Sir Hair: Public Health Hiccup

(I was just about to post some pictures but I discovered the lab computers are locked from anything other than certain tasks).

Anyhow, back to the Hiccup thing. So today I spent several hours at the Chest Clinic in Manhattan (the NYC public health system is awesome by the way). I have a "nodule" in my lung that the doctor suspects is TB, given my exposure to TB in India, my previous test being negative and my general medical hystory. He said if it is TB, its an extremely early form, so to prevent me from coming back in in two months coughing up blood, he's put me on the meds. As such, I am now on a seven pill a day program for the next two months. (All free thanks to NYC!)

I also get the wonderful cross of possible side effects... some of which he said would occur daily for a few hours, but that it's important the I kept taking the drugs.

The side effects are... (*ahem* drum roll please!)
Nausea
Vomiting
Dark Urine
Skin rash
Loss of appetite
Numbness of hands and feet
Yellowing of Skin and Eyes (aka. Jaundice)
Fever
Easy Bruising
Flu-like symptoms
Urine turing orange or red
The drugs may stain my Soft contact lenses (not harmful apparently)
Joint Aches
Blurry Vision
Changed color vision

The only ones I have to worry about are the jaundice, numbness and vision, the rest I pretty much have to take as they come.

Aside from a chest xray, they gave me a blood test, vision test, checked my weight (which for the last few years has been pretty much stable at 145lbs or 65.8 kg), took a sample of the mucus in my lungs (sputum) and had me dance a jig for all the patients in the waiting room (well maybe not the last one, but only maybe not.)

The doctor and I talked a little bit (he even asked if I was thinking of becoming a priest after I told him what I did this summer). Apparently the MC sisters in Manhattan (the AIDS house) come to his clinic all the time for checkups. He also comented on how people in the US are unwarrantedly paranoid of TB and TB patients, and said at this stage I'm most likely not a public health risk (in laymans terms, I don't need to be locked up in a cage and observed by scientists and doctors, nor do the people I've come in contact with).

Still not sure about housing, but I looked at a nice loft apartment last night... and by loft appartment I mean crawlspace cum loft apartment, its about 10 feet square and 3 feet high... but it is really cheap and it is in an AMAZING location (right near hunter, i.e., "one of the richest zipcodes in the US") and a great price, so I might still take the "hole in the wall" as Tim so eloquently put it. But I'm hoping on a miracle that the dorms open up a male room... primo location, primo price...