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Length of Time on Antibiotic Regimen
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (17)Comment receiving replies
Kristi - I am totally confused! Are you being treated for non-tubercular mycobacteria (referred to as NTM, MAI or MAC), pseudomonas, or something else? Were you diagnosed using a sputum culture or a bronchoscopy?
The current bacterial infection loads for NTM and pseudomonas are determined by sputum cultures, which take 2 weeks for pseudomonas and 6-8 weeks for NTM to grow sufficiently to be fully identified. I am unfamiliar with any blood tests for this purpose.
Maybe they are checking to be sure your kidneys and liver are functioning properly, as these medications can affect them.
Replies to "Kristi - I am totally confused! Are you being treated for non-tubercular mycobacteria (referred to as..."
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I have Non-tubercular mycobacteria and Bronchiectasis. I am taking the 3 antibiotics for the MAC. I was diagnosed after a bronchial wash. It took 6 weeks for the culture to grow. He is treating the Bronchiectasis because I have a secondary infection from a cold. I don't know if it is even the Bronchiectasis causing me problems. I know I have an infection because I am running a 101 fever. I have no symptoms from MAC. I am worried now, though. I just finished a week-long antibiotic to treat the secondary infection, and I am no better. I am waiting for the doctor to get back to me with the next step. I am starting to feel like this will not get any better. Even with my severe asthma, I never had more than 4 days of breathing issues. I'm going on 4 weeks now. I know what happens when it can't be improved, and I am not ready.