Garnet's Life Adventures

feel free to skip paragraphs if this sounds familiar

About a month ago my boss asked if I could help out by training people in another lab - I said sure no problemo - ya know cause that's the kinda gal I am :) In order to work in that lab I had to have a TB test done - again no problem since I'm healthy - well within 24 hours my arm was rather red, swollen & sore . . . side note, the mark is STILL on my arm now over a month later, can you imagine?

Short of the very very long is that the docs here in the UK said yes, it's positive for TB, but no you're not infectious cause you're not coughing up blood. The following week I already had tickets to fly to NY for my mum's b'day & best mate's mum's surprise party, so I flew home without a hitch. Went to see the doctor the next day - low & behold, I turn up with a fever, still rather large red mark on my arm, my positive TB test results from my London doctor & they all freak out!! I have to put a mask on in the office, pee in a cup, talk for nearly 2 hours about where I've been, where I might have gotten it, have I been sick, what to do next, etc. Leave the office nearly in tears for fear I have active TB (meaning I am infectious - hence the mask) which would mean I can't go to the party & can't fly back to the UK. Not wanting to freak out my father, I took the mask off for dinner that night.

Following morning I head straight to hospital for a chest x-ray and the first of many blood works to be done with my oh so lovely mask still on - horribly embarrassing if I do say so myself. 2 x-rays taken, doctor reads them & says I can take the mask off as my lungs are clear - yeah - now on for 4 vials of blood work, a needle in each arm & I've got my prescription for 6 months of antibiotics & I'm good to go :)

Have a fabulous weekend with friends & Tuesday morning whilst having breakfast with my parents & god parents I get a call from the doctor saying I need more blood work b/c my liver enzymes are not in the "normal range". So I stop taking the antibiotics and head back to the hospital for round two of blood work. At the same time, I have to make an appt with the infectious disease specialist because if my liver has some sort of long term problem, I won't be able to take the antibiotics & we'll need to know what the alternative options are for latent TB treatment.

2 days later at the ID doc, she announces my 2nd round of blood work looks okay as far as hepatitis & ANA levels, but we still need to repeat it cause the liver enzymes aren't great . . . back to the hospital for another few vials of blood. Surprised I'm not anaemic at this point (just kidding they don't take that much blood) Results of this will take 48-72 hours & it's Thursday so I have to change my ticket yet again so I'm state side when the results come in - just in case!

Following Monday the results come back that my liver enzymes are back to normal & since my fever is gone as well, they think it was just some sort of viral hit which screwed up all the results, so I can go back on the 6 months of antibiotics just as long as I don't drink any alcohol & have my liver enzymes tested once a month.

So here I am back again in London - trying to get back into the swing of things at work & I think finally over my jet lag since I spent the whole weekend sleeping & sleeping some more (lol)!

Wish I had more exciting news, but really that's the summary of my last month. Oh wait, sorry I did have some fun things happen, I got to go to 3 dance recitals (yes, that's correct THREE!), see friends in Connecticut, spend lots of time with my parents, and went to a wedding, so all in all it was a good time even with all the trips to doctors offices & hospitals!

I was suppose to go to Warsaw, Poland on Friday with Kaylie, but after just getting back into the country on Tuesday morning I was overly jet lagged & really could not take any time off, so I apologised to Kaylie but said I couldn't make it - she apparently didn't take it so well & for the moment is not speaking to me. I felt bad for a bit, but really if she fully understood all that I'd just been through I think she could have been a bit more understanding to my circumstances!

Okay, 5pm, gotta head home, meeting with boss at half 10 tomorrow - need to get a good nights sleep - no I'm not going to bed now, but need to grocery shop, make dinner, finish off laundry, read a bit & then go to bed!