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No symptoms or health problems
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: 2 days ago | Replies (29)Comment receiving replies
@mholm Welcome to Mayo Connect - in our support group you will find people with a full range of experiences ranging from never using antibiotics to being on them for years.
If you have no symptoms at this point, you may be in a good place to try to avoid antibiotics. There is a treatment protocol called "watch and wait" - where you do daily airway clearance, preferably with 7% saline nebs, and your pulmonologist monitors the level of your infection with frequent sputum cultures and periodic CT scans.
Here is an excellent video (long but worth watching) on airway clearance by Dr Pamela McShane, a Bronchiectasis expert at the University of Texas - Tyler:
If this keeps the infection contained, and there is no more damage to your lungs, you can continue in this mode indefinitely. If your infection or lung damage progress, or you become symptomatic, then you explore starting antibiotics.
Here is a current video from National Jewish Health with guidelines on when to treat and when to watch:
If you are following this strategy, it is important to do it under the watchful eye of a specialist experienced in managing Mycobacteria infections. They keep informed of all the besdt and most current treatment protocols. Do you have one on your team?
Replies to "@mholm Welcome to Mayo Connect - in our support group you will find people with a..."
Thank you Sue! I have a respirologist and he agreed to watchful waiting. I will have another CT scan 6 months after our last consult. He has not mentioned saline nebs or airway clearance so I will watch the videos and ask him. (I'm in Canada so protocols may be different.) So glad I found this group!
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In agreement with comments and want to emphasize the importance of airway clearance with 7% saline nebulized. I actually learned about this practice from this group. Watchful waiting was a gamble for me that resulted in significant progression of the disease- However everyone is different. Educating myself through the videos widely available on the topics of Mac and BE has been a helpful strategy. Best wishes for continued health.