Marsh hiking

If you ask Dr Falkenham how risky it is in an email, he’d let you know. I did that about white water rafting. He didn’t say go/don’t go, but explained that water that has just run thru tree roots probably has increased MAC. I’ll do the family day trip and avoid seats that take more spray.

I’m finding it so difficult trying to decide what I should avoid or change in order to protect myself. Every summer we stay at a house on a marsh in New Jersey for two weeks. Now I’m not sure I should be staying there at all. I never thought about it before.

@jannah I am in the same boat. My family has a vacation home that is located directly across the road from a large coastal estuary. I have hiked along the estuary, kayaked in it, all before MAI diagnosis of course. Now I am not sure it is even safe for me to go and stay at the house. Of course I live in the SF Bay Area, and the bay is one huge body of brackish water (which I confess I had no sense of before my MAI diagnosis). For decades I ran along the Bay, every day, for exercise. It is certainly a question in the back of my mind as to whether that is how I picked up my MAI infection … no way to know which makes judgement calls around possible exposure sources so challenging.

This is a great conversation. Thank you! I'm new here and have been battling pseudomonas... not diagnosed with MAC as it's only been in one culture. However, I'm the poster child for it in symptoms and a Lady Windermere type. I was just about to book a beautiful vacation rental on Fripp Island... but it's a Marsh Property. I'm trying to get used to my new reality. I guess I should pass on this? I'm just having a hard time seeing my life shrink as payette78 mentioned. I'm still so confused about the coughing, sputum, nebulizer, albuterol, flutter device... etc. I'm 63 and thinking... this is the rest of my life? And now re-considering a vacation I would normally jump at. Sorry about my sad state of mind right now. I truly appreciate what many of you have said. Also, does anyone else have a problem wearing a mask? I had so many issues during Covid. I find it hard to breathe.... and that's without an N95.

Fripp Island has a wonderful stretch of a beach for walking along the salty Atlantic Ocean. Keep your walks there and keep up with airway clearance and I suspect you'll be fine. It seems to me the key is not to let the secretions in your lungs pool.

I believe Dr. Falkinham on the NTMinfo.org site weighed in on marshes. Perhaps check that site to read Dr F's exact words. I seem to recall he said the increased risk is related to aerosolization of water droplets. So, unless there are waterfalls and rushing water walking along marshes is not the riskiest thing you could do.