brain eating amoeba

[sassparella]

Hi,

I'm in a bit of a panic now. This morning while having a shower I breathed in some water up my nose. I felt it go right up there. I immediately jumped out of the shower and blew my nose but I doubt I got it out. I'm now worried about the brain eating amoeba found in hot water. Our hot water tank is outside and not very hot I don't need to turn on the cold water at all to have a shower, I'm terrified I'm going to get the brain eating amoeba now.

[oregoncoastlady]

Well, I read about this. It is VERY rare. The two people who died in Louisiana from this got it from the bacteria being in their plumbing pipes, not in the water source. And, they both used neti pots. Kind of freaky. Especially since I do nasal irrigation and don't always use distilled water! I will from now on! Imagine the billions of people who shower and bathe each day...and how many of them get water up their nose. Lots.

[sassparella]

I read that it has been in Australia and the people that caught it got it from bath water and showers, but it twenty or thirty years ago. I just hope I haven't caught it.

[sixpack]

I read that it has been in Australia and the people that caught it got it from bath water and showers, but it twenty or thirty years ago. I just hope I haven't caught it.

you haven't.  I guarantee it.  this brain eating amoeba thing is SUCH a hypo worry.

hello, I don't know how many times I've snuffed up water in my nose.    I've even sucked lake water up my nose.  as have most of the world's population.

respectfully, if you allow your beasty to suck you into weeks/months of fear with this, all you've done is throw away a part of your life.   

[marc]

One time I asked my doctor about my chances of having a carcinoid tumor and he said that it is more likely
that I get hit by a truck. I think the same case applies with you.

[mariea]

I'm sure you are fine but I had never heard of this until you mentioned it.  EEKS!!!!  I use sinus rinse and now I am going to make sure I thoroughly clean it every time!!! 

[oregoncoastlady]

EEEKS! Is right! I hadn't heard of this either until this posting. Wish I never knew about it. But, I have pictures of me as a kid on vacation and we are having a great old time in a lake! I'm sure we took water in our noses! I'm sure all through my life and the lives of most people, water has gotten in our noses from all kinds of things. And I never gave it a second thought. I'm usually pretty good about these rare bacteria death things. BUT, when i read about the neti pots in Louisiana...well, I have to admit, that gave me a bit of a freak out jolt. I had a really stressful day yesterday, and must have been more vulnerable to the idea of this. Anyway, I told my sister about it and she is having a great time joking about it! But, it was still tickling the back of my brain...the part that hasn't been eaten by the aomeba anyway! So, I called my doctors office and talked to her medical assistant. She said she hopes that tap water doesn't put you at risk for this because SHE uses salted tap water for her sinus rinse too! She is forwarding my question to the doctor.

Yep, I got on the crazy train! RIDICULOUS!

[Slangevar]

I was totally delighted by the subject line of this post. 

I've also heard the stories, but like oregoncoastlady said, I think those people were pretty frequent users of neti pots. So that means a fair amount of water was coursing through their sinuses, possibly a few times a day.  That's a lot of exposure.

On the flip side, I think probably everyone with a shower has breathed in some water while showering and yet there's no brain amoeba epidemic.

[wegngis]

Even if the infinitesimal chance that there was an amoeba, your body is not defenseless.  We're bombarded all day, every day, by millions of bugs.  Our body fights them off.  At any rate, I can't count the number of times water has been up my nose.  I'm ok.  You're ok too.

[oregoncoastlady]

You're right, of course, wegngis. Once the weather gets hot, people flock to the lakes and rivers out here. I have to laugh...about sixteen years ago, my boss at the time, was holding a summer company picnic at his home. He lived in an upscale area on a lake. He always raved about it. Well, the lake was this icky, murky, greenish color. People were frolicking in it. I had never seen the lake before this. With the way my boss described it, it was this pristine lake that you could drink from! My son was three at the time and he has autism...being in water was his favorite thing. I thought that playing in a pristine lake with him would be fun. Well...once I saw it I really didn't want to go in it. It made no difference to my son...it was WATER! He was non verbal at the time, so there was a lot of noise coming from him because he wanted to be in the water! My HA was almost non existant back then, but my common sense told me otherwise. I finally gave in and we went in. It was as icky close up as it was from a distance! Ugh. At the time  a brain eating aomeba never entered my mind! I figured there were some kind of cooties in it though! Guess what? It was gross, but we survived.  And people continue to survive in it. For some reason just a few people get this thing. Two thirds of the people who get it each year are boys under 13 yrs old. Very odd.