Mucinex

I asked my pulmo. for a prescription for 180 tabs of Guaifenesin ER 600 mg (90 day supply). Using a goodrx coupon, the current price is $30.99 at CVS and $31.34 at Walgreens. Good luck!

I’m sorry to respond late. I have not had treatment for penicillium because the Mayo doc felt it was unlikely to be causing my CT findings or my clinical symptoms. Once the culture was negative for Mac or other treatable organisms, she changed my asthma inhaler from Stiolto to Advair and my “little cough” was gone in 48 hrs. I’d had a cough for ages and this was a great relief. 😀. She’d mentioned the Stiolto could be making it worse. My “horrid cough” had already improved before the Mayo trip with nasal sprays. It is wonderful not to cough so much. I also use Albuterol neb daily followed by Aerobika and huffing, but am not sure that does much.

pacathy, what nasal spray do you use? Do you have Asthma and that's why the doctor gave yu Advair? I'm struggling with cough too.

I have mild asthma which primarily manifests as a persistent, nagging little dry cough, the reason for the Advair.

I’m currently using a Mayo compounded nasal spray with mometazone, Ipratropium and diphenhydramine. Similar uncompounded meds are available as two inhalers. I have an additional separate Ipratropium spray to use mid afternoon since it has a 6 hour duration of action and the combo didn’t last full 12.

I think it’s most important to have an idea of the reason for your cough. My bronchiectasis is mild and my PFT’s are excellent. I seldom bring up sputum from lungs. My bigger cough generally seems to be from sinus drainage and that’s the reason for the emphasis on sinus/allergy meds for me.
Good luck with finding help. Before I saw a pulmonologist, my coughs were exhausting.

Hi. I was diagnosed last Spring with Bronchiectasis and also have asthma. I had a hard time at first with the 3% and it took a while to develop a tolerance. I now can do 7%, though sometimes I mix the 3% with the 7% if the straight 7% burns my throat. What helped me a lot was attaching the Aerobika to the nebulizer and setting the Aerobika to a low/easy level. For some reason that seemed to diffuse the saline enough for me to learn to tolerate it.

RE: Mucinex
I can’t use even 3% saline very often anymore, or it now creates inflammation and sometimes a bleed.
So I’m wondering if Mucinex can thin mucus as well as saline — does anyone know? If so, we can substitute it for saline?
Mucinex doesn’t inflame my throat or lungs and I tolerate it well.

Same here. I can only nebulize 3% once a day for 10 minutes. If more than that my lungs got really irritated and bleed. Some days, I have to take a break. Mucinex helps thin the mucus, but it triggers cough and often gives me coughing fits. That is my experience.

@cate123456 I was not aware that hypertonic saline caused inflammation and potential bleeding. What does your doctor say? I wonder if the osmotic action of the hypersonic saline makes it feel as though your lungs are congested and inflamed? Hypertonic saline helps to draw out the accumulated phlegm in your lungs so it can be coughed out. Are you using a bronchodilator before the hypertonic saline?

If you tolerate mucinex and it does not trigger a cough like it does in me and also @sweethighland then that's great. Some people also like NAC. Some take NAC and mucinex together. The only real way to figure it out is to experiment. Fortunately, both are safe for most people as long as you stick to the recommended doses but neither are substitutes for hypertonic saline.

For a while I took both NAC and 12-hour mucinex together. That combo seemed to work well until I started coughing at night. Once I took myself off NAC and later mucinex the coughing subsided. Now, I use levalbuterol followed by 7% saline via nebulizer and then airway clearance.

This paper on "Mucolytics, Expectorants, and Mucokinetic Medications" explains the mechanism of these medications on mucus on the lungs. Lung mucus is quite complex stuff with multiple factors at play. It leaves me with more questions than answers!
https://rc.rcjournal.com/content/respcare/52/7/859.full.pdf

Thanks for the good info Scoop,
I have been nebulizing saline for about seven years now. At first the 7% worked, but then after two years couldn’t use it and went down to 3% for many years, but now it’s too irritating also. So I guess my lungs have changed over the years and just don’t tolerate saline much anymore.
My pulm agrees has has seen this before.

Coughing is a big problem. I have medications for afib so there are a lot of meds for cough that I am unable to take.
Does anyone have something that would help a cough?
I have taken mucinex but doesn’t stop cough..