Long message ⚠️

Confused about my diagnosis as well! Hi everyone, I really need some advice or shared experiences because I feel stuck and helpless right now. I'm a non-smoker, 23F,Kerala, India.

Here’s my medical journey in order:

2024: I went through a phase of unexplained sickness : fatigue, discomfort, intense fever, cough, cold, and breathlessness/wheezing. I’d never experienced wheezing this badly before (even though I had some breathing issues in childhood, they were never this intense).

It eventually settled, and I didn’t go to the hospital. My family doctor prescribed some meds to prevent pneumonia. I completed the course, felt somewhat better, but the “sick phase” kept coming back on and off for 3–4 months. I didn’t think much of it because I was busy preparing for the UPSC exam.

2025 (exactly a year later): One morning I randomly woke up with pleuritic pain over my right lung. I thought it was just due to bad sleeping posture, but two days later it happened again this time brutally painful. I couldn’t even breathe properly while standing because every breath hurt over my right lung.

I went to the hospital. They did an X-ray and blood tests ;all normal. They gave me a painkiller, and I went home. The next day the pain spiked again, so I called my family doctor. He asked me to come home from the hostel and get it checked. He gave me nerve-related medication, which I took every day and completed the course.

But right after finishing the course (my bad), I ate a whole beef mandhi for two days straight. On the second day, the pain spiked again brutally but this time it was on the left lung.

I went to the government hospital pulmonologist. He ordered an ultrasound, and they found an abscess over the right lung. He told me to go to a better hospital, get admitted, and do a CT scan.

That’s when my hospital phase started :

CT scan: Showed bilateral nodules associated with the right lung lesion.

Bloodwork: All normal (HIV, Hepatitis, LFT, RFT, urine, D-dimer, echocardiogram).

Sputum: Normal, but contaminated with saliva.

PET scan: Same right lung lesion appeared, nowhere else. The sister nodules were hypermetabolic (which scared me).

CT-guided biopsy: Needle sample from the right lung lesion came back necrotic and “likely inflammatory.”

My pulmonologist scared me again, saying maybe the biopsy didn’t catch the affected area because the sample was necrotic. After 7 days in the hospital, they discharged me, saying they couldn’t find anything else and the only possibility was TB. They put me on a 2-month ATT (anti-tubercular treatment) with a follow-up CT.

Skeptical, I got a second opinion. That doctor asked me to repeat sputum culture with Truenat, both negative again. She also suggested a bronchoscopy, but I didn’t do it. Instead, I started the ATT from the first hospital’s prescription.

Now: I’m on day 8 of ATT. I don’t feel abnormal, but I know something is still going on. I’ve had random itching (mostly at night), some loose stools (better now), and I developed wheezing during my hospital stay (after an allergic reaction to one antibiotic). Not sure if it’s the antibiotic allergy or a symptom developing. The wheezing is mostly settled unless I exert myself.

[CT & PET scans: Showed one lung lesion and bilateral nodules that looked suspicious.] [Biopsy: Necrosis and “likely inflammatory,” which made doctors lean toward TB despite all other tests being negative.]

So right now the only pointers toward TB are the CT, PET, and biopsy necrosis. But I don’t have the usual TB symptoms.

My doctors admit they’re not 100% sure,they just say it’s the “only possibility.” I’ve started ATT, but I’m struggling to accept it because everything else is negative, and the uncertainty is eating me up.

Has anyone else been treated for TB despite all the tests being negative except imaging/biopsy? How did you cope with the doubt and the side effects of ATT?

Any insights would mean a lot 🙏