Marsh hiking

Posted by payette78 @payette78, 2 days ago

With bronchiectasis and NTM, would you hike on elevated trails around a marsh? Or is it a bad idea?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the MAC & Bronchiectasis Support Group.

@pacathy

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.

Jump to this post

Good compromise. Common sense and risk tolerance come into play, I think. We need to continue doing things that bring us joy when possible, it seems to me. Just considering what risks might be involved is new to me.

REPLY
@jannah

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.

Jump to this post

@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.

REPLY
@bayarea58

@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.

Jump to this post

Yeah i hear you. I am 78 years old and have had many years of wonderful hiking. Don't have much stamina right now with NTM and bronchiectasis. But i can see my life shrinking before my eyes and can't help feeling sad about it.

REPLY

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.

REPLY
Please sign in or register to post a reply.