Terrified of Brain Eating Amoeba

[user007]

Today I was working on an underground irrigation system that was broken. The head was full of probably a few liters of stagnant muddy water that had been in there for months. I cleared the problem but it ended up blasting the water at very high pressure on my head and up my nose. I could feel it running down my throat and smell that stagnant smell. Seems like the perfect setup for the amoeba.

The source was clean water at one time, but it had been in there awhile and mixed with soil which I've read the amoeba lives in soil, too.

Now my state in the US has never had one case ever, but the temperatures get warm enough in the summer for the amoeba. My HA is so incredibly high from other issues right now I don't know how to process this one on top of it. How many people have actual dirty pressurized water blast up their nose? I'm terrified...

[AntsyVee]

It's very rare. Your situation happens to plumbers all the time. People also go swimming in rivers, creeks, ponds, etc. all the time. You're going to have to find solace in the stats and try to work on the other issues that are making your anxiety high right now.

[Sparky16]

Getting blasted up the nose with water seems to be something that happens more often than I ever would have imagined. Something similar happened to another member about a month ago. Nevertheless, I've never heard of anybody getting the amoeba this way.

Anxiety aside, that sounds like a disgusting experience! I'm sorry that happened to you.