Connect
← Return to Airway clearance and how I feel throughout the day
Discussion
Airway clearance and how I feel throughout the day
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Aug 9, 2025 | Replies (121)Comment receiving replies
I do the vest with albuterol nebulizer, and follow it with aerobika with saline 3b%nebulizer. I find that when I get to the saline and aerobika , I bring up tremendous amounts of mucus.
In addition to that, I wake up with at 1/4 least half a cup of mucus in my throat, most mornings
I still have mucus even after doing about seven rounds of the aerobic 10 times each. It does get less, but is it OK to leave some?
For now, I’m just doing this once a day
my Pulmo switched me back to once from twice a day because I was getting very exhausted
Does everybody do this twice a day and how do you have any energy left to exercise. The aerobic art particularly takes an enormous amount out of me.
PS I have BE 3 lobes
If I’m clearing out my mucus, why do I get so much more when I wake up in the morning. It’s always a different color. It’s always yellow whereas the mucus I’ve bring up with the aerobic, etc., is mostly green. Thank you Jill.
Replies to "I do the vest with albuterol nebulizer, and follow it with aerobika with saline 3b%nebulizer. I..."
My experience is that I was working too hard with the inhaling, exhaling, and huff coughing and felt exhausted also.
I was not relaxing and doing it correctly. It is hard to teach in words, however, be gentle with the inhaling, exhaling and huff coughing.
I bring up mucus all day long it is so time consuming, if nothing else, and there is plenty of nothing else for us with BE.
Are you sleeping on a wedge at night? Hope so, that is very important.
I wake up at night to walk down the hall to release my bladder and then have to clear mucus before trying to go back to sleep.
Mornings we do have much mucus having built up in the lungs at night.
I am doing my best to nebulize twice a day and many times I will do three times a day with the nebulizing of saline. The third helps with clearing just before bed.
I take it you are sending mucus, mucus plugs, specimens into the lab for testing for the infection and the degree of the infection, type of infection and the number of colonies. Some labs are limited in their ability to do get all that information.
We will probably not be able to clear fully, each time, all the mucus build up. That is my belief and understanding.......and if I am wrong I hope someone will respond to this belief and what they understand.
Barbara
Connect
I don't know all your background so these comments may not apply to you but here are a couple of things to think about.
Our lungs are always producing a certain amount of mucous as their own natural lubricant. When we are lying down at night we are by default doing some postural drainage just by lying there and turning from side to side.
My guess is the yellow color is more of what you would get with having bronchiectasis anyway and the green is the "deeper" stuff you are bring up with the airway clearance.
Have you had a sputum sample sent for testing? Green (and sometimes yellow, depending) usually indicates infection of some sort.