What is Dry Bronchiectasis?

Thank you. I’m going to look into that!

My exact wording to my pulmonologist, "It is exhausting and frustrating."

@rosacav pretty much the only time I cough is with eating/drinking. I had a full gerd work-up, all normal. I had a barium swallow test, normal. I am soon to see a laryngologist to see what they have to say. I have no idea if the coughing is related to the BE/MAC, but my immediate concern is that I am obviously aspirating, and there is a significant connection between aspirating and BE/MAC. Have you had your sputum tested recently?

I was diagnosed with Bx about 10 years ago after many years of undiagnosed cough and possibly mild asthma. I have been nebulising for last 3 years and the sputum volume seems to be increasing. Yesterday I produced 2 x7oz cups.

The sputum volume is becoming scary. Saw specialist last August and they still maintain my Bx is mild, the 2x sputum samples which showed MAC at beginning of year cleared by then (perhaps a benefit of large sputum clearance?) and that asthma is a factor.

I have just ordered Lignosis which I had delivered today...hoping this will reduce sputum volume. Will try to remember how to create a post about Lignosus. 🙏
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I agree - the volume of sputum you are producing seems quite a lot. I'm not sure I would wait until August to talk to the pulmonologist about it.

May I ask what you are using to nebulize, and what kind of airway clearance exercises you use? Also, are you on any medication to manage your asthma?

Thank you, Sue. It was last August I saw specialist.
I have been using 6% hypertonic after salbutamol. The specialists over years have complained that I am non compliant with their steroids for asthma. I did recommence Symbicort some months back in order to retry it. It seems to help if I am doing extreme exercise, but other than that I can't see any benefits for my Bx and since I don't notice my asthma, once again I have stopped it.

Specialists seemed to think mucus volume caused by other than my mild Bx.

2 doses of Lignosis now and I can feel the difference! However it is very expensive.

Have you been tested for GERD and hiatal hernia?
Another thought- maybe your routine is causing some of the mucus production. Have you considered stopping the salbutamol neb and just doing the Symbicort inhaler or its generic version? I found Salbutamol very irritating to my lungs. I switched to Levalbuterol, first nebbed then inhaled and it was better, but now have dropped that for Symbicort- even better. Also cuts neb time by half. Since you are negative for MAC maybe even try 3% saline to calm things down.

Yes I have GERD and have been diagnosed earlier for a hiatus hernia. The last time I had an endoscopy they couldn't find the hernia, and also it wasn't picked up on a barium swallow...so I am hoping that the hiropractic type manoeuvres I did around that area might have undone it (I believe it was a sliding hernia caused by coughing). So it is possibly GERD related but I went off PPIs around 5 years back and don't intend going back on them.

The recommendations were to use a lower dose hypertonic but when I have tried that I don't feel I get as a complete clearance. And I feel the mucus building up badly in between nebbing so doubt that is the cause.

I have been concerned that all the coughing I fo while nebbing is having a damaging affect on my lungs and this is adding to the mucus volume. Have tried to find out if this could be true but haven't had a response. Any thoughts? Not sure what I could do about that anyway...despite professionals who show me gentle/non coughing clearance techniques.. If I did that I can't see myself clearing anything. (But maybe I am wrong?)

I have decided to retry the Symbicort, using it prior to nebbing, which is not what I did beforehand...I used it independently. Hopefully that will help and make me compliant with their requests! Thank you so much for the suggestion, Sue.