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COPD Bronchiectasis ABPA New: MAC & AFB

MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Oct 26, 2025 | Replies (10)

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@rmoore901 - Glad I saw this.
I have been on the big 3, three times a week, for 6 weeks. My daily cough disappeared within 10 days. I wasn't told to do airway clearance; was only told about the liver test (after 5 weeks mine was normal; I'll have another one in a couple months) and not about hearing and vision screening, although I was told that ethambutol (I think) can cause red-green colorblindness, which I haven't (yet) experienced. Doc said I may be able to go off the ethambutol in December (so far, the only bad side effect for me has been fatigue).

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Replies to "@rmoore901 - Glad I saw this. I have been on the big 3, three times a..."

@rc4mc you will likely find a wealth of information here, many of us have commented that most of what we have learned is from this site vs our medical provider, in particular if your pulmonologist or infectious disease doctor doesn’t treat a lot of NTM or BE patients. I would suggest checking with your Dr to see about a referral to both an ophthalmologist along with routine hearing screenings. This will give you a baseline along with monitoring for any changes. It’s good your initial labs showed your liver values were good as definitely something which should be monitored during treatment. Fatigue is definitely a factor although it can be a toss up as to whether caused by the disease itself or the meds. Check out some of the posts about nebulizing and the huff cough, along with the Aerobika. Even if you don’t cough anything up, starting and maintaining airway clearance is highly recommended.