"Xeno" > wrote in message
...
> On 24/01/2015 1:25 PM, dsi2 wrote:
>> On 1/23/2015 2:07 PM, Xeno wrote:
>>> On 24/01/2015 10:32 AM, Janet Wilder wrote:
>>>> On 1/23/2015 4:25 PM, Xeno wrote:
>>>>> On 24/01/2015 7:47 AM, Sqwertz wrote:
>>>>>> On Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:36:36 -0600, Janet Wilder wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Neither of us can tolerate hot-spicy foods. What are some things
>>>>>>> in Ho
>>>>>>> Chi Minh City that you all would recommend we order?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> No chicken--the travel nurse said not to order chicken because of
>>>>>>> bird flu.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Your nurse is paranoid and over-reactive. You stand a much better
>>>>>> chance of getting salmonella or listeria here in the U.S. than you do
>>>>>> getting bird flu in SE Asia. Your best bet in Vietnam right now is
>>>>>> contracting measles more than anything else.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -sw
>>>>>>
>>>>> True. It seems the only people who contract bird flu are those who
>>>>> work
>>>>> full time with live chickens. The paranoia spreads far more readily
>>>>> than
>>>>> the bird flu does.
>>>>>
>>>> It was my friend's travel nurse who is with Kaiser. It is in Kaiser's
>>>> literature on traveling to those countries.
>>>>
>>>> I've had more than my share of health issues and I live with (currently
>>>> in remission) lung cancer, so please understand if I'm a bit over
>>>> cautious.
>>>>
>>> I understand health issues quite well. My point is that all too often
>>> people focus on the item they are least likely to become infected by and
>>> forget the more subtle ones. As an example, on my last trip to Thailand
>>> in 2001, I visited the family farm in Ayuttaya. I took a look inside the
>>> water tanks, something you should always do. I had been drinking from
>>> the local rainwater tanks on previous trips but this time the tanks had
>>> mosquitoes in them, Not a good sign. The people were getting old I guess
>>> and didn't maintain the tanks as well as they should have been. Anyway,
>>> on seeing the mosquitoes, I determined then and there that I would only
>>> drink bottled water for the duration. I was brought undone by my brother
>>> in law who topped up my water bottle from the tank... it didn't affect
>>> them as they were immune. I partook of but a sip before I realized that
>>> the water tasted strange. That tiny sip was enough. Within 2 hours the
>>> fever had begun and I was pretty much stuffed for the next two weeks of
>>> my time in Thailand. Unfortunately that episode left me with some rather
>>> long term consequences. On my return to work I lasted about 2 or 3 weeks
>>> before it became acutely apparent that I wasn't recovered. I spent 6
>>> months on sick leave, another 18 months on provisional retirement, then
>>> permanent retirement since. I have only just begun to make reasonable
>>> progress back to good health in the past 2 or 3 years but I am still not
>>> back to where I was nor am I likely to be again.
>>>
>>> All for the sake of a sip of water.
>>>
>>> For the record, everyone else drank that water, including my wife, but
>>> they had no issues - immunity developed over their lifetimes being the
>>> key.
>>>
>>
>> Sorry to hear this - that's one shitty deal. What did you get infected
>> with?
>
> The doctors at the hospital I ended up in had no idea. By the time I got
> there, the nasty had wreaked its havoc and moved on leaving me quite
> debilitated. All they told me was that, given the symptoms, it was most
> likely a virus. I suspect it might have been a form of Dengue though they
> hang around for quite some time in an active state. A friend of mine got
> infected with that when he was working offshore in Indonesia. He ended up
> in Jakarta, then Singapore and they eventually medivacced him to Fairfield
> Infectious Diseases Hospital in Melbourne. He was off work for up to a
> year from memory. He has lived permanently in Thailand now for the past 30
> odd years so I hope he has built up an immunity in that time....
>
> The obvious answer is to avoid contact with water that has not been
> extensively purified. I remember when I was in my sister in laws house in
> Bangkok, I remember having a shower and the water was leaving a burning
> sensation on my lips as it flowed across them. Later on I was discussing
> this with my brothers in law and one, who worked for the Bangkok Water
> Authority, told me that I didn't want to know what was needed to be put
> into the water to purify it.. ;-) Even they didn't drink that water!

I still worry about what damage may have occurred to me when we lived on
Cape Cod. My husband was away at school so my MIL and nephew helped me to
move in. She drank coffee so we bought a pot and had made and drank a few
pots of it plus had been drinking tap water when we got the call. It was my
husband, telling us that the water was not potable.

I bought bottled water after that and used it for cooking and drinking but
we were showering and brushing teeth and washing clothes in it. At times
they would put something on the base TV channel telling us not to wash with
it and they would bring us gallons of water. Other times when there was no
such warning, the water would run red. My hair took on a reddish cast when
we lived there and no amount of hair dye would correct that.

I know that there was a pollution plume that originated on the base. There
used to be websites that tracked it and the people who lived outside of the
base were furious about it because it was leaking into their soil and water.
Scientists (at least that is how they were dressed) once sneaked back to the
house behind me and set up a meter to monitor the soil. I looked at it but
couldn't figure out exactly what it was for. I do know from looking online
that there was jet fuel and chlordane in the water. So a filter wouldn't
have helped with that.

AFAIK, I was healthy when we moved to Cape Cod. My only health issues that
I knew of were seasonal allergies, a bad knee and high BP. But as soon as
we moved away, a cavalcade of health issues began to crop up for me. And my
MIL's health rapidly declined not long after we took her back home from
helping me move in.

I guess I will never know for sure but I can't help but wonder if the
tainted water might have had something to do with this. I am no longer in
contact with anyone from that area save for one woman that I used to work
with. I really don't know her well at all. She was hired in to replace me
so we only worked together for a couple of weeks. Her husband worked there
as well and I knew him a bit better. For some reason she still sends me
Christmas cards each year but there is never any accompanying letter. She
used to send pics of her kids but now that I think about it, I don't even
think I got a card from her this past year. They moved to Holley NY when
her husband got out of the Coast Guard.