Neti pot - brain eating bacteria fear

[bunny11]

I’m freaking out so bad. Last night I threw up after eating because I was feeling sick. A piece of food felt like it got stuck in my throat/back of my nose.

My mom suggested I use a nasal squeeze bottle rinse try to wash everything out. She gave me a bottle I believe had been used before but someone else. I rinsed it with tap water, then filled it with some bottled water and put it in my nose. About halfway through I realized I forgot to add the salt solution so I added it and then finished. About 5 mins later I remembered an article that people have died from bacteria with neti pots / squeeze bottle nose rinses. I feel like I have just made a fatal mistake. I’m freaking out so bad. If the bottle was not sterilized correctly it could have been full of bacteria. I also rinsed it with tap water which is bad. Should I go to the hospital? Is there anything I can do to prevent a deadly infection at this point?

[nomorepanic]

You are really overthinking this one to be honest.


How many people do you know that have died of this?

[bunny11]

I don’t know anyone who has died but there’s tons of articles online about them. Also if the plastic bottle had been used and then not sterilized correctly I could have just put millions of bacteria into my brain. Idk what to do

[nomorepanic]

Extremely unlikely and not even worth thinking about.
You don't need to do anything.

[Flapj]

Bacteria aren’t the concern, it’s an amoeba that can kill you. But no, not worth worrying about you’ll be fine.

[rc906]

You are one-billion percent going to be fine. This is coming from a guy who is convinced he has fatal kidney disease because I pee like once or twice more than what google said is "normal" in a day. I totally get your line of thinking, but you are definitely going to be totally fine.

[kyllikki]

I neti potted this weekend too, using my trusty (washed) Brown Betty 2-cupper (and some boiled and cooled homemade saline water.)
Given that I literally use the teapot as a teapot at other times and merely washed it with a sponge and dish soap and then rinsed it with hot tap water, too -- something I've done at least half a dozen times before -- I am going to wager that it's not an issue.

[Deepseathree]

Googling is a hole that you will fall into quick. All you’re doing is trying to confirm your concerns. But from a rational standpoint you googling should show you how exceedingly rare it is. So rare that the chance is very unfathomable actual.

In 50 years there have only been 300 cases. That’s globally. Since 1962-2000 there have been 152 total documented cases in the US. Let’s break down the numbers. In 2019 it’s reported that there were 2,854,838 deaths total in the US. That’s only one year mind you. There are 37 other years that I’m not using. So let’s take all the documented deaths for N. Fowleri and just use one year of US deaths. Your chance of dying would be 0.00532429511%. Again I used ALL the documented cases for 38 years of N. Fowleri and compared it to only one year of the total deaths during that time in the US. That percent we get is hard to comprehend. If this was adjusted correctly the number just wouldn’t seem real at all.

Numbers bring me peace when it comes to me being irrational. Hopefully that helps you.