I started with tuberculosis symptoms 12 months before I was diagnosed. Night sweats and a cough were the first signs, then chest pain, fevers, sputum, weakness and weight loss. I had to go to my doctors on five occasions to be told that I had a chest infection, asthma and pleurisy. Eventually, a chest X-ray and blood were taken to discover it was tuberculosis (T.B.). By that time I was really ill and weak. I recall this as a nightmare. I then was taken to two drugs after a couple of months and my symptoms came back. I had to be isolated for nearly two months and given second-line drugs such as streptomycin injections. I had a six-drug therapy which made me feel sick all of the time. It was not nice. I panic every time I have an infection or a cough. I worry that it might be back to haunt me. Published: September 10 ::

During my second semester at the graduate school where I was taking my MBA, I started waking up in the middle of the night soaked in sweat. A week after I started to have a fever every afternoon and felt some pain in my back. Shortly after a few days my cough started, so I went to the doctor and he told me it was just a mild case of respiratory infection and he just gave me antibiotics. After a week with no visible improvements, I decided to go to a pulmonologist and he finds out from my chest x-ray that my right lungs is positive with fluid, so I had to undergo thoracentesis. Just after 2 days, the pleural fluid test result came out that I was positive with TB. It was so hard for me to accept that I had to stop studying for more than four months just to be sure that I won't be able to infect my friends and classmates. I hope it won’t come back ever again. Published: September 10 ::