Airway clearance techniques

He Who Acts as His Own Doctor Has a Fool for a Patient!

I’m guessing she also knows to rinse thoroughly before and after using it. 😀 I had trouble with thrush when the steroid was added to my steroid inhaler and steroid nasal spray and stopped it intermittently over 3 months. I finally figured out that making sure all the rinse solution had finished dripping and then rinsing solved it.

If anyone can help me sort this out, concerning saline and airway clearance. Since I was diagnosed with spinal compression fractures in May of 2024, I have had to discontinue use of vest therapy. This has led me to be more fastidious in doing airway clearance.
I use first levalbuerol inhaler, followed by 3% saline am and 7% saline pm, then immediately low dose steroid inhaler (Breyna, which is generic for Symbicort).
This is my question: Can I use 1/2 vial 7% saline in the morning, say for 5 or 6 minutes, save the rest of the vial and nebulize the remaining 7% in the evening, until finished, about 6 minutes more?
Since losing vest therapy, it is trial and error to see what works. Pharmacologic Airway clearance twice a day, morning and evening. Manual clearance mid-day with lying on my back, vigorous exercise, deep, controlled breathing, huff coughing, and recently adding postural drainage, lying on either side while doing percussion palpitations along the sides of my chest.

I’ve used half of the saline vial in the morning and then in the afternoon the rest. I left it at room temperature. Some might say to refrigerate it. At room temperature, cover with a tissue or in the fridge cover with plastic wrap.

FWIW, my lungs really need all the moisture they can get. On really hard days I neb two saline vials instead of one. If you can get away with a half a vial more power to you! Sounds like your routine is pretty darn awesome!

I use 1.5 vials of saline during my AM clearance. I put the other half back in the saline box which is in a drawer and use it the next day. PM I just use one vial. 7%.

Good morning. May be the cough is caused by a different kind of bacteria that come with MAC even if you are free of Mac. Ask for a respiratory culture test

Did you ever look into whether your cough is neurogenic? The condition includes an a hypersensitivity in your larynx and the diagnosis is one of exclusion. There are several ways of treating it, one is a low-dose of amitriptyline.

Also, are you sure you need the albuterol? Just because others take it doesn’t mean you need it. When patients ask doctors for it, they often prescribe it without any concern because it is considered relatively benign. However, the only way to know for sure if it makes a difference is to first have Pulmonary Function Tests without it and then with it. If there isn’t a significant difference with it, then it might not be necessary and could be causing reflux and coughing.

Best,
Linda Esposito

Thank you. Good information.