Go here:

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/tb.htm

...

[now that I'm no longer stunned]

How the fuck did you manage that?

Well, I work in the developing world, have been ill for a while and pushing myself hard.

However, diagnosis is preliminary so let's hope it is a mis-diag. If not, well, I have a problem.

Should be glad now I didn't pop over to Marbella.

Nothing personal, but I must say that given subsequent developments, I'm also glad you didn't pop over to Marbella. My lungs are crummy enough as it is.

Just say the word if you need a chicken soup shipment - must exercise those latent Jewish mother genes somehow.

i hope the diagnosis was botched.

it's a tragedy that the US doesn't vaccinate people against TB, especially since there is an, at least partially, effective vaccine.

I assure Eva Luna, our chickens are better here than in North America. Shall not be lacking for care.

We'll hope for the best but take care of yourself, Lounsbury.

Said chickens usually come either from the halal butcher in the Indo-Pak neighborhood near home, or from the Greek supermarket - no industrial chicken farming! In any case, feel better, whether it's TB or not - sadly, I can't think of a situation in which coughing up blood turns out to be insignificant.

Well, true enough, but then I don't go to see Drs. unless I suspect the truly awful. The whole bloody thing is not only disgusting, it is moderately disturbing.

Well, cheers in advance to misdiagnoses.

Good wishes and all that of course..

Shit, all sympathies.

The vaccine is only about 75% effective anyway. We had to have it at school, and all rubbed our arms with tinfoil to try and "raise the dots" and avoid getting the jab - they punch you with a five pin needle a week or so before the jab to check if you alrady have antibodies. If the dots get all swollen and join up you don't have to have the jab.

Sadly or not sadly as the case may be, the tinfoil thing doesn't work.

My father had TB when he was 18, spent six months in a sanatorium, and his lungs are fine now.

salamtak.

I'm sorry to hear that, Col. Best wishes for a misdiagnosis or a speedy recovery.

The Lounsbury laconia:

"most unpleasant....a bit of hemoraghing....most inconvenient"

Come on, man, unstiffen the upper lip: a little panic and hysteria please! I'm feeling dreadfully unmanly, worrying empathically and all.

With the due honest serious deference of wishing a mild to clear diagnosis in this situation, and the due "God forbid" to the following, the manifest level of stoicism leads me to predict the following to be the Lounsbury reactions to the following (God forbid, again, most devoutly to be unwished) health crises:

Injury with Limb Amputation: "A somewhat annoying interruption"

HIV: "This irritating spot of bother"

Lung Cancer: "This wholly unexpected nuisance"

Cirrhosis of Liver: "This wholly expected nuisance"

Blindness: "What a tiresome little inconveni=w9uen0e...rerorogd ..ah, fuck fuck fuck this Braille keyboard..."

Ok, a little emotion will show.

Hang in there. Be well.

Geeze, could you dissimulate a degree of emotion/bother every now and then? It gets to be, eh, odd, when the people who have never met you in person are more worried about your health....

Having said that, here're my wishes for speedy recovery and/or misdiagnosis.

Oh come now, it's only a bit of blood, it's not Hollywood style gushing out my mouth.

Actually as I leave this AM for more tests to tell me what I have, I am thinking a bit of TB could be useful to get out of meeting the Prime Minister. Can't have contagious people meeting the PM after all.

Meanwhile, I have to say on the local level, my expat contacts who I told are pissing their pants. Plenty of TB in this country with carriers and the like, what's to whinge and moan on about?

Hmmm, well initial results are unclear, more tests tomorrow and the day after. This is a bit discouraging and rather inconvenient.

Mgmt is concerned and wants to Medevac me, which I find to be a ridiculous overreaction. They keep suggesting I should fly to New York for tests.

I add I looked up the health profile and find tuberculosis is described as a serious national health issue here, with advice to travellers to be tested after visiting. Bother, whinging twits.

