I’m awaiting my treatment to begin.

I was a professional gardener for over a decade in my 30s and 40 and now I can enjoy gardening in my own yard —finally— but apparently my newly diagnosed NTM intracellulare comes from soil. Yay. I’ll be masking up from now on.

As my profile says, I only just was diagnosed in aug of 2024 after taking part in a lung cancer screening program offered in my province for people aged 55-75. A bronchoscopy later, and MAC intracellulare I have.
Not even two days pass and my dry cough I’d had for a few months I had attributed to allergies, turns into a full blown lung infection/pneumonia Thankfully, after seven weeks with home IV I could self-administer, the infection was clearing up. BUT, by the second follow up(December) CT, the MAC had spread to both lungs extensively and even though I am not coughing anymore at all, I am lethargic, can’t exercise like I could before and my body aches and joints hurt etc. I find I aspirate and choke on saliva quite often. I’m being treated for reflux now and have bed propped up.

I just had a bilateral mastectomy in Jan of 2023 and did a short stint on Tamoxifen. I also had melanoma in 2012 and managed to recover rather well and quickly from all of them. Now, because in Canada we need to wait for Rifampin and Ethambutol to be issued by TB Control, it’s taking a few weeks (since I was prescribed) and giving me the opportunity to research side effects and measures to deal with them etc. Which is how I ended up finding this support group!

I have a couple concerns/questions:
—I’ve read I should exercise and be doing breathing exercises to cough up sputum. What if I don’t have any? Or do I have it and don’t know? I haven’t heard back from a breathing test I just had that was supposed to be unrelated and ordered a year before this all started… back when dealing with breast cancer. No news = good news? Doubtful but who knows?
—I’ve read to take probiotics. I only ate yogurt while I was on Ertapenem for the pneumonia for seven weeks but that was IV fed and not orally taken. What is the safest way to do so without interfering with the drugs?
I have had a weak stomach in the past for certain antibiotics. Are there foods to avoid? Foods to aid in making me less nauseous perhaps?
I can do ginger teas and chews but anything else?

Treatment can start any day now, any advice on what to do is greatly appreciated.

Sidebar: I pray I don’t end up with hives all over like I did from amoxicillin and Clindamycin. Unrecognizable I was.