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Colonization of bacteria
I had a sputum culture on 1/6/25. The results showed “Heavy growth- Kleb ssp Pnemonia. I thought it was some type of pneumonia. I went to Mayo Jax for my annual testing, (I have Pulmonary Fibrosis & Bronchiectasis) and the transplant pulmonologist said it is not pneumonia!!! It is colonization of bacteria in your lungs. He did not elaborate on it at all.. prior going to Mayo, my home pulmonologist put me on Amoxicillin/Clavunate, 2x daily for 7 days. I noticed that it was harder to cough up my mucus prior to the culture, and my mucus had been a cloudy light brown color, where as previously had been clear and white. Has anyone had any experience with colonization of bacteria/ Kleb sat Pnemonia. I have no other symptoms besides harder to cough up mucus and discoloration of mucus. Thank-you.
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Thank you! I had read it can be hard to eradicate so hope I am wrong on this!
I'd be upping the nebulizing and clearing to twice a day. It's possible you could eradicate it with abx. How are you feeling?
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2 ReactionsHi- From my own experience I learned (I was only doing neb once a day) it is important to nebulize at least 2x a day. Mucus is forming all the time. and we want it out after a nights sleep and after a day of more building up. Not fun or easy to do but that is our job with this BE and infections.
Sue our mentor has Asthma also, have you read her suggestions on the site here?
Barbara
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3 ReactionsThank you. Just two weeks ago, my pulmonologist thought I could keep doing nebulizer only once a day, or more as needed, and then airway clearance twice a day. Definitely discouraged that this has changed suddenly but twice a day for nebulizing makes sense.
Yes, I have read Sue's great posts and replies on here since my diagnosis a couple of years ago. Thank you!
Hi, Sue.
I am curious about other ways Klebsiella might have gotten into my lungs. I am pretty rigorous with equipment sterilizing but wonder since it's common in the GI tract, for instance, can it get into our lungs within our own system? I also had an aspiration event not long before I became symptomatic. Thanks!
I'm not too familiar with klebsiella, so I don't have many answers for you. That would be an interesting question for your gastroenterologist or ID doc.
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1 ReactionPulmonary tells me that we breathe all sorts of things into our lungs daily. Healthy people breathe the stuff in and out and don't get sick from it. With bronchiectasis we also breathe stuff in and out and don't get sick from everything we breathe in. Sometimes though, stuff gets stuck in our lungs, finds a breeding ground and makes us sick. All of this makes airway clearance vital. Perhaps this happened to you with the Klebsiella. True, there are more common bacteria you could be infected with but Klebsiella not totally rare. It's important that the lab takes a close look at the strain to get you properly treated.
Klebsiella is often found at hospitals and medical facilities, despite their cleaning and sanitization efforts. Of course it can be found other places as well. It occasionally shows up in my sputum samples. Best of luck to you.
@spider109 if you are cleaning your equipment well, and it sounds like you are, and you have not received breathing treatments in hospital of late, I would be suspicious for aspiration. Also, while this seems obvious, we should all be washing our hands before we handle our clean nebulizing equipment.
Have you tried to use symbicort inhaler? I have a friend, she has BE and MAC for at least 20-30 years. She is 84. She has no asthma, shes doesn't even need albuterol, but recently before she uses aerobika she takes the symbicort, she said that helps her to bring the mucus out, and works very well for her. I know to suggest to use steroid is not a good idea, but anything helps to bring mucus out, I think it may be worthwhile to try.
Hope this helps.
Ling