Posted on 03/30/2006 6:32:52 PM PST by wjersey
3 years ago, Pat Hyde was plagued by a cough that didn't go away.
A chest x-ray and a CT scan revealed spots on her lungs.
Pat: "I had a big nodule over on my left lung up top, and I had quite a few nodules on my right side." With a history of lung cancer in her family, Pat thought it was cancer, and opted for surgery. After the operation, the biopsy produced a surprise - a bacterial lung infection called MAI complex.
Dr. John Hansen-Flaschen of the University of Pennsylvania says very few people, including doctors, have ever heard of MAI complex.
Yet he sees several dozen cases a year, and almost always in women.
Dr. Hansen-Flaschen: "Many of them otherwise healthy. This may be their only disease. Non smokers as well as former smokers." Symptoms include a nagging cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, and feeling of fatigue. The bacteria is similar to tuberculosis, but is more hardy, and can exist in the soil for years.
It gets into the air and is inhaled. That can happen during gardening, but Dr. Hansen-Flaschen suspects the bug is also in our water supply and may be breathed when people take a shower.
He's seen an increase in cases since the temperature on home water heaters was reduced.
Dr. Hansen-Flaschen: "The water has to be heated to 175 degrees or more at least 2 or 3 minutes to kill the bacteria. Today, our water heaters only heat water to 135 degrees to save energy, to prevent us from being scalded." The treatment for MAI is a very long course of antibiotics - 18 to 24 months. Pat, who is on her second bout with MAI, takes 3 drugs. She's given up gardening, and is careful about her surroundings.
Pat: "I can't go near anybody who smokes or anything like that."
Well, it can't hurt to bring it to docs attention. Best wishes and continued prayers, ZM. :o)
WOW..that does sound interesting...
Other than the fatigue and the nodules, do you have some of those symptoms??
Also, that is so interesting about the water heaters...I didn't realize that they are set so they don't heat water hot enough.
Please let us know what the doctors say about this...when you call them, okay??
Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare Complex
You usually hear of this stuff in relation to AIDS (no offense, ZM!). Mycobacteria are stubborn little buggers that have a lipid coat around the cell wall that protects them from most antibiotics. Diseases associated with this genus include tuberculosis and leprosy, both quite resistant to treatment even under normal circumstances.
The good news is that there is treatment. Keep us posted, and God bless... ;-)
The water heater thing doesn't make sense to me. You don't shower in water that comes from the hot water heater alone. Even at lower than 175 degrees you would be scalded. You shower in a mixture of hot water from the heater and cold water. If this bacteria is in our water supply we are going to be exposed in the shower no matter what the temperature.
Wouldn't that be wonderful...if you could do something that doesn't require you to have another surgery??
Yes, I am so curious now..let me know.
Definitely check it out. All the best and continued prayers!
Slightly off topic...I used to install H2O heaters as a side job. We set the tanks at 120 to avoid law suits from people claiming they were scalded
Please keep us posted! Maybe you'll get this ALL sorted out in the next couple of days! You are in my prayers. :-)
Hmmm. Maybe this is the answer to your case.
I don't want to go into details, but quickly put my water heater temp. back up after a few months of trying to "save energy." Definitely wasn't worth it.
Thank you for this.. I've had a nagging cough and fatigue for 2 plus years now... the doctors always want to automatically diagnose asthma because it's easier on them...
Thank you ((**Zacs Mom**)) How are you dear American friend? How is your strong person son?
BTTT
Indeed!!! Praying for you,ZM. Very interested to hear what your doctors think...sounds like test worth having...God bless.
Carolyn
You can set your own hot water heater to whatever temp you want, within reason.
Carolyn
Bery interesting and it would explain a lot in your case! Always remember doctors draw from experience and if they have never seen a specific case, they may not even know about it. My FIL had a fistula (a clump of blood vessels in his eye that were crazy, basically) the only reason he got it diagnosed was because the doctor in town had interned and seen one. Most eye doctors go through their entire careers never hearing about one, let alone seeing one. My FIL got very lucky.
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