Consumptive Diaries Part 30 - Nearly there...

Had my final check at the hospital yesterday.

My LAST check.

EVER!

Have to be honest though, it was all a bit of an anti-climax. You'd think after over 6 months worth of visits, and officially completing the necessary course of medication, that I would get a certificate or something.

Just a little piece of paper to acknowledge that I actually managed to remember to take my medicine every day for four months. (And that’s not counting the 2 months before that when I was on the nasty antibiotic that didn’t work)

No. Nothing.

And the really weird thing is that I didn’t get tested to make sure I am actually clear of TB. I don’t really know why, but although people can get tested for TB, they can’t get tested to check that they successfully got rid of it. I did have an x-ray to check that there wasn’t anything in my lungs. There wasn’t – apparently my lungs are きれい

The doctor did, however, recommend I get a chest x-ray yearly for the next couple of years, just to make sure.

Not the most reassuring of endings.

But I am done with the hospital. No more watching weird people shuffling round the corridors. No more listening to people coughing up vast quantities of crap, while I am wondering what nasty disease they have. No more ‘ganbatte kudasai’. No more stressing out & wondering whether my liver has given up (on the topic of liver, it’s nearly back to normal – 30 today. The Doc assures me that it will go back to normal once I finish my meds). No more 70-minute treks to that nasty nasty prison. I am officially DONE!!!

Can’t believe that I have been visiting that medical dungeon for 10 months. And I’m done.

Hmmm…think I mentioned that.

Also asked the doctor about my skin; he said just hold out till the end of my meds. Suppose that means this hormonal cloud i'm under will also be a 'wait & see' thing; am still trying to remain positive & fight this damn thing.

And that’s the next door to close: medication. I officially finish my antibiotics next Tuesday. 24th February. Mark it in your diaries boys and girls. Well, maybe not, but be sure it’s marked in mine. And be sure that I am going to go out for a celebratory drink to christen my newly freed liver. Well, not ‘freed’, but perhaps a little more relaxed…