Can a Tuberculosis lymph node come back?

[babyluv]

Hi, I was diognised with Tuberculosis last year i wasn'nt contagious and it did'nt affect my lungs, i had a swollen lymph node under my armpit. I was on antibiotics for six months i finished the doze last september. During the medication my lymph node drained a lot of pus out and it was gone. But a week ago i started feeling it again and its getting big and very sore. Has anybody experienced this, could it be the disease did'nt go away, is this possible after 6 months of medication? please help.I had a surgery and they removed a part of lymph node for biopsy, and thst when they found out it was TB, right now its just swollen and its not open.and yes i did take antibiotics for two months straights and the 4 months i took twice a week.

[Dr. Phil, MD]

First thing to do is see your TB doctor again. In answer to your question, yes, it can come back. The medication you took (I presume you took 4 medications for 2 months and 2 for the rest - if not, you should have) is usually very good for TB, but resistance is a real possibility these days and if they didn't have a sample to test for resistance we wouldn't know.Another possibility is that the bug isn't TB now - sometimes nodes can get dammaged by TB and b prone to getting other infections. A culture can hlep with this. Also, it doesn't sound like you had the lymphnode removed, which migh be helpful for a diagnosis and treatment at this point. So in sumarry, you could have a relapse of TB, but ge see your doctor. Keep the wound (if draining) covered as to not risk spreading anything.Good luck!Dr. P.ADDENDUM: Thanks for the additional details. So it sounds like the diagnosis was pretty firm - do you know if they cultured to bacteria and tested it for resistance? It's worth looking in to. Some other things that would point to this being TB again is any weight loss, fever, chills, nightsweats etc... ut those symptoms are not specific. You should really go back to the doctor to have it checked out. Even a lymph node aspiration could shed light on the diagnosis.