“Every day was a fight, every day I won!  Of all my achievements and learning in life, winning over tuberculosis was my best win and the best lesson of life.” Breathing Deep and Hailing High I was a high energy girl until I discovered that my stringent breathing patterns and frequent mood changes (due to the helplessness) were because of my partially collapsed lung. I had a rare category of TB: left tubercular pleural effusion. Before I was diagnosed,  I had  severe abdomen pain that was not allowing me to curl up on my side during sleep, and I w ..read more

TB has changed my life in many ways. In some ways it has ended up being a enriching experience because I was able to use the experience to connect with others as well as myself. I was diagnosed with TB while living in Kenya. At the time I was volunteering in a rural area outside of a nature reserve. I had a lot of experience with TB actually but not a lot of information. In previous years I had lived in Zimbabwe at a Orphanage where I lived and worked with children and adults with HIV/AIDS as well as TB. For some reason I had directly correlated being HIV positive to getting TB so I felt tha ..read more

“Me?  I have TB? I’m very healthy.  I’ve never had any major illnesses before, and I didn’t think it could happen to someone like me.”  Sarah, upon hearing her TB diagnosis Sarah is a healthy college student.  But when she was 16 years old in 2012, she was diagnosed with ocular tuberculosis (TB).  TB is often found in the lungs, but for Sarah TB had attacked her retina.  Because there is little research on the treatment of ocular TB, Sarah had to take more TB medication and for a longer period of time than other TB patients.  “I was very scared of pills, so ..read more

In 2006, while living in Kenya, Lynnette took care of an orphan boy who developed TB. It wasn’t her first encounter with the disease. Her own brother had died of TB in 1998. Because her brother had been shunned and discriminated against by extended family and community during his illness, Lynnette became a fierce advocate for the orphan boy, demonstrating to the community that she would care for – not discriminate against – this child. Although she, her daughter, and son spent the next three years with him, only Lynnette and her daughter were diagnosed with latent TB years later while liv ..read more

Chest pains and throwing up were two nasty side effects that 19-year old Vanessa encountered when she took medication to treat her latent TB. Diagnosed in 2012,  she dealt with negative side effects from the TB drugs for four long months.  She acknowledges the positive support of her mother, TB doctors and nurses for getting her through this challenging treatment. Witnessing the stigmatization of TB in Kenya where she spent her early years, Vanessa  believes it is crucial to stop the shunning of persons with TB and that this can be accomplished with greater TB education here in ..read more

Jeannette was six years old when she was sent to Laurel Beach TB Sanatorium in West Seattle in l943.  For two and one-half years she was the only child at the sanatorium. A girl her age was admitted in 1945 and became her roommate and childhood friend. Their schooling was conducted by a TB patient who was a public school teacher.  Gas was rationed making visits from her family very special. Jeannette was released in l947, starting back to school in step with her schoolmates.  In telling her TB story, Jeannette found relief from the stigma she had been h ..read more

Being a toddler means falling down and getting back up again. When 67-year old Christine was 18 months old, she fell and bruised her hip bone. At the time, TB was present in Christine’s body because she had consumed unpasteurized and un-tested cow’s milk. After falling, TB began to infect her hip bone.  She spent 10 years in an English hospital—on her back, immobilized, for 5 of those years.  She has endured nearly 30 surgeries.  Christine has proven to anyone who doubted her that she is just like everyone else.  She learned to walk, ride a bike, swim, and dance.  Chri ..read more

In 2004, despite risk of infection, Fatxi, a young mother living in Kenya, took care of a family member who had TB.  Everyone else in the family had abandoned her due to fear and the stigma of TB. Because of Fatxi’s determination to support and care for this woman and despite being abandoned by the majority of her family, the woman was cured and regained her strength after a nine-month TB treatment. Fatxi believes education about TB and compassion are the keys to getting rid of the TB stigma. In Faxti’s words… “If somebody is sick with TB and they know that other people despise or disl ..read more

In 1993, Lynda and her boyfriend were diagnosed with TB. She began taking medication, but the negative side effects made her feel so sick that she stopped and began hiding from the Snohomish Health District employees who were managing her care.  Once found, she was homeless and extremely ill with even more health issues that needed attention. Lynda was put in quarantine for one month while the Health District monitored her health. The Snohomish Health District also watched her take every dose of her TB medicine for nine months, until she fully recovered.  She credits the Snohomish H ..read more

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