Me and TB

As I child, I grew up fearing 3 diseases: polio, TB, and ring worm. The poster below shows some of the fear around tuberculosis that was promoted by the media. That's the wraith of Tuberculosis outside the door with the family huddled in fear.
When I was about 10 years old, I had my first (and last) tuberculosis patch test. When I went for the reading and the nurse said, "Positive", I thought she meant she was positive I had tuberculosis. Thus began several days of anxiety, hysterics and uncontrollable crying. My mother and teacher tried talking to me, but only Mr. Thomas, my principal at Gibson Elementary, was able to get through to me. I thought I was going to be taken from my family and put in something like a leper colony. He started out by saying what everyone else had said about the test and the need for a chest X-ray. But, then he went on to describe what a sanatorium was like. It was like a park, people there spent their time outside walking around, enjoying the clean fresh air like summer camp. Click here for more "post cards" from a sanatorium in Arkansas.
After my chest X-ray and the doctor said I was "negative", there was new round of tears---I'd been looking forward to going to "summer camp." Shortly after that, my parents did send me to Girl Scout Camp---I don't know if that was a coincidence or still part of getting me over the TB trauma.

Thus, began my life as a TB positive! To go back to why I was "positive" my parents explained that when I was 3 years old, I had visited "Uncle Leo" (really the husband of my dad's cousin) who had TB---apparently I had picked up some of the germs. Doctors later explained, I had more like "inactive" TB and had to have chest X-rays every year to be sure it didn't become active.

For most people, that wasn't a big deal, but I became a teacher. At the age of 21, I came in contact with TB again---this time as an English teacher in Germany---two of my students had it. When asked if I'd had them in class, I lied and said I didn't have them because I was due to go home in 2 weeks. I was afraid that I'd have to extend my stay. But, as soon as I got home, I went to the County Health Department and confessed that I'd come in contact with TB. . . again. There was a flurry of activity with papers being pulled out. They relaxed when I told them it was in Germany.

As a teacher, I had to have chest X-rays EVERY YEAR by state law. One time a technician said he saw scaring on my lungs which he thought indicated I'd had TB but a mild case. Fast forward to the 1990's. There had been about 20 years that I hadn't had to have the chest X-rays, but tuberculosis was on the rise again and teachers were again required to have "patch tests". I dutifully went for my chest X-rays for several years, but then talked to my doctor. I had had so many chest x-rays for TB and various lung ailments, that I was concerned I'd had too many. He wrote me a letter which excused me from further X-rays for my last 5 years of teaching. If the TB germs hadn't become active in 50 years, they probably weren't going to.

Update 2020:  And then I became immune suppressed and the possibility was there that TB could become active again.  My doctor ordered the "Gold Test" (click here) which assured me that the TB germs were not active and probably not going to be active.