How am I feeling? Confused.
I want to change from steroids to Humira for my Crohn’s disease (and now, as it turns out, psoriasis as well). Humira has fewer side effects than steroids. However you can’t take it if you have latent TB (i.e., the bug is present but inactive). You have to get rid of it first, or Humira will knock out the antibodies that are keeping it suppressed, and – voila – active TB.
So a few years ago I had a blood test, and to my surprise the results were positive for latent TB. Before I can use Humira, I have to get rid of it, using high power, industrial strength antibiotics. For months.
Things got delayed for a number of reasons. But recently, I consulted again with the infectious disease physician. She ordered another blood test; the same one I had before. This time it was negative.
So which is it? Positive or negative? The physician ordered a different TB test. Regardless of the outcome, I’m not sure I’d trust having such a small sample size, using two different tests. What I’d like to do is repeat the first test an odd number of times, to get some (still probably insufficient) statistics. Maybe I can get that done later.
What a PITA.