In 2018, there was a period when I kept coughing. When I went to Tongda Town Hospital for treatment, it immediately got better, but I would get tired quickly whenever I worked. One day, I was so exhausted that I could hardly walk. Once, I coughed up blood, which worried me a lot. I suspected lung cancer, though I had been vaccinated with the BCG vaccine, so I thought it unlikely to be tuberculosis, even though tuberculosis can also cause coughing up blood.
I wanted to go to the hospital for a check-up but was afraid of finding 'lung cancer' written on the report, so I always hesitated to get tested.
However, one night I had a severe fever, and my wife, after feeling my body, said something was wrong. The next day, I postponed all my welding work and went to Tongda Hospital for a check-up.
The doctor asked me to stay while everyone else left, and I had a bad feeling. Pointing at the X-ray, the doctor said it was severe tuberculosis and that I needed to go to Lujiang for treatment.
I stayed in Lujiang People's Hospital for 14 days. After being discharged, the doctor prescribed many medications for me to take at home.
Spending 14 days in the hospital felt like years, and I was very anxious.
When the doctor asked about my job, I said I was a welder.
The doctor told me that welding fumes are toxic and harmful to the lungs and advised me not to continue welding after returning home. However, I worried about my livelihood without welding, as starting a new business is tough and most people fail.
On the way back from the hospital, I felt heavy-hearted again.
My brother also had tuberculosis, which frequently reoccurred, and he would cough up large amounts of blood, which was very frightening. He struggled with it for decades.
His condition had frightened me, and despite having received the BCG vaccine twice, I was shocked to find myself infected with tuberculosis just after turning 50.
I asked my doctor, "I've been vaccinated with BCG twice. Why did I still get tuberculosis?"
"The BCG vaccine doesn't prevent lung tuberculosis; it only prevents tuberculosis of the brain", the doctor casually explained.
"Your tuberculosis might be caused by high blood sugar. High blood sugar weakens the immune system, making one susceptible to tuberculosis. Haven't you noticed any symptoms of high blood sugar recently?"
"I haven't noticed anything. I pay attention to my diet, don't eat indiscriminately, and don't smoke or drink. I can't understand why my blood sugar is high", I replied.
"Did you go hungry as a child?"
"Yes, I often went hungry when I was young. Although the great famine was over, we still didn't have enough food".
"It might be that going hungry as a child led to genetic changes", the doctor said before attending to other patients.
After returning home from the hospital, I now take many medications daily, including anti-tuberculosis drugs, blood sugar reducers, liver protectants [to prevent damage from tuberculosis medications], and supplementary treatments.
As a farmer, getting sick means lacking any form of security. Now that I can no longer do welding work and earn money, the cost of daily medication is a burden, and I often endure harsh words from my wife, which I can only bear in silence. Back when I could earn money, I could at least respond to her.
It feels like human technology is still very backward. My research on Unified Field Theory predicts that an artificial information field could rapidly and completely cure hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and various infectious diseases, leading humanity into a drug-free era. Unfortunately, in China, status matters a lot. As I come from a farming background, these significant scientific discoveries go unrecognized, which is truly regrettable.