When life gives you lemons... An inspring blog post from Mariam full of hope and determination.
Mildred returns to her blog with a great interview she did with Global Post about her experience of going through treatment for extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) not once, but TWICE!
Here, I live with the family. I live very carefully. I don’t cough in front of people. If I have to, I do it in a different place. I don’t let children come near me. I am not very happy. I am afraid to go near people. It hurts me.
Phumeza (20) was diagnosed with XDR TB in June 2010. She had to suspend her studies at the Cape Town technical college to be admitted to hospital…
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Athong lives in Manipur, India. He was diagnosed with TB in 2005 and MDR TB in 2010. He is a driver but had to quit his job when his health deteriorated.
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Opera Churchill is a 34 year old and has multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. He is currently being treated by MSF in Kitgum, Uganda.
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Grace Lamwaka has had to suspend her agriculture studies in Kitgum, Uganda because she is currently being treated…
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Lucky is 28 years old and was diagnosed with XDR TB in June 2011; she is HIV negative and never had TB before. She is an NHS patient in the United Kingdom.
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Mariam Davtyan (21) lives in Armenia was diagnosed with MDR TB in 2009. Her blog is also published in Russian here.
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Mother of five in the Shiselweni Region of Swaziland. She began MDR-TB treatment in February 2011. Her daughter, Colisile, is also blogging.
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In December 2009 I was diagnosed with TB. The Doctors suggested that it was likely that I picked it up when I was travelling in South Africa…
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Madan is 36 and from Mumbai, India. He has been on treatment for MDR-TB for 9 months and for HIV for 3 years and 4 months..
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38 year old woman in Emakhweleni, a small community in the Shiselweni Region of Swaziland. She began MDR-TB treatment in November 2010.
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Mildred is from the Philippines and has recently recovered from XDR TB. She tells her story here.
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Nodjindo is from Central African Republic and is blogging in French. She is waiting for drugs to arrive so she can start her treatment for MDR TB.
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A 25 year old from Swaziland, Colisile began her MDR-TB treatment In January 2011. Her mother, Zanele, is also blogging.
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It was November 2001, I was 19 years old and was at my last semester in college when I was diagnosed of tuberculosis. I most likely acquired the disease from my father who was diabetic as well. During that time, my father already had resistance to most of the first line TB drugs. Little did [...]
After 18 months of hard treatment for Multi Drug Resistant TB, I have finally come to a point where I feel like I can let my hair down a bit. Tomorrow, I am scheduled to have my last dose of TB medications. This is a great celebration for me, because I have been on a [...]
Drugs, Family, Hospital, injections, isolation, MDR-TB, quarantine, superbug, support
The good news or the best thing that has happened over the last month is that I have stopped vomiting. I was really starting to think that it was going to kill me. I also have put on a little bit of weight and it puts a smile on my face when people tell me [...]
I work from 8pm until 8am. On the way back I buy some food. Then I prepare the food and have breakfast. At 10am I take my ARVs (anti-retrovirals), then go to my DOTS provider for TB treatment. In the afternoon, I go to sleep, and then get up in the evening to prepare for [...]
What really, really stresses me is the isolation. I feel redundant. I wake up in the morning, I stay in, I just move around the house. I don’t have energy to go to town. I don’t have energy to go to the Tama place just very near here. I just stay indoors. Even if I [...]
