@cwal @irenea8 I'll do my best to answer these questions. Pulmonary treats the patient and not only the sputum culture. In other words, increased cough, increased and darkening sputum feeling crappy for well over a week, all these symptoms drive the decision to treat. My sputum culture showed: excellent specimen quality (no epithelial cells), increased polys means strong inflammatory response (lots of neutrophils), rare mixed bacteria (nothing dominant), no specific pathogen isolated, low level infection likely. Also waiting for tests on fungi and NTM (which take longer).

Could it be a viral thing? Yes. Often exacerbations start out as triggered by some virus. Then, it progresses to bacterial due to weaknesses in my lungs (bronchiectasis). Sometimes I can fight it off and sometimes not.

Do you think the Brinsupri caused the issue? I sort of doubt it. If anything the brinsupri helped as recovered more quickly than usual and did not get as sick.