Bleach

If it did this to my mouth in just one week, I wonder what the long term effects are of drinking bleach EVERY DAY!  Peace Corps has us pour a little bit of bleach into our water before we filter it to kind of give us double security against parasites and microbes that may be in the water here.  We are to put 1 to 2 drops per liter, but seeing how they don't supply us with any pipets (sorry, it's the scientist in me) to get a perfect measurement, we kind of have to just eyeball it and hope we put in the right amount.  This last time, I think I put a little bit too much bleach in the water.  One day when I woke up last week, I noticed my mouth felt a little raw and I didn't know why.  My gums felt a little swollen and were a bit sore.  I didn't know what it was so I figured it must had been something I ate the previous day or maybe something crawled in my mouth and bit me in my sleep (a little far-fetched I know, but it is possible).  Not knowing what it was, I ignored it, thinking it would go away as the day progressed.  But after I brushed my teeth it only got worse.  Thinking that maybe the soreness  had something to do with my toothbrush, I threw my toothbrush away and got a new one.  When the same thing happened again the next day, I assumed I was using a defective floss and considered throwing that away too.  Next up, I thought it was the toothpaste...then, maybe the seasonings I had been using in my food.  After using all new products for my daily and nightly brushing routine, only for the soreness to worsen and my gums to turn strangely red and begin to bleed a little bit, I finally discovered that maybe, just maybe, it was the bleach and water solution that I had been drinking and rinsing my mouth with after brushing my teeth.  When I thought hard about it, I realized that my mouth always seemed to burn the most after rinsing.  So I decided to rinse with regular water and yep...just as I thought...no pain.  So...it was definitely the bleach. 

In addition to drinking the bleach in our water, we have to soak our fruits and veggies in a diluted bleach solution 30 minutes before we plan to eat them and all I can do is wonder at what kind of illness I'll probably have in 10 years as a result of ingesting bleach every day, several times a day for the next two years.  Hopefully nothing, but if something comes up later in life, I won't be surprised. 

Love and Peace Corps,

Dametreea

Lesson learned: Don't over-do it with the bleach...it's better to have too little than too much...I think...