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How much time do you spend managing bronchiectasis?
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (21)Comment receiving replies
I spend approximately the same amount of time with the activities you describe. The aerobika seemed to take too much time in relation to what I produced so I dropped it and switched to autogenic drainage with huff coughs. My question, which pulmonologists and respiratory therapists alike have been unable to answer, is how to know when enough is enough for an airway clearance session? When things run clear or next to clear or a scant amount? Or getting the significant amount out within the first 5-6 cycles (first 10 minutes) is enough? The latter would save a lot of time!
Replies to "I spend approximately the same amount of time with the activities you describe. The aerobika seemed..."
That is one of my questions also! It is difficult to know when it is enough and always question if I'm really cleared out.
My time spent doing airway clearance is way too long. I'm looking into getting that Pari eFlow to help cut the time nebulizing anyway. It's a lot of money so convincing myself to buy it is difficult, but when I think of all the time slipping away from me it gives weight to the pro side.
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How long/how much is "good enough" - that is the big question.
Remember that your lungs and airways NEED mucus to keep them lubricated, so when you try to "get it all out" you stimulate them to produce even more mucus.
The goal is to do enough to get the mucus moving up and out, but not so much that you irritate your lungs and cause them to produce more mucus.
So whichever routine you use, according to my RT, should be about 10 cycles of active breathing/expulsion, or up to 20 minutes and stop. It's perfectly okay if you continue coughing up more stuff throughout the day. You can stop sooner if you can't sense any moveable mucus in your lungs-some days are like that.
Note to those with "dry bronchiectasis " my pulmonologist says you too should do airway clearance daily -you are forcing the damaged cilia to move so that anything in your lungs can't comfortably settle in.