Tuberculosis @ MindSay

Otitis Externa Rant

Hi there internet people! I just want you all to know (not that this really matters) that I am currently in great physical pain. I somehow managed to magically conjure out of nowhere a wonderful ear infection and it’s driving me nuts. Nuts, I tell you! Maybe this is God’s (the Judeo-Christian one) way of saying “go to church once in a while, you sonofabitch”, but then maybe not. Maybe this is just one of those unfortunate things that happen and does not necessarily involve a divine primordial being who, his adherents claim, loves us all, but once in a while goes apeshit over something as inane as buttsex. Goes psycho over something like that, then destroys two cities, leaving few survivors. Yep, that's a loving God alright.

As my right ear quietly and lovingly throbs the whole night through, I feel that I have to tell you all a wonderful story. It’s about this guy who gets initiated into a tribe of hunter-gatherers somewhere in Africa. The Babongo. As part of an initiation ritual, he is given this powerful psychoactive drug obtained from the root of the boga tree. He is in this hut and one tribesman prepares the root, cutting bite-sized chips for the guy to eat. And so the guy chews and swallows and pukes and chews and swallows again. This goes on until the drug takes effect. After the trip, the guy says that he felt renewed and the experience was life-changing. He realized that all life is connected and that the world is one living organism, that he is just one tiny part of this great and wonderful organism, then he puked some more.

What’s the connection? Nothing.

Now, it feels like an itchy, burning, rusty nail is being driven repeatedly at irregular intervals straight into the wall of my ear canal. You have no idea how this fucking hurts. I’m gnashing my teeth, man; gnashing for God’s sake. I’m talking biblical-level pain here, man.

I’ve had this for three days now, and I haven’t slept nights during that time because the pain goes overdrive during nighttime til dawn and somehow it becomes tolerable during the day when I take my medication. I can’t eat properly because moving my jaw hurts. I can’t go to the beach (not that I really want to..I hate crowds). I can’t go outside. I spent that whole sleepless time in front of the TV, exactly what I’m doing right now.

I love the news. I love CNN, Fox News, BBC. I love hearing about death and the war and protests and the killings. I love hearing that conservative nut Bill O’ Reilly rant against those left-wing bastards ruining his beloved American Culture. I love watching the Great and All-Powerful Leader of the World George Bush Jr. as he makes monkey faces delivering another one of his speeches. The news of the latest bombings and snipings in Iraq, captured terrorists, AIDS and the Darfur Crisis in Africa, all of these confirm my humble belief that the world is one sad, crazy place.

During the day, when fatigue, hunger, pain, misery, and the realization that the world is one crappy place overwhelms me, I have a light breakfast consisting of one loaf of sliced bread, bolinao (tiny, mummified fishes, fried), some rice, and a banana. Then I take some antibiotics, analgesic, antipyretic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory pills. Next, I ask my younger brother (who, by the way, is being treated for tuberculosis) to put exactly three drops of this ear medication into my ear. Then I watch TV some more and this is when I get drowsy, and sleep away the morning. I usually wake up around 4 in the afternoon groggy with a slight headache and a wonderful feeling in my stomach like I’m going to vomit.

I’ll drink coffee and wait for the feeling to subside, eat lunch/dinner, reread Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, and then contemplate suicide.

My writing this is some sort of therapy. You know, all that bullshit about expressing yourself so you feel like you’re doing something to alleviate some real or perceived illness. And so, now that I have given you a piece of my mind, please feel free to go on with your happy lives, have a wonderful summer and please vote Bayan Muna.

When we came back from Reno,my nephew had a huge lump on the side of his neck. My sister took him to the doctors. Doc thought maybe an infection and gave antibiotics, and said if it starts going down great, if not well do an ultrasound, that if it showed to be an infection she would drain it, otherwise it could be a cyst. He went back, and it appeared to have gotten bigger. So they did an ultra sound. They just got the results back from that, and he has to go in for a TB Skin test, AND a chest xray. Since my sister works in the Health Care feild, she says the skin test wouldn't be a big deal alone, (the doc said they want to rule it out) and she could by the ruling out story, But she said with the chest xray, they would be pretty sure of it for them to do a chest xray too. So anyways, she was pretty scared about it, I looked it up on the internet, and saw info about being infected with TB is different then having the TB disease. So we will see.

But if ya all don't mind adding a prayer to your list that would be great, His name is Dakotah, he is 12.

Thanks!

This article, which was on azcentral.com, was shocking.  I cannot believe the treatment this man is receiving; it is too harsh.  

 

I understand the importance of containment and isolation, for the safety of the general population.  Imagine if someone with this strain of TB decided to get on an airplane; how many people would contract the TB, and then, unknowingly, take it back home and spread it throughout their community?  The next influenza pandemic will most likely be spread by infected individuals travelling by airplane.  (For a Hollywood reference, rent the movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman and a young Dr. McDreamy).

