Her Reusable Water Bottle Landed Her In Urgent Care Four Times
Many of us who have owned reusable water bottles know that if you don’t clean them properly, they can get pretty nasty and even moldy.
But have you heard of someone having to go to urgent care because of their reusable water bottle?
One TikTok creator recently shared a video detailing her horrible experience with getting sick and finding out it was because of mold that had built up in her reusable water bottle.
Kae (@kaebrie) is a 19-year-old who has been dealing with horrible colds, infections, and painful symptoms since August. Little did she know, it was most likely because of her reusable water bottle.
Kae is a big fan of her reusable Owala water bottle. Like Stanley and Hydroflask, the brand is fairly popular and is well known for insulating cold drinks.
However, while using her water bottle throughout the summer and fall this year, Kae mysteriously got sick.
Starting in August, she had a cold that would not go away. So she went to an urgent care after a week of being sick and found out she had bronchitis.
After being given some pills and an inhaler, she began breaking out in hives and couldn’t take the pills anymore.
Kae was then given some more antibiotics, and those seemed to work. For a little while, at least.
hurricanehank – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
“I had maybe, like, a week and a half where I was healthy and felt great and didn’t have any illness,” says Kae in her video.
“Then I get sick again.”
Kae had another cold that lasted around two weeks before developing the “most painful sore throat” she ever had, which sent her back to urgent care. She was put on more antibiotics, which began to help.
“While I’m on antibiotics for their sore throat, I decide I’m gonna clean my water bottle,” says Kae.
“This is where it goes downhill.”
Kae acknowledges that, like many other reusable water bottle owners, she cleans hers, but not as often as she should.
While cleaning her water bottle, she inspected the lid and noticed a bit of silicone. She didn’t know how to go about cleaning the silicone piece, as there were many tight spaces around it.
After looking up how to clean her Owala lid piece on Reddit, she saw many Reddit users warning people to remove that part of the lid.
“I didn’t know it came out,” says Kae.
Once she removed the small silicone piece from the lid of the bottle, which connects the top of the lid to the mouthpiece, she realized it was covered in mold.
Kae desperately tried to clean it out with a toothpick and other methods, but it was so disgusting that she ended up needing to purchase a replacement piece for her water bottle.
Then, once the mold was gone, Kae no longer felt sick and hadn’t been ill since. Despite all her troubles, Kae still loves the Owala brand.
Still, she made her video a ‘PSA’ for those who have their bottles and encouraged the brand to make it clear to their customers that the specific silicone lid piece is removable and should be cleaned regularly.
Glad you’re feeling better, Kae!
https://www.tiktok.com/@kaebrie/video/7312289263293451563
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