@margiebanks Hi Margie. I am dismayed that your dr didn't have the lab do a suseptibility test on your mac. I spoke to my dr at Mayo today at length about treating mac. He said nobody should be put on the Big 3 without trying a different regimen first. That regimen being something like what he did for me which was 10 days a month on alternating months of cipro, and 10 days on doxycycline. That is what my suseptibility test showed would work for me. Then, you would be closely followed to make sure you are not getting worse. He said the Big 3 antibiotics are not really strong drugs, they are just hard to tolerate. His experience is that 1 yr to 18 months on those is not long enough to erradicate the mac completely and can have a higher return rate. Plus, you cannot stay on those longer than that amount of time. Staying on the 10 day a month regimen for many years has a better chance of getting rid of the mac for good. But even then, only 30% of people will get rid of it for good and not need antibiotics for it again. Typically, those that beat it do not have damaged lungs from bronchiectasis and COPD. He also said that he saw a patient today that had been treated with IV meds for her mac by a private physician. The IV med was overkill for the type of mac she had and did some damage to her body. So, he is trying to treat her for that. It was a very enlightening conversation.

@margiebanks Margie, your dt probably didn't ask for the suseptibility test because Labcorp was doing the test. That lab is not equipt to do specie/suseptibility(mac) testing. For your future info, your dr can send your sputem samples to the Mayo Clinic's lab for testing.