 

Even though this man has a deadly, drug-resistant strain of TB, the fact that he is not allowed any contact with the outside world could constitute 'cruel and unusual' punishment.  I don't understand the reasoning behind the fact that he is not allowed at least a phone, television or a shower.  I'm not sure how watching televison would put anyone at risk for contracting TB.

 

While reading this keep in mind that he is an American (he has dual citizenhip) and has a wife and daughter in Russia, whom, according to this article, he can't communicate with because he isn't allowed a phone (I'm not sure if he can make calls, the article doesn't address that). 

 

Please let me know your thoughts...

 

Quarantine breach leaves TB patient locked in isolation

Man may serve life in hospital

Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 1, 2007 12:00 AM

 

He has been isolated here for eight months and is expected to remain much longer, perhaps until he dies.

But Robert Daniels is not charged with any crime. He has tuberculosis. And he is under court-ordered confinement because he violated the rules of voluntary quarantine, exposing others to a potentially deadly illness.

Daniels is afflicted with a TB strain so dangerous that he has never met his appointed lawyer, Robert Blecher, who describes the situation as "extremely unusual."

"Mr. Daniels' problems occurred - and he understands this - because of his own actions," Blecher said. "It does come down to a health issue for the entire community. He did go out in the public. He was exposing people."

Blecher acknowledged that his client's living conditions are unusual: Daniels is housed in Station 41, a room where air flows only in, not out. He is on a hospital floor supervised by the Sheriff's Office. There is no other facility in the Valley for medical lockdown.

Jack McIntyre, a sheriff's spokesman, said sympathetic nurses gave Daniels a computer, a phone and other items for a time, but those were confiscated for security reasons. "While he's there, we treat him as an incarcerated individual," McIntyre said. "It's a jail ward."

Daniels contracted TB while living in Russia, according to Superior Court filings. In July 2006, he was admitted to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn hospital for respiratory illness. Lab tests revealed that he suffered from "extreme multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis," records show.

The disease is spread by airborne contact: If a patient coughs in public, others are endangered.

Robert England, Maricopa County tuberculosis control officer, said in court filings that Daniels was transferred from the hospital in July to Monroe House, an outpatient facility for indigent TB patients near downtown Phoenix. He was instructed to continue treatment and wear a mask whenever going out in public. England alleged that Daniels stopped taking his medication and went unprotected to a Jack in the Box, a Circle K and other stores. Daniels understood the rules, England said in his affidavit, but "merely refuses to follow them."

Based on that, the Maricopa County Department of Public Health obtained a court order for "compulsory detention," a legal tool used only about once a year in Arizona and usually only for a short time.

Daniels is a Russian-born 27-year-old with dual U.S. citizenship. During a hurried and rare phone conversation Tuesday, he admitted making a mistake eight months ago but said he did not understand the gravity of his disease at the time.

"I don't want to confuse people if I wear a mask," Daniels said, describing his thoughts. "What if they think I'm a robber? What if I get shot?

"Nobody talked to me about this thing. Nobody lectured me."

Daniels said face covers are not worn by tuberculosis patients in his homeland, which ranks 12th on the World Health Organization's list of most infected nations.

"In Moscow," he said, "when I went to clinics, even the doctors did not wear masks."

Russia, with 26,000 TB deaths annually, has more than 80 cases per 100,000 population, compared with five per 100,000 in Arizona.

Daniels said he has become depressed to the point of weeping.

"They're making a criminal out of me," he added. "I've been crying almost every day. . . . I'm all alone. No showers. No sunlight. It's the silence that's pushing down on me. . . . It's the worst you can get, even if you murdered somebody."

Daniels, who has an American father and lived in the United States during the 1990s, was diagnosed with TB two years ago in Moscow. He was told drugs were difficult to obtain and too expensive for a poor laborer. Daniels said he came to Arizona in January 2006 looking for work and hoping to get treatment.

His wife, Alla, who is in Russia with their 5-year-old son, said in a phone interview that the imprisonment seems inhumane.

"I know he has a very dangerous form of the disease," she said. "But he was not arrested. His rights are being violated."

Daniels said hospital workers became so upset with his plight recently that a series of county Superior Court hearings were conducted. Last week, Commissioner Randy Ellexson ordered that the patient be moved to new quarters. He then reversed that decision during an emergency session, which Daniels said he was not allowed to monitor by phone.

Daniels said he has been a model patient at Station 41 and would not violate quarantine again. He claimed recent tests of sputum from his lungs were negative for TB.

But prospects for freedom remain unclear. A medical assessment submitted to the court in August indicated the disease was still mutating in Daniels and may require treatment for years.

"There is certainly a high likelihood that the patient has developed additional drug resistant (sic) that may make cure impossible," the assessment said. "If this is the case, the patient must be detained in isolation until death or patient's own immune system contains it (50% chance of either possibility)."

A Feb. 20 entry in the file added that Daniels needs eight weeks of clear tests before he can be deemed non-infectious. Court records do not contain an updated prognosis, and medical authorities declined to comment.