Connect
← Return to Cleaning + disinfecting nebulizer and aerobica
Discussion
Cleaning + disinfecting nebulizer and aerobica
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Jun 5 9:02pm | Replies (154)Comment receiving replies
@sueinmn, I'd like to ask another question (though with MAC one question has a way of leading to another). Right now, mainly b/c I'm relatively newly diagnosed, I am still drinking tap water. I want to stop, but I'm very conscious of the phenomenon in life where you think you fix a problem only to introduce another.
So: filters. My doctor said the filters have their own problems: they can trap/accumulate MAC that gets into the water. But he may well not have been referring to the .02 micron filters that Dr. Falkingham recommends. Do you have any insight on this? In any event, as I rent an apt maybe it won't be feasible to put the filter in my kitchen tap -- though that would be my first choice, to address the problem at the source and not have to mess with boiling and UV bottles. Maybe it's a question of changing the filter with a certain frequency?
Dr. Falkingham says boiled water stays safe on your pantry shelf for a month. That's good - but do I have to worry about what type of container I put it in, i.e, does the container need to be carefully sterilized?
Then there are the UV bottles/Lifestraw -- but one of these says it has a charcoal filter and I know those are problematic for MAC -- maybe not if you change them with a certain frequency, but again this introduces concern and confusion for me.
I'm not going to worry for now about drinking water away from home but I want to make the water I drink in my home as MAC-free as feasible -- and avoid a situation where I think I am doing the right thing but actually am not.
I just ordered microwave-steam-sterilizing bags to start sterilizing my Aerobika in; do you know if this is a good idea?
As mentioned earlier I've taken the shower head off my shower, it's no problem for me to shower that way, and I loved your advice about aiming to avoid misting the mirror (a good indicator) and not doing hair and make-up until the bathroom is mist-free -- love that and would have not thought of it!
thank you SO much -- please know that I am watching NJH videos on youtube and the sessions from this week's NTMir patient conference in CA, but the issue is I have absorbed tons of info on drinking water and MAC but not sure how to boil it down to a doable process that isn't actually mitigating MAC b/c the bottle I put my boiled drinking water in wasn't sterilized or I am not changing the filters frequently enough.
Thank you
Lynn
Replies to "@sueinmn, I'd like to ask another question (though with MAC one question has a way of..."
Connect
There are may ways to filter tap water, but as you may have learned from my posts, I am all about simplicity. If I lived in an apartment, I would probably use the Pall .2 micron filter that fits on the tap, as a lot of members do. You can read the discussion here:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/recommendation-for-0-2-micron-filters/
For away from home, I use bottled spring water, but have been looking at the Lifestraw bottles to cut down on plastic waste.
I don't use a steam bag for my parts, I use a saucepan on the stove. You can search "bololo" or steam sterilizers to learn what other members have to say.
I wash reusable water bottles with a brush (to disrupt any microfilm trying to form) then sanitize in my dishwasher on the sanitize cycle which includes heated drying. My dishwasher temp is 145F. If away from home I sanitize with a bleach soak. The bottle brushes go into the dishwasher too. I learned this many years ago from friends who hike in Arizona, where they have to be careful about desert fever, which is as nasty as MAC to get rid of.