My dad has been diagonized with Spinal Tuberculosis. Up until last week, I did not know that this form of TB existed. He has been having back pains and loss of weight. He lives in upcountry and the doctors there sent him to Nairobi for an MRI (results shown below) showed presence of Spinal TB. When he called to tell me this, I highly doubted it and I had to google the disease to read more.
Turns out, Spinal TB is very destructive as it affects the inter vertebral disk space as well as the bones surrounding it. This leads to severe back pain as well as paraplegia. This is true because he has been walking while dragging one leg and therefore cannot walk fast.
The good news is that one, its treatable with anti tuberculosis medication which has to be taken for a whole year everyday at exactly the same time without fail and two, it is not contagious. However, he ll need to go for more x rays after a few month to determine if surgery is necessary. We pray that it will not come to this or that it will not lead to neurological disability.
This post is to raise awareness about this type of TB which is not very common so if you can re steem, please feel free to share to fellow Steemians.
Your prays and support are highly appreciated.
Thank you