Oh what a past few days it has been! I didn't want to write a blog post about this until I knew what I was dealing with.
Every year, for work, we have to get our TB skin test. I am a nurse at a large public hospital so I have come across quite a few patients with Tuberculosis. Well, I whenever I get my TB skin test I always get a very red reaction but they have never named it as "positive".
Well, that changed on Thursday.
After my mid-cycle monitoring appointment I went to the hospital where I work to get my TB skin test read. The test was red like always but I just knew that they were going to call it "positive". And they did. I was so disappointing and sort of in shock because so many things went through my mind....will I need a chest x-ray? will I need to take medications for 9 months? Do I have active TB, thus exposed people all year and they need to be contact? I went to Europe of months ago...that's a lot of people!
The nurse said that I had a 12mm Induration (anything larger than 10mm on a healthy person is positive) and so my skin test was positive. She said that I need to never, ever get another skin test the rest of my life and then she sent me to the lab to get a Quantiferon Gold test, which tells you if the TB skin test was positive because of Tuberculosis or for another reason. She said that it would take about 5-6 days to come back and they would let me know the results. They said that if the test was positive then I would then need a chest x-ray to rule out active TB or Latent TB infection.
All I kept thinking was that I had IUI#3 on Saturday...and ideal cycle...what if I get pregnant with this cycle and the Quatiferon Gold test is positive? Are the TB meds safe for pregnancy? If I don't get pregnant this cycle will I need to put off ttc for the 9 months for treatment or do I take the risk of continuing to be ttc and take meds at the same time? The most used TB med for Latent TB is a Pregnancy Category C...so they don't know what it would do to a baby.
As you know, I went ahead with the IUI on Saturday and just kept praying that everything would work out.
Well, God is good!! Everything worked out!
I got an e-mail from the nurse saying that my Quantiferon Gold test was negative!!
This is BEST CASE SCENARIO!!!
I don't have to worry about having to decide between ttc and TB meds. plus the bonus is....I DON'T HAVE TUBERCULOSIS!! That is always a positive...right?!?
Also, I turned in ALL of my last registration paperwork for graduate school starting in August!! I am so ready to get started in school, to see if I can actually do this school thing. Orientation is August 8th!
Glad to see you got good results! And go you for your first two workouts :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness. How scary!! I'm sorry you went through that but I'm glad it all turned out OK.
ReplyDeleteYay for c25k! Go you!!! The first few days are the hardest. I'm just starting week 3 and it feels so good to know that I'm sticking to it.
So happy that things turned out well!
ReplyDeleteGlad it all turned out ok!! I can imagine that was scary.
ReplyDeleteGirl you should have told me about the TST you were worried about!! You probably just developed an allergy to the thing b/c you have always had such a red reaction in the past! SO SO glad everything worked out!! Phew!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you didn't have TB! I always get nervous about the TB test too (I have to get it yearly as well). My skin is sensitive, and I always get a really red spot but they have always cleared me as negative.
ReplyDeleteWow, how scary! So glad it all turned out okay. Phew!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on starting C25K! I did that program a few years ago and loved it!