HealthCheck: Lung Disease

WPVI (Philadelphia) ^ | 3/29/2006 | Staff

[wjersey]

Not safe to take a shower? Turn up the water heater.

[Zacs Mom]

Wow ~ this is very interesting!!! I will make some calls tomorrow and see what my doctors think .... hmmmmmm....

[pissant]

Well, it can't hurt to bring it to docs attention. Best wishes and continued prayers, ZM. :o)

[Txsleuth]

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??

[Billthedrill]

Well, well...

Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare Complex

MAI in pediatrics

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... ;-)

[Smartass]

Good read Zacs Mom...Thank you.

   

[Ditter]

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.

[Zacs Mom]

" ... a nagging cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, and feeling of fatigue" ~ I've had all of these for sometime now! Of course the shortness of breath and feeling of fatigue can be attributed to the loss of blood through my internal bleeding, but the nagging cough and sore throat are a whole other ball game! My throat has been really sore for ages and I've had a nagging cough I've not been able to shake for longer than I can accurately remember ... more than 6 months, at least! Plus, I am an avid gardener and have been rooting around in the dirt a lot for the past year. We have been totally redoing our backyard for well over as year now and I've been out working it almost daily since we started.

I'll post an update if and when I hear anything ~ I'm hoping they can just do another biopsy to test for this rather than having to do the big invasive procedure we now have planned for sometime in the next week or two.

[Txsleuth]

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.

[Horatio Gates]

Definitely check it out. All the best and continued prayers!

[Horatio Gates]

Today, our water heaters only heat water to 135 degrees to save energy,

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

[hiredhand]

Please keep us posted! Maybe you'll get this ALL sorted out in the next couple of days! You are in my prayers. :-)

[ntnychik]

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.

[Awestruck]

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...

[anonymoussierra]

Thank you ((**Zacs Mom**)) How are you dear American friend? How is your strong person son?

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[LucyJo]

"Wow ~ this is very interesting!!!"

Indeed!!! Praying for you,ZM. Very interested to hear what your doctors think...sounds like test worth having...God bless.

[CDHart]

Any doctor who would do surgery without first getting a biopsy to confirm the cancer diagnosis needs to lose his license. I speak from experience -- lung cancer in 1998 and now I've got it in the other lung. But the absolute first thing they do is biopsy it so they know not only if it's cancer, but also what type of cancer so they know how to treat it.

Carolyn

[CDHart]

"I didn't realize that they are set so they don't heat water hot enough."

You can set your own hot water heater to whatever temp you want, within reason.

Carolyn

[WV Mountain Mama]

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.