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.
Hi! Well I haven't written this column for ages as we have had some technical changes to the website and I have been in and out of hospital. I am, in fact, writing this one from hospital!
At the beginning of this year I was still one the TB medication and showing positive smear tests with spit samples. No cultures had been grown and my prospects were looking grim. I felt absolutely toxic with the drugs and had developed a lasting problem swallowing (more about that later.)
My local (lovely) consultant agreed that advice from an expert was needed and I started emailing around to find the right person. (Again it's worth noting that illness and disease doesn't always follow the textbook and there may be times when your own doctor needs to ask advice regarding your particular case.)
I traced a specialist in Liverpool and he agreed to see me within a few months. After a long chat and an inspection of the various TB results for me over the last year or so, this consultant told me that the TB bacteria that had been making my smears positive were actually dead and that I didn't have to take to take the TB drugs any more!
Can you imagine how happy I was? I stopped taking the tablets in January 2008 and the side effects slowly eased off until now where I have only the orange blemishes left on my legs. If I hadn't sought out the doctor in Liverpool my own consultant was prepared to keep me on the TB regime for up to another year as a preventative... it shows that second opinions are invaluable.
I have experienced that, as long as you brush up on your illness yourself and ask intelligent questions when you see a doctor, most of the medical team are willing to work with you towards your recovery and allow you to be proactive in the process. But you have to ask!!
What else has been happening? A lot but I'm going to leave that until next time as it's not all good and i need to get myself prepared.
Other little snippets are: there was an article about TB and me in our local paper, here http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/2373062.living_with_an_invisible_enemy/
To contact Seonai by email 
