Lung Infection - Part 5

The day was 26th August. I walked into the doctor's room. Doctor L greeted me and I greeted her. She talked a bit and finally she said my QuantiFERON TB Gold blood test was NEGATIVE.

Okkayy, I said. Inside me, I hope it is not a false-negative result. There is always a risk of false-negative. She has already said it earlier that having a negative result does not mean that you don't have TB, it might be a false negative.

But let's get this straight. My sputum/phlegm tests were all negative for TB, tuberculin skin test was negative and now the QuantiFERON TB Gold blood test was negative. Can I safely say I don't have TB for now? Maybe.

Like the nurse in the Sungai Dua government clinic (where I sent my phlegm for testing) I talked to the other day, she advised me to think of some other thing instead of just TB. It could be something else. Something else like what, I wonder.

Cancer??

There's always the probability.

So on that same day on 26th August, Doctor L advised me to a CT scan to rule out tumour/cancer. A CT scan? What is that? I thought it is something simple like going for an x-ray. Just pose yourself for a scan shot like I how I always scan papers in my office and the files go directly to my PC. Noooo...not that simple.

CT Scan

It looks scary when I entered the room and indeed the whole procedure was scary enough! It ain't the same as an x-ray procedure. When I was in the room, the nurse took out some equipment. And in that tray, I saw a syringe. A syringggeee!!!

It looks sharp!

Yikes! I hate it. I hate an injection. The nurse told me ...Yes there will be an injection.

Oh noo! I think I'm going to have some fainting spells soon.

I laid down on the bed or the board or whatever you call it and she injected my hand with something and I don't know what was that. I remember seeing a tube being inserted into my hand the place where I was injected. Yep...just like how you always see those tube inserted into someone's hand or arms in the movies.

I went home and read about CT scan and I learnt that what they inject you during a CT scan is a radiopague dye. Oh my...some radiation thingy being injected into my bloodstream. Isn't that dangerous? Strangely, I still don't have any radiation powers like Spiderman after that day.

Ok. Back to the CT scan room. I was told to listen to some instructions later. So I was pushed into that 'tunnel' and the instructions came from some voice box above.

Breathe in, breathe out....

Breathe in deep and hold it.

And immediately I could hear some pictures being snapped....lol.

After a few seconds...the instruction came again. Breathe as normal.

I had some weird feeling when I was pushed through under the tunnel. I don't know how to describe it but it was certainly a new experience for me. An experience that one should avoid! The radiation from a CT scan is 500 times the radiation dose of an x-ray. So try to avoid a CT scan if possible unless you are really sick.

Anyway, I was shivering throughout the whole procedure because the room was cold! It was still very cold even the nurse had placed a thick blanket over me.

Guess what! The cost of the CT scan is RM650! Not cheap!

I had to come back to the hospital on 28th August again for another blood test. This time they wanted to do a full blood test including HIV! No joke! She wanted to test my liver function, kidney function, sugar level....bla bla bla.

The doctor needs to rule out as many diseases as possible to find out what is infecting my lungs.

Another injection again.... :-(