Today is world tuberculosis day. It not really something we think about much anymore. In the past it was a big deal. These days you don’t really hear much about it.
I’m sure many of us remember the little staple things we got hit with at school every so often. Years ago they were pretty focused of making tuberculosis a thing of the past. And probably with good reason.
I know there were member of my family that had it, many years ago. One uncle that survived, one that didn’t. It was one of those things that was a part of life that today we don’t think much about. Like polio. We tend to think of them as something from the past.
Except, at some point in my life I got tuberculosis.
I have no idea when or how. It was never diagnosed at the time. I never knew I had it. I may never have known except for a doctor who sent me for a cat scan to check on something else and happened to notice it. He asked when I had contacted tuberculosis. I told him never. He replied with, yes you did.
Apparently, it’s one of those things that can do dormant and just live in your body without causing much trouble. At least it has with me. At the time, it was probably thought to be pneumonia or something like that. It was dealt with and that was that. Or so I thought.
The only time you seem to hear about it much these days is on TV. You know, those drug ads that have a list of side effects that sound far worse than anything you might have to take the drug for. One thing you hear fairly often is to tell your doctor if you have ever had tuberculosis. I believe this is because if you have a dormant version it could come back to life. So it comes in handy to know.
But in some cases, you may never know. Except by accident.
Maybe we all need to line up to get our arms stapled. Just in case.