WE 201 : Tuberculosis hindered my love for my family

Hello friends in Weekend Experience Community, Happy Weekend....

My post today is to contribute to Weekend Engagement Topics: Week 201 with admin @galenkp. This week I will choose a topic :

If you had a terminal illness how would you break the news to your family and friends? Remember to use your own photos.

This topic represents my feelings at the moment and when I write this, I don't feel like the tears are falling without being able to stop them, I will tell the chronology to my friends.

The Beginning of the Disaster

At the beginning of February 2024, I suffered from a cough and started to lose my voice, as if my voice had just disappeared, I wanted to scream but the voice just disappeared in my throat. I started coughing with blood, I thought this was just a normal cough.Because it had not healed for 2 weeks, I went to the hospital for an examination. On February 12, I sent a sputum sample to the hospital and the hospital told me to get the lab results on February 15 (exactly 1 day before my birthday).

On February 15 I went to the hospital, but the laboratory results were not yet available, the doctor said because the sputum sample I sent had too much blood, finally the doctor told me to take another sputum sample. On February 17th the laboratory results came out and I was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. The cause was my high blood sugar level, namely 497.I had to undergo regular treatment for 6 months, without stopping, so that the Tuberculosis bacteria in me would die.

I tried to be strong, but my feelings couldn't lie, all the way home I kept crying. My husband even stopped to park the car, because he saw me continuing to cry.I couldn't convey the news about my illness to my husband, so I told him to go home immediately, the car seemed to be moving very slowly, like a time bomb.

Tell My family and friends about Tuberculosis

After returning from the hospital, I gathered my husband and children in the family room, "There is something I want to tell you," I said slowly while crying.

The children wanted to hug me, but I forbade them, I was afraid that Tuberculosis would spread to them. The children wonder why they can't hug me, usually they often hug me without me telling them to.

"Mother has Tuberculosis, so there are several things you shouldn't do, one of which is hugging mother", I tried to be strong, afraid of making the children sad. I ran into the room and cried. After telling my family, the heavy burden remained in my feelings, I was very afraid if my children contracted tuberculosis, within one week I kept crying, why should I God?

I also told my friends about my situation, I was afraid they would stay away from me. But it turns out this was just my feeling, my friends didn't distance themselves from me, they encouraged me.

Self Isolation

The first week I suffered from Tuberculosis, it felt very serious, I wore a mask all day because I was afraid of infecting other people, I also separated my drinking area from my family because I was very afraid of infecting them. I didn't dare hug my children, even though before going to bed, I usually hug my children, this really hurt my feelings.

After one month of walking and I started to get used to my illness, things started to go back to normal, even though I was still practicing self-restrictions. Waking up before breakfast, I took medicine for tuberculosis and I had to do it, for the sake of my family and the people around me. Hopefully I will remain strong to face the day with tuberculosis and diabetes.

One week before Eid al-Fitr, health workers came to the house to check whether any family members were infected with tuberculosis. Two days later the laboratory results came out and the whole family was declared negative. I am very happy that now I can hug my husband and children again. With the routine treatment that I do, tuberculosis is no longer scary.

Thank you for reading my post, please pray for my recovery.
Best regard
@umirais