Clearing Mucus Plugs

I use two vials of 7% saline each time and then do smart vest and aerobika. If two vials of saline is too irritating to your lungs, you can try one vial or 3% saline.

Where are you consistently having the mucus plugs?
Are you sleeping on a wedge on your left side?
Are you able to do postural drainage or percussion therapy?
I ask because my lower left lobes accumulate mucus plugs and the three pulmonologists indicated that possibly (might) it accumulates on the left due to the sleeping position.
I have concentrated on postural drainage by lying on my right side to help clear the left lobes. I brought up a good size plugs when I started doing that and hope I have cleared the worst of it. I still have small plugs coming up. I have no shortness of breath with walking for a mile each morning.
Barbara

Wow, I had no idea we could clear mucus plugs with postural drainage. Thank you!

@lorrainewenn Yes, that and all the tools we have been told about and shown that are related to doing airway clearance....such as deep breathing and huff coughing etc. Have to do it all. Fun, fun, fun!!!
Barbara

@blm1007blm1007 can you recommend what kind of wedge to get?

I hope you don't mind my asking. Can someone please clarify for me what a mucus plug is/looks like? I have never known.

Is it a solid? Size? Colour?

I would like to understand what a mucus plug looks like also. I had cleared one but had new one on last CT scan.

@britchic Truth, I do not recall the company/brand I ordered.
You can look at different types and companies on line, wedge pillows. You may have already done that.
A lot depends upon the type of materials you prefer so always best to check them all out in making that decision for yourself and likes etc.
Barbara

@narelled23 @dianajc I clear my mucus into a clear plastic solo cup and am able to see the different liquids that I clear out with clearing my lungs and throat of it all.

Three pulmonologists looked at pictures I took of the cups and what I bring up....they could clearly see it all. In the cup were and are, when I do my therapy treatments etc. etc., what one might consider 'pus', meaning formed solid pieces. Prior to my being diagnosed and not understanding what was wrong with me these use to be deep green in color and would come up every so often when I 'sucked' them up and out when I felt something was stuck in me. I did think that I had an infection and told/showed my PCP....at that time he didn't think anything of it. However, a year later he was the one that ordered the C Scan and result....BE. I had lost 35 lbs. in that time and he finally understood....this woman does have a problem.
After my diagnosis and learning more of what to do the 'plugs' are light yellow in color vs the deep green color. I recently brought up what I consider a large 'plug/pus piece" that I hope was the one that was apparently recognized and related to me by the pulmonologists...as .....'more plugging and worse in the lower left lobe.' Recently after the large plug, I have had much smaller ones (plugs) build up and come out from the pockets, damages, of my lungs.
I have loose yellow mucus that comes up and is released along with the smaller, spec like, plugs that come up and out.
So that is what I am calling mucus plus. Some understand differently, meaning other BE patients, they feel/understood mucus plugs to be hard. Mine are gel like. Some BE patients say they do not have mucus plugs. So....again...we are all different and at different stages with our BE journey and infections.
Barbara

@dianajc On a CT scan mucus plugs appear white in our breathing tubes, which are filled with mucus. The black areas are where there is air. Mucus plugs like to reoccur due to the nature of bronchiectasis. That's why we're encouraged to clear our lungs twice a day so mucus does not continue to build up forming more and more mucus plugs. When coughed out they can appear as thick, solid or a rubbery sticky mass varying in color (clear, white, gray, yellow/green, brown or blood-streaked).