Any suggestions for expelling tenacioius mucus plugs?

Thanks for you post with the great picture of the Waterfall pose.
To clarify and to be sure I understand .....what is broncs. when you mentioned "ended up having to have broncs."
Thanks.
Barbara

Hi Barbara,
Yes. I ended having to have two bronchoscopies.

Is this because you could not produce enough sputum? Or the sputum you produced did not yield lab results or were rendered not a good sample? I am curious because bronchoscopy has been mentioned to me lately, which I'd like to avoid. I have zero difficulty producing a lab acceptable sample.

A bronchoscopy is an invasive procedure done under sedation and like all invasive procedures, comes with risks. I myself had to have one at the beginning of my MAC "adventure" because I couldn' t produce sputum to make a diagnosis and was getting sicker and sicker. I ended up with a lung infection from the bronch. A reputable pulmonologist would only recommend it as a last resort. If you're able to cough stuff up you shouldn't need one. Now even when I think the sample I cough up is pure saliva, my ID doc at NJH says it has enough lung sputum in it to make a diagnosis. I think it depends on the lab.

I couldn't produce any sputum. Incorporating the waterfall position in my latest round of sputum tests has been a real game changer for me.

Thanks.....oh bronchoscopes. I did have that "test" during the week long testing at NJH in Oct 2023.

My pulmonologist put me on Mussinex right away, even before the Mac diagnosis. I still take it every day and can tell if I miss it. It helps loosen the mucus so that I can cough it up. Although I don't have that much, I cough up what I have after taking it. You could check with your doctors on that.

Candace how do you manage to hold the nebulizer cup with meds and keep this pose with arms spread? Also how thick hip support do you use?

Hi Liliana,
I didn't use the hip support cushion as shown in the waterfall photo.
I held the specimen cup in my right hand and used my right elbow as an anchor to lift my body just enough to lean over and be able to spit into the cup as needed. I couldn't believe the yield the last two tests doing it this way. I actually took photos of the specimen cups! I know that sounds gross but that's what I did!

I would guess Candace meant bronchoscopies? I only imagine that to be the case b/c I can't produce mucus for sampling and my pulmonologist said a bronchoscopy would be a way to obtain one.