Dear Dr. SerVaas: I would like to tell the person about the restless legs that I have had all my life. Many, many nights were spent walking the floor. I started taking Tranxene ten years ago, and I never have the problem unless I cut back on my dosage.
Something I would love to know. Fifty-two years ago, I was taken from my husband and two-year-old baby and sent to a sanitarium for TB for a year. I was of the opinion that once you have the bug, you always test positive. I had a test recently and it was negative. They couldn't believe it, so they did a second test. It was also negative. Could it be possible I didn't have it to start with? I had pneumonia three times, which left calcium on one lung. I am 77. For some reason, this bugs me. At the time, it was very traumatic.
Margaret Shupe
Hinton, West Virginia
Dear Reader: Your story is so reminiscent. This very same thing happened to my aunt in the 1930s. She was taken from her home, husband, and three young children and put in a sanitarium for many months. She had a spina bifida baby before doctors developed ways to treat the condition. My aunt was exhausted from caring for the child, who lived to be about four years old. I relate this because that is why everyone thought she came down with TB.
Fortunately, like you, my aunt survived the quarantine treatment. She lived a productive life and died recently at age 99!
I must say that medicine has come a long way in handling tuberculosis. Infectious disease experts at the American Lung Association tell us that a TB skin test may become negative due to the aging process. It is always a possibility that the original diagnosis of TB was wrong. However, the fact that the skin test is now negative is not proof that you never had the disease.
E-mail Article 
Print Article 
Discuss Article
