have been a very healthy individual ever since my childhood. But some months ago, I started to feel acute fatigue and weight loss gripped me too. Soon, a persisting dry cough started to torment me.
I consulted a chest and allergy specialist and he asked me to test blood, urine, and to X-ray the chest. All the results were normal but the ESR count was extremely high. It means that the body was fighting against some deadly enemy. After examining the X-ray and the report of the blood test, the doctor asked me to test the sputum for TB.
I went to the local Community Health Centre and tested the sputum; the result was negative, but that was deceptive. The bacteria are cunning. They lay latent. When the allergy specialist saw the negative result, he presumed I had some chest infection and prescribed antibiotics and other pills without diagnosing the disease. But the cough and fatigue continued to torment me. The surprising fact is that when I met a retired doctor whom I knew personally, and showed him the X-ray, with a single glance, he told me that I was attacked by the TB bacteria and advised me to start treatment immediately.
As the test result was negative, I was reluctant to admit that I was a TB patient. But the fatigue, weight loss and cough persistently continued. And night sweats, another sure symptom of TB started to manifest every night. I googled and knew for sure that I had been successfully attacked by the TB bacteria. Then I again tested a sample of my sputum for TB. As I expected, the result turned out to be positive. I received the news nonchalantly, even if my inner mind was resisting to accept the bitter truth; and the prolonged treatment started.
I have fought and survived many traumatic experiences that had the potential to shatter me mentally; now I am fighting a deadly enemy that has been destroying me physically. It seems that the bacteria are determined not to allow me to win the fight; but I am determined to win the fight and I have to win it. As Alfred Lord Tennyson says in his famous poem Ulysses, “Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/ To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.”
Sukumaran C V
Email: lscvsuku@gmail.com