Bloody nose.... dry climate... humidifier safe

[bloggymom]

I live in an extremely dry climate. My hands have cracked, my feet look like the desert floor and my family has been having nose bleeds.

Hubby does heating and air conditioning for a living... We already have a whole house air cleaner and now hubby wants to get a whole house humidifier. Are whole house humidifiers safe for CFer's??? My ENT says its okay but with all that I have cultured in my lungs over the past year I am not so sure (MAC and pseudomonas). I don't want to start culturing mold or something else icky.

Side note: I tried a humidifier on my oxygen per recommendation of CF docs but didn't care for it at all.

 

[kgfrompa]

I live in the cold and My feet are so cracked even with the Emjoi that I use to get off the dead skin.My hands are so cracked and bleeding i have to stop typing and have bandaged every finger,Seems the older i get I am 57 the more of a battle I use Philosophy and many good creams but still battle.So I was thinking of getting a humidifier for my home and I looked at older post on the Humidifiers and due to the moister My lungs really swell up and I get so tight breathing so for me I decided it was not a good idea.Maybe if you got one for one room to see if it helped you would be a good start.I hope this helps you Good luck

 

[Beccamom]

I was wondering the same thing about a whole house humidifier. I grew up with one and didn't know I had CF until I was an adult. I have a major and a minor mutation so to speak, but I grow less severe bacteria then my daughter who did not grow up with a whole house humidifier. My daughter also had aspergillus in a culture after we had stopped using a humidifier for her room. We revealed our bathroom grout and replaced the shower heads and she has not cultured it again.

an odd thought we have a medium size water fall above our fire place and as long as we run them together I am not extra thick junky, but just the fire place and my mucus is really thicker by morning. By the next day I have to refill it because it is completely empty by morning. I don't know if this water is safe, but it never sits more then a day before it is bone dry. I could boil water let it cool and put it in the fountain too.

Just 2 warmer days and the heat is off and I feel great, so there must be a way to safely humidify our forced air heat.

I live in an extremely dry climate. My hands have cracked, my feet look like the desert floor and my family has been having nose bleeds.

Hubby does heating and air conditioning for a living... We already have a whole house air cleaner and now hubby wants to get a whole house humidifier. Are whole house humidifiers safe for CFer's??? My ENT says its okay but with all that I have cultured in my lungs over the past year I am not so sure (MAC and pseudomonas). I don't want to start culturing mold or something else icky.

Side note: I tried a humidifier on my oxygen per recommendation of CF docs but didn't care for it at all.

 

[stephen]

Although a CF center in New Youk City that I used to attend did have small "sonic" room humidifiers, I was advised not to use one. They were breeding grounds for bacteria.

The article below addresses this issue. Looks like they require quite a bit of maintenance. I'm sure there is a lot more addressing this on the web.

From http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10315606

An in-hospital evaluation of the sonic mist ultrasonic room humidifier.

Chatburn RL, Lough MD, Klinger JD.
Abstract

It is generally recognized that nebulizers can be a source of nosocomial infection. 'Cold mist' room humidifiers are a particular problem because they are difficult to sterilize. We evaluated a new device, the Sonic Mist ultrasonic room humidifier, to determine how quickly it became contaminated during continuous use by a population of cystic fibrosis patients. In addition, the study was designed to test the effectiveness of placing a bacterial filter on the air inlet of the humidifier. We found that the entire humidifier could withstand repeated gas sterilization. Data obtained from 18 humidifiers involving cystic fibrosis patients indicate that the earliest humidifier contamination occurred after 5 days of continuous use. Although all patients had large numbers of gram-negative bacilli as predominant sputum flora, only 7 episodes of contamination were found during 34 humidifier-use periods. Three units equipped with filters became contaminated (5-7 days) and four unfiltered units became contaminated (6-11 days), indicating that the use of an inlet filter made no apparent difference. The organisms recovered from contaminated units were not found as sputum flora and would not generally be considered of clinical significance in cystic fibrosis sputum cultures. Probable sources of the organisms were room dust and hand contamination. A further test of the inlet filter was performed by exposing filtered and unfiltered units to mist from an intentionally contaminated humidifier. Again, the contamination rate was low and the filter apparently made no difference. These results indicate that the Sonic Mist humidifier may be appropriate for hospital use if adequate sterilization and contamination-monitoring practices are followed.



PMID: 10315606 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

[jamest]

My doctor recommended me the Venta Airwasher, it is supposed to trap bacteria and filter the air as it works. I ran it all last winter and felt much better than the previous (OTC drugstore humidifier) winter. I definitely notice a difference in my lungs with even a 10% drop in humidity.