Freaking out about having lake water pushed up my nose

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. Well I won’t sugar coat, freshwater lake at 85F yeah could have tons of Naegleria fowleri. But guess what, it has almost no treatment and kills you fast. If you don’t have a crushing headache in two days, you are likely fine. But there is nothing to be done.

[Anonymous]

Get on a nice big dose of Zoloft, OP. You can thank me later.

[Anonymous]

Please seek therapy OP. This is no way to live

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These cases are rare enough that they make national news. And anecdotally, I’ve never read of acase that was two weeks after exposure - it was always pretty quick.

If there were a danger I’d bacteria in the lake, there would be signs posted - especially at a resort! We are in Oregon and saw signs posted by a pond just yesterday. This resort doesn’t want people falling ill, and I imagine they test the water.

It's a brain eating amoeba that the OP is afraid of, not bacteria. It's a single cell organism that usually eats other small organisms like bacteria but when it goes up the nose, it eats it's way up the nerves leading to the brain and once it reaches the brain multiplies and they eat your brain. That's what the OP is afraid of except it's exceptionally rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's fine OP. Statistically speaking, you probably have same chance as winning lottery.

Chances are greater of winning the lottery or choking on a piece of bread at dinner tonight, op. Chill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These cases are rare enough that they make national news. And anecdotally, I’ve never read of acase that was two weeks after exposure - it was always pretty quick.

If there were a danger I’d bacteria in the lake, there would be signs posted - especially at a resort! We are in Oregon and saw signs posted by a pond just yesterday. This resort doesn’t want people falling ill, and I imagine they test the water.

It's a brain eating amoeba that the OP is afraid of, not bacteria. It's a single cell organism that usually eats other small organisms like bacteria but when it goes up the nose, it eats it's way up the nerves leading to the brain and once it reaches the brain multiplies and they eat your brain. That's what the OP is afraid of except it's exceptionally rare.

Is it just one! One amoeba that kills you?

[Anonymous]

take a xanax

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's fine OP. Statistically speaking, you probably have same chance as winning lottery.

Chances are greater of winning the lottery or choking on a piece of bread at dinner tonight, op. Chill.

Well you have to wither it down, how many people per year get lack water way up their nose?!! That is a pretty small number; I lived on a lake and it never happened to me.

What OP cares about is given that threshold, how many get amoeba.

[Anonymous]

I had this same concern years ago when I went down a slide and water jammed into my nose from dirty water at a construction site turned into an obstacle course. Gross. I was worried but a scientist pal said stomach acid would kill most anything. The US has really dirty water with toxic firefighting chemicals in them, by the way. I might be worried if I'd been in a lake near a US military base where that chemical is used.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These cases are rare enough that they make national news. And anecdotally, I’ve never read of acase that was two weeks after exposure - it was always pretty quick.

If there were a danger I’d bacteria in the lake, there would be signs posted - especially at a resort! We are in Oregon and saw signs posted by a pond just yesterday. This resort doesn’t want people falling ill, and I imagine they test the water.

It's a brain eating amoeba that the OP is afraid of, not bacteria. It's a single cell organism that usually eats other small organisms like bacteria but when it goes up the nose, it eats it's way up the nerves leading to the brain and once it reaches the brain multiplies and they eat your brain. That's what the OP is afraid of except it's exceptionally rare.

Is it just one! One amoeba that kills you?

Yes, it's called Naegleria fowleri. If you're in a fresh water lake swimming and you disturb the sediment at the bottom of the lake then get it up your nose, the amoeba (if it gets up your sinuses) can eat your brain. It multiplies like mad inside your head though.

Most people do not survive.
https://www.today.com/health/texas-girl-contracted-brain-eating-amoeba-while-swimming-t162600
Very very very few have survived by being caught early using newer treatments. It used to have a 100% fatality rate, now it's more like 99%.
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/naegleria/treatment.html
After 35 years without a Naegleria survivor in the United States, during the summer of 2013, two children with Naegleria fowleri infection survived. The first, a 12-year-old girl, was diagnosed with PAM approximately 30 hours after becoming ill and was started on the recommended treatment within 36 hours. She also received the investigational drug miltefosine 7-9 and her brain swelling was aggressively managed with treatments that included cooling the body below normal body temperature (therapeutic hypothermia). This patient made a full neurologic recovery and returned to school. Her recovery has been attributed to early diagnosis and treatment and novel therapeutics including miltefosine and hypothermia 5.

The second child, an 8-year-old male, is also considered a PAM survivor, although he has suffered what is likely to be permanent brain damage. He was also treated with miltefosine but was diagnosed and treated several days after his symptoms began. Cooling of the body below normal body temperature was not used 6.

In the summer of 2016, a 16-year-old boy was reported as the 4th U.S. PAM survivor. This patient was diagnosed within hours of presentation to the hospital and was treated with the same protocol used for the 12-year-old 2013 survivor. This patient also made a full neurologic recovery and returned to school.

https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/08/21/brain-eating-amoeba-victim-shows-signs-of-recovery
Brain-Eating Amoeba Victim Shows Signs of Recovery

[Anonymous]

Do saline rinses? Although that may push up any potential critters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do saline rinses? Although that may push up any potential critters.

If it's a sterile saline rinse in a squirt bottle from the drug store then no. If you buy distilled water from the grocery store, it should be 100% pure water with nothing else in it which is why all products that drain through the sinuses say to use distilled water. If you use tap water, then yes you can get this from that. Several people have died from using tap water in a neti pot.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2011/12/19/143960631/second-neti-pot-death-from-amoeba-prompts-tap-water-warning
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-dies-from-brain-eating-amoeba-after-using-neti-pot-tap-water-to-rinse-sinuses/


Unrelated note. If you do get distilled water, feel free to pour some into a glass and drink it. It's disgusting. Pure water without minerals is disgusting. When people say that water has no taste, they've never actually tasted distilled water which is pure H2O without any minerals dissolved into it. It's fine to drink a little to see the taste but don't drink it regularly. Pure water desperately wants to have chemicals bonded in it and will rip vitamins and minerals out of your cells which can lead to deficiencies. Trying a little bit just to see the taste wouldn't be a big deal though.

[Anonymous]

I'd be more worried about E. coli!

[Anonymous]

It’s not found in the Caribbean. You’re fine op.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, OP, I needed a good laugh today!

Yes, brain-eating amoebas exist.
No, you don't need to worry. Your risk is practically nil.

And if you have to go, it's not the worst way to go: at least you're not going to linger and suffer agonizing pain like you'd do for lung or bone cancer, or watch yourself go into cognitive decline long before your body caves, like for Huntington's disease. All horrible, horrible deaths.