Leicester Riverside Festival

[Brick]

There was a riverside festival in Leicester today, mainly along the grand union canal.

Once again it seems amazing how the supposedly death-dealing natural water becomes harmless when someone is in a boat. If anyone here intends to stay dry, I strongly recommend staying out of double hulled canoes being paddled mainly by children who don't know how to paddle. Given that I had water going in my face, in my hair, eyes, and mouth, I guess I'm now an experiment in progress on the biological safety of that water :doctor: Though, actually, the water looks a lot nicer close up than it does from a distance. At 18C, nice and cool too.

Here's a wikipedia photo of the relevant section of water. (Big, so I won't inline it).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/42/River_Soar_in_Leicester.jpg/800px-River_Soar_in_Leicester.jpg

There were people from the canoe club doing demonstrations, including some guys in some sort of "stunt" canoes who were flipping upside down, then would make a great show of being unable to right themselves again - then just make it after a few tens of seconds. I suppose the RoSPA would tell us that the fact that their bums are sitting on plastic sucks any pathogens out of their body before they can do any harm. It looked like a lot of fun, but perhaps not the kind of thing that should be tried at home!

[Brick]

Hmmm.... Due to a slightly dicky stomach feeling and a bit of the runs, I'm missing my triathlon club session tonight. So that's about five days after ingesting a bit of canal water. Could easily be something else of course.

[Wildswimmer]

Hmmm.... Due to a slightly dicky stomach feeling and a bit of the runs, I'm missing my triathlon club session tonight. So that's about five days after ingesting a bit of canal water. Could easily be something else of course.

I think you'd have known about it within 24 hours should you have caught anything from the canal water.

The type of weather we are now having seems to encourage "bugs" to do the rounds - I had a dose of the squits together with aching joints for a couple of days earlier this week. Others have had symptoms similar to a mild dose of 'flu, and I'm sure it's the same infection.

Wildswimmer Pete

[Brick]

I think you'd have known about it within 24 hours should you have caught anything from the canal water.

The type of weather we are now having seems to encourage "bugs" to do the rounds - I had a dose of the squits together with aching joints for a couple of days earlier this week. Others have had symptoms similar to a mild dose of 'flu, and I'm sure it's the same infection.

Wildswimmer Pete

I looked it up, and Cryptosporidium seems the most common cause for water borne infectious .... well you did say "squits". The incubation period for this is between 2 to 10 days, so an exposure on Saturday is about right. However, it looks very unlikely to be Cryptosporidium as the other symptoms are not right, in particular a Cryptosporidium infection typically starts with a loss of appetite, and I have definitely had a healthy appetite today, with my assumption that I was going to burn off calories tonight. I think the technical term is that I've been "stuffing my face". Other things are wrong too - no stomach cramps - no symptoms that I'm not going to offend people by describing in detail.

Looking through the various causes, there are two which appear most likely. One, while I don't think I'm particularly prone to stress, today and tomorrow are the most stressful days in the entire year for me. Oh, Monday's likely to be stressful too. Also, various pages mentioned things that can irritate, erm, "the digestive tract", and mentioned drinks with caffeine, including soft drinks. And I've had three cans of various colas today.

So it looks like I may have falsely accused the water in the canal and I should make it a formal apology.

[Wildswimmer]

I looked it up, and Cryptosporidium seems the most common cause for water borne infectious .... well you did say "squits". The incubation period for this is between 2 to 10 days, so an exposure on Saturday is about right. However, it looks very unlikely to be Cryptosporidium as the other symptoms are not right,

You'd have known it had you contracted Crypto. You'd be squitting through the eye of a needle, as well as calling loudly for Bob and Hughie. Crypto is a nasty illness that lasts for quite a while, and believe it or not, seems to be more of a risk to pool swimmers as cryptosporidium is chlorine-resistant. Hence the "boil orders" when it gets into the public water supply. As happened across a large swathe of North Wales last summer.

Wildswimmer Pete

[Brick]

You'd have known it had you contracted Crypto. You'd be squitting through the eye of a needle, as well as calling loudly for Bob and Hughie. Crypto is a nasty illness that lasts for quite a while, and believe it or not, seems to be more of a risk to pool swimmers as cryptosporidium is chlorine-resistant. Hence the "boil orders" when it gets into the public water supply. As happened across a large swathe of North Wales last summer.

Wildswimmer Pete

I thought I might be coming down with it, but I feel better now. While I could juuuussst make the training session tonight, I think I'll be safe. Lots of web pages mentioned it being spread by pools, and that was the main reason for me deciding not to go - in case I spread it to others.

I'm looking into what other types of infections could cause such symptoms. Campylobacter is one, but that's associated with undercooked poultry, and I haven't eaten any of that.

What other bugs could there be from bad water. Leptospirosis is way off in terms of symptoms. E. coli infection would start with severe stomach cramps first - none of those and ... oh dear, E. coli infection gets pretty bad when it develops ... Helicobacter pylori. Nope.

Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that glassful for glassful, fizzy cola was more likely to cause squits than canal water?

[Stevie_k]

Thats the most technical conversation about bum gravy ive ever read!

[Brick]

Thats the most technical conversation about bum gravy ive ever read!

Knowledge is power! Next time we see someone standing on the edge of a lake or river drinking coke and saying "aren't you going to make yourselves poorly" we can reply that its possible they'll be pumping liquid matter more than we will.

Edit: No problems today. Surely it can't be a bug, only stress (which I've been feelling today) or coke (which I haven't been drinking today).