Who is Seonai?
Seonai Gordon is a 40 something female battling TB. She is originally from Scotland, with no patriotic feelings therefore considering herself as a human being, address; The World. She is well travelled, quite smart and has never knowingly hurt another person in any way.
Seonai is a former nurse, turned journalist and you can Google her name - 'Seonai Gordon' - to read some of her other articles. She welcomes emails but cannot claim to be in a position to offer medical advice. She can, however, put you in touch with the right people if you ask.
In a way, so as not to glamorize
TB - because sometimes I have a tendency to make it sound almost funny
- today I'm going to let you into my world a year ago.
The coughing started about
October 2005. A hacking, dirty cough producing volumes of green gunge
and so powerful that I had to stop driving my motorbike to spit at the
side of the road or else I'd vomit with the sputum still in my throat.
Next I lost my voice and my appetite. The hospital doctor gave me antihistamines
and steroids for an allergy that didn't exist. This situation never
improved, it got slowly worse until all day and night I was coughing
up bags full of spit.
Next my energy started to wane
terribly, lack of food and the TB was taking control. I took to the
sofa where I read Harry Potter to escape. My son and husband brought
me orange juice and I just laid there thinking and coughing. Day and
night, like George Orwell on his TB death bed, I thought of my life
and how much it felt like it was slipping away. I lost interest in everything
except my son and my husband. My son became my carer and I would direct
him from the sofa in cooking techniques and shopping. He was only 11-years-old.
It got to the point where I
was so weak that I had to crawl to the bathroom on all fours to pee
and my muscles had wasted in my legs and arms. Then one day, in June
2006, hubby came home for lunch and insisted we go back to the hospital.
This time we were lucky and some very alert nurses realized I was having
difficulty in breathing. (TB sufferers can even look quite well as a
disguise for the illness.) I was whisked off by ambulance to a bigger
hospital, diagnosed, started on drugs and put on various drips etc.
I'm currently on 5 drugs
a day and don't cough nearly as much. But the damage the misdiagnosis
period caused is extensive. I also now have bronchiastasis - permanently
damaged bronchial tubes - which makes you have constant post nasal
drip and causes you to spit a lot. It's very embarrassing and means
I need to carry a bag. When I am outside and walking I must stop and
lean on a wall every few steps as I get so breathless and I've already
told you what happens when I see slopes or stairs!
Yesterday I saw a homeopath
with a view that homeopathy takes the whole person into account as opposed
to only treating an illness. He started me on Phosphorous so I'll
keep you posted on how that goes.
As a final note today I want
to encourage all sufferers who read this to become proactive in your
TB treatment wherever possible. ASK lots of questions. Look things up.
Ask to see another consultant if you have a bad feeling about the one
who's treating you. Speak out when the drugs make you feel sick -
they don't mention side effects when they are dispensed. Email me
any time and I'll try to link you to the appropriate contact. I know
how hard this journey can be and sometimes you have to scream to be
heard by the right people. But they are out there. I promise.
Next week we'll be looking at Stigmatization with TB.
- Seonai’s World /Column 8/ 27-09-07
- Seonai’s World /Column 7/02-09-07
- Seonai’s World /Column 6/ 22-08-07
- Seonai’s World /Column 5/ 15-08-07
- Seonai’s World /Column 4/ 08-08-07
- Seonai’s World /Column 3/ 30-07-07
- Seonai’s World /Column 2/23-07-07
- Seonai’s World /Column 1/12-07-07
To contact Seonai by email click here
