@blm1007blm1007 Good afternoon Barbara, When I hear this description of your morning, no wonder you are tense. Do you think maybe you are working too hard?

I may be wrong, but I don't believe airway clearance is meant to "take over your life." I know we all want the mucus out of our lungs to improve our chances to avoid or fight infection. But sometimes, I think doing too much serves as an irritant (as well as being exhausting) and perhaps increases mucus production.

I was taught airway clearance by an RN who had worked with my first pulmonologist for over 20 years, coaching patients in techniques and helping to induce sputum specimens from reluctant lungs.
After our first session, she told me to "Go home and try each of these techniques to find the one that works best for you. It may be different as your health changes, or on each day of the week, your asthma waxes and wains, or allergens get in the way."

I was pretty ill and also extremely anxious then (7 years ago) so when I went for my second session with her, I told her how exhausted I was, spending 3-4 hours a day nebbing and doing airway clearance. Her response was "Whoa there - neb, wait a little, then do 20-30 minutes of one or two techniques and STOP. The objective is to get the mucus moving - you can NEVER get it all out because your lungs are constantly producing it."

It was after that session that I discovered a short walk (15-20 minutes was all I could manage then) helped move the saline down into my lungs. Then I would do Airway clearance - usually all I needed was some active cycle breathing and either Aerobika or huff coughing. But sometimes I had to resort to some inverted yoga poses. Hours later, I might have a period of spontaneous productive coughing. But that "I can't keep this up" desperate feeling went away. I no longer felt like I was "drowning" or "completely clogged" because I was thinning and moving the mucus, but not to the extent of irritating lungs, airways and throat.

Now, I use my inhaler and occasionally neb (for those who may not know my story, this is with my pulmonologist's blessing) get a little exercise (walking, yoga or vigorous house/yard work) then do my airway clearance.

Maybe, for those of you who are reporting HOURS of trying, and lots of foamy mucus, are actually irritating your lungs into producing that excess mucus by trying so hard? And maybe working that hard is part of the tension you feel, and the exhaustion as well.

I am trying to find an airway clearance expert who can answer these questions, now that Dr. A and his nurse have retired.