How much time do you spend managing bronchiectasis?

@bronchiectasaurus

I work full time and have a 3 year old so it's tough. The biggest "time saver" for me when it comes to lung protocol is using the baby bottle sterilizer with the drying cycle. That cuts out the need to boil and prep. Do you use a baby bottle sterilizer?

I don't do a nasal rinse but would be curious to know what your process is. I'm not sure I can do another thing to be honest.

I struggle to do two high quality airway clearance sessions in addition to exercising. I do a quicker airway clearance in the mornings (nebulize and then a few cycles of aerobika) when possible, or in the afternoon if morning isn't possible and then my better (longer) session is before bed. I would say a really good airway clearance session takes me 40m. Then I rinse everything off and drop it in the sterilizer. I sterilize everything each time because it's the path of least resistance.

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!

Scoop -
I was curious to see if anything would come up when I googled: 'What indicates having spent enough time with air way clearance for Bronchiectasis.' However this is AI 'speaking.'
Overall it has some good points.... such as:
"Adherence to Therapy: Consistent and regular practice of airway clearance is crucial for sustained benefits."
However it's not Mayo. Cleveland Clinic, NJH etc. giving the information.
Barbara

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.

My pulmonologist agrees with daily even if dry. He also suggested I start 7% saline nebs last fall to try to decrease number of viral illnesses I'd had in previous winters. It did seem to help.

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.

Respiratory therapists at NJH said to do 10-15 minutes per session.
Also, regarding the baby bottle sterilizer - I also use this, but then boil or soak in alcohol once per week for a deeper sanitation.
Jill

Glad you mentioned that. I was not told that when there, however, I came to that conclusion a good few months ago.
Overdoing anything isn't good in many things.
Barbara

Hi
10-15 minutes of aerobika?
I soak in hydrogen peroxide.
I tried alcohol a couple of times. That smell knocks me out. Oofta!
I looked up if was okay to pour alcohol down drain after using it.
Google said nope could start a fire in your pipes!
Switched to peroxide.
What do you think?
Alcohol takes less time.

Surely the NJH therapists were referring only to the huff-cough part of airway clearance when they said 10-15 minutes? It would be impossible to do it all in that amount of time.