Aaargh

Bite the bullet and go for the medevac Col - if the disease progresses it might interfere with your indulging in the kind of vices that make life worthwhile.

I was exposed to TB once while working with the unfortunate, had to get tests, shots etc.

Medevac? Bah. I don't give up unless I'm spitting up blood like a third rate actor in an action film.

Your daredevil, stoic personna aside, you've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. With all due respect, you're lousy at knowing when to fold 'em when it comes to your personal well-being.

The quantity of blood is hardly the issue. You can't have "a touch of TB" any more than you can be "a little pregnant." What counts is the prognosis.

In the UK, TB has a 5% mortality rate, mate. So even in the developed world, it's not something to be messed about with. The world-wide mortality rate runs at almost 40%.

About two-thirds of the time, TB treatment requires a fairly lengthy hospital stay. Now I'm quite sure that in a local hospital, you'll be getting much better medical care than your average Asian peasant. But I'm also quite sure that you'll get much better medical care back in New York than you could possibly get in-country. Increasing the quality of care even fractionally is well-worth the effort given the penalty for failure.

Take yourself off for a vaction in New York. Get tested. Get treated. Get sorted.

Oh, and take the medevac flight -- no one wants to sit next to you on the bloody plane.

Old Col ( circa 2001 ): Hmmm, Tamerlane, I hate to say this but your post was much less reassuring than I was hoping for as (a) some of these symptoms are a bit... familiar. (b) sloshing through irrigation ditches full of Nile water has been known to happen.

Oh dear, I think my hypochondria is going to send me to a doctor.

New Col: Medevac? Bah. I don't give up unless I'm spitting up blood like a third rate actor in an action film.

Listen to the Old Col, Col.

Regardless, I'm sorry I missed you in Spain, bloody spittle and all ( as it happened I got sick on the final plane ride anyway ). Why the very flecks of blood spraying around would have been like a Baptismal of jaded ex-pat holiness :D.

Hey, sorry we missed you, too - but we had so much fun that we are considering Turkey for next year, so maybe you can pencil us in for then...provided you aren't still quarantined or otherwise indisposed.

"....only a bit of blood.."

Another Monty Python Reference:

Black Knight: It's only a flesh wound...I've 'ad worse.
______________________________

Influenza is only a teensy-weensy virus too.

Bah.

And I have no recollection of this convo Tamerlane cites. Regardless, utterly different situ - firstly I loathe Egypt, secondly I did go see a Dr. Normally I would not.

At least not yet. Perhaps one day I shall find someone to tell the story of me staggering into a hospital, in region, for surgery, with cash in hand, due to a small issue of a ruptured appendix. This time I am ahead of the game, a little blood, that's all.

In any case, I might go for London but certainly not NY. Being in the vicinity of the scum would only aggravate things.

Finally, I've been quarantined. Not sure what took them so long, but there it is. Bloody annoying, although it does appear I am going to get out of the Prime Ministerial meeting.

Wow, beats the hell out of my Soviet impacted wisdom tooth. (Advice: "Wash it in lukewarm tea 3x a day, and you'll be fine." Needless to say, tea was being rationed at the time - thank goodness for the black market.)

London will do nicely, thank you. Better go quick, though. Good thing you don't need a visa!

http://english.people.com.cn/200510/13/eng20051013_214188.html

Good thing you don't need a visa!

Perhaps in most circumstances, but I wonder whether the UK has an analogous immigration provision to the U.S. one barring entry of foreign nationals with diseases of public health significance? Entering on a Medevac chopper might be a tad conspicuous.

Bloody hell man, get yourself to decent medical care ASAP! If the concern of strangers on the internet doesn't move you, think of all the Cubans who rely on your support!

Actually, given that alcohol can depress the inmmune system, I think that the Cubans will have to do without Lounsbury's support of the glorius People's Republic of Cuba(or however you say it in Spanish) for quite a while.

Oh, and with the right meds, you'll be unable to infect people after the first few weeks of treatment.