Strange Health Conditions

[roddavis]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Yes, I had a similar problem.  The bacteria in the water cause Staphylococcus Infection and the infections took some serious antibiotics to clear them up, and eventually the infection came back in a different area of my body.  I only solved the problem by moving away but I did do some "analyzing" as you seem to be doing.

First, no one else in the house was taking hot showers except me.   Perhaps the shower heater was warmer and the bacteria was breeding there.  I bleached the hell out of it, inside and out but the infections eventually came back.  No local doctor had a clue.  I went to 7 of them.  The best one gave me a great antibiotic that cleared it up quickly but the others, especially one ENT who was a high priced foreign doc in Chong Hua did nothing that solved the problem.

There was one doc who explained that this type of bacteria enters though breaks in the skin so I noticed that the infections would start in areas that I had shaved.  No one else in the house shaved so another reason why it only affected me and it was hard to convince others that the water was the source.

That black mold is all but impossible to kill.  I tried everything I could think of but it always came back.

So in my opinion, if its in the water source you're screwed.  NOTE that other foreigners lived in the area and used the same water so it is possible that some have more natural immunity to the bacteria.  I would say it was the pipes in the house but other foreigners lived in that house before me and after me without getting those symptoms.

IF you like to take hot showers at least once a day then that would confirm my suspicion that it was somehow linked to the hot shower.  Other foreigners who lived in that house never used a "hot water on demand" hot water heater.  Most were used to the warm/tepid water from the pipes and the occasional one would heat up water on the stove for a wash.

Not sure if the bacteria is tied with hot shower, since I do not use hot water just what comes out of the of the shower. And I agree it is probably from the water itself! And it makes sense it enters your body thru a break of the skin or even the little bit that may enter your month from a shower. We drink only bottled water. There may be a fix from, Ace hardware(large sand trap filter with backwash and a whole house filtration unit(with UV)) installed on on water line. That runs @ $1000. But if it works like I suspect, it would be worth it. On my to do list in the near future! 

[Huggybearman]

Not a fix to the actual problem of your contaminated pipes but you could use an anti-bacterial soap such as Cetaphil. Most pharmacies and supermarkets sell it. Not cheap at around 500php per bar.

I used to suffer from occassional skin infections after shaving. I think our water is not as clean as it should be but since I began using the Cetaphil about three years ago I have had no such problems.

Ken

[bastonjock]

The water in London used to be so bad that people only drank beer ( true honest ) so perhaps a diet of red horse is to be considered ,might be a bit sticky for shaved but you'll be happy