Hello.  As some of you may know I started my first week of nursing school last week.  It was a very hectic start given that I was accepted into the program 5 days before it started and I flew back to Ohio one day before my very first class.  All seemed to be going pretty smooth until I got tested for TB....tuberculosis that is.  I had a pretty strong reaction to the skin test which is a sure sign that you have TB.  Now before anyone gets freaked out thinking that I am contagious, let me just say....I am not.  Next I got to witness first hand how stupid our healthcare system actually is. The story goes a little something like this:

nurse: "Wow! that looks like a positive reaction for TB if I ever saw one!" 

me: "okay, so what does that mean?"

nurse: "Well, do you have health insurance?"

me: "No, I was hoping to get that through the school, can I get that through the school?"

nurse: "No, we don't offer that"

me: "But I just read the hospital's mission statement, i believe it said something like "to serve the poor and underrepresented"!"

nurse: "Go downtown and there is a free TB clinic that will see you"

I leave the hospital that is my new school to visit a free TB clinic in downtown Columbus!

enter TB clinic

Take a number, I am number 15, sit down next to three people that are wearing masks, think to myself "should I be wearing a mask too?!! If i didn't have TB already I certainly do now!!"

TB nurse: "NUMBER 15"

I follow TB nurse to the back

TB nurse asks series of questions, and determines that I have latent TB, which basically means that I was exposed to someone that had active TB and they coughed, laughed or sang in my general direction and the bacteria flew into my eyes, nose or mouth. Since I am in excellent health my immune system could handle it and kept the bacteria in check, but the bacteria is still in me, sort of like sleeping in me waiting for my immune system to be compromised and then it could attack.  She assured me "This is not your fault" and "There is no explanation for why a healthy young person such as yourself tests positive and someone like me who has worked with TB for 25 years has never tested positive".  nurse then takes a chest X ray, draws blood and tells me to come back in a week to get meds.   In nine months I should be TB free but for the rest of my life it is advised that I get a chest X ray every year just to be safe.  Fun fun. and again I repeat I am not contagious :)