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Sputum Test submissions and outcome results
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Feb 26 7:09pm | Replies (81)Comment receiving replies
@kathyjjb Hi and thanks for your reading my post and answering.
Were you referring to colonies when you indicated "400 is high?"
Wish I could answer your question. Might be one to ask your NJH pulmonologist. If you do, that would be a great share.
I did not continue with NJH after that first week long visit due to the distance. Nice that you continue with the facility and pulmonologist there.
We are very lucky that our load appears to stay low. I would imagine there are various reasons why ours stays low or no show..... but I attribute it to diet, supplements, saline, postural drainage, airway clearance methods, huff coughing and mask wearing in public. Sounds like you do the same. I do remember seeing your kathyjjb elsewhere and reading them...you may have explained all you do for your BE/MAC in other posts.
Barbara
Replies to "@kathyjjb Hi and thanks for your reading my post and answering. Were you referring to colonies..."
@blm1007blm1007 Hi Barbara, yes, it sounds like we do the same thing other than postural drainage-which has never helped me. I did ask my NJH ID doctor about recurrence vs reinfection, and she thought in most cases it's reinfection. She did not rule out the possibility of recurrence. I like Sue's response and that's probably the case minus a few exceptions. That said, I'm going to keep up with my nebulizing and exercising. In November, I decreased my nebulizing 1/day, and a few days not at all. Then with the November positive test, I'm back to nebulizing 2/day. Why take the chance?
As for the "over 400 is high", ID doctor was referring to "count/ml" and I'm not sure if that's colonies. I was thinking it was how many of the individual bacteria is in 1 ml.
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@blm1007blm1007 & @kathyjjb My pulmonologist told me that with MAC/NTM "everywhere" it is not unusual to have very small amounts show up in my culture.
I have had 3 "positive" cultures since 2020 out of more than 12, but none with a significant amount of NTM. In 2 cases, where I submitted 2 cultures together, one was positive and the other negative. My last 2 samples, submitted at the same time, showed "positive" on the slide, but nothing grew on the long culture - we attributed that to probable contamination from saliva or environment.
I have an open order for sputum cultures, and vials at home, so I can submit samples whenever my mucus increases.