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.
I think actually that, even though I have sort of ‘embraced’ my TB and can deal with it intellectually, there are moments when I still find it almost incredulous that I have it. I also can’t believe sometimes that this has happened to me! But there are constant reminders. In the morning when I stand in the bathroom to wash etc and do my make up I get really breathless and I can’t bend to get my leg into my pants so I’ve learned a way to swing them over my ankle. (Both myself and a friend with TB found the drugs to cause terrible joint stiffness.)
I HATE this part of having TB. I hate that I can’t do things the way I used to. I feel angry. Having TB is not just about having a disease, treating it then getting on with your life. It’s about life changes, months or years of very nasty medication and living with modern day stigmatization that even those closest to you will fall victim to.
I’m a non fan of the blurb that goes out saying: “Oh, TB is totally curable these days, it’s not like it was in the 50’s”. Why don’t I believe this? Because I complied with the medication regime the first time back in 1997 and I complied with it last year from June 2006 to January 2007. I became highly infectious again in March 2007 so tell me what went wrong?
In a way I’m tempted to believe that there is almost a conspiracy amongst some governments discussing these issues and that’s almost why I believe I was treated as ‘just another TB patient’ with my first hospital consultant last year in southern England.
Last week I promised you I would give you a little run down of what’s happened with me over the last year, so here goes.
I spent June 2006 in hospital in Thailand. I came back to Britain at the start of August 2006 on medication and apparently non infectious and was seen by a Consultant who paid lip service to me about TB and didn’t seem interested in my case at all. He kept me on the medication and reviewed my situation every month. During my treatment I developed pneumonia and was admitted to hospital, had negative HIV tests and was submitted to several more antibiotics on top of the standard TB medicine. I believe this doctor was not doing his job properly and that he didn’t check me out enough.
By March 2007, I had taken matters into my own hands and had contacted a senior consultant at a London hospital. Three days after our first meeting he called me to say that I was highly infectious with TB and that I needed to start treatment immediately. Drugs were sent to my home that night and ‘dropped’ on my doorstep – to avoid anyone having contact with me. However I became sick from side effects very soon after taking the drugs and my TB nurse had me admitted to hospital. Through the next three months in hospital I made an amazing discovery that, in a way, brought me towards writing this column. Not all nurses, doctors and health personnel have knowledge about TB. It’s a disease that people in Britain think has been eradicated and it is just not true.
Coming up next – a bit about my experience in hospital and the lack of understanding of the hospital staff.
- 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
