A new diagnosis of Mycobacterium abscessus

@kathyjjb
I so appreciate the information on your experience.
I do have a good Mayo pulmonary doctor. For now, (until he gets 3 positive cultures,) I’m doing airway clearance with 0.9% saline and levalbuteral. I had so much trouble last year when the airway clearance was causing lots of inflammation, increased cough, etc, so after experimenting with different saline, etc, this is what was suggested.
I’ve read a bit on MABC, but didn’t even know what questions to ask.

@nlee1954 I just responded to farfalina about treating MABC with a virus along with the antibiotics. Dr Daly (NJH) had mentioned the treatment in one of his BE/NTM videos. My sister has a friend that is getting that treatment now. I'm hoping to talk to her sometime and will post any good info. It sounds like the antibiotics were unsuccessful and she sought out a clinic (don't know details) that is now giving her the matched virus via IV along with antibiotics.

@kathyjjb thanks. I will look into this. Interesting for sure!

@kathyjjb
I had to read it a couple of times about treating it with a virus. Do you know what virus, (maybe a dumb question)

@nlee1954 It's called Phage Therapy. All I know is that Companies are creating phage banks. The virus or phage would be specific to the exact genetic makeup of the NTM strain. Sounds like there's a lot of NTM variance if a "bank" of these phages need to be collected and stored. I did listen to a youtube presentation and the founder of one of the phage banks spoke about looking in the environment for these natural occurring phages.

Good Morning,
I was diagnosed with with both avium and abscessus in December 2025. I was on iv imepenem and tigecycline and azithromycin daily until late January. I started having issue with high liver enzymes and now I’m on azithromycin, Clofazimine e and Omadacycline daily. My abscessus is resistant to all but 4 antibiotics so now I’m on the three that are left. My sputum test last month was negative for abscessus but positive for avium. I will see what my ID doctor has in store for me on May 20th. It’s a long road to recovery but I have not been sick from my meds only fatigue which I can manage.

@louis228 Are you also doing airway clearance to get the mucus out?

@sueinmn Hi Sue,
I am doing ACTs twice a day and the productivity of sputum has dropped drastically in the past two months. My only symptom is some fatigue but I workout daily for an hour with weights and walk 3-5 miles plus cycle 20-30 miles 3 days a week.

@sueinmn Hi Sue,
I am doing ACTs twice a day and the productivity of sputum has dropped drastically in the past two months. My only symptom is some fatigue but I workout daily for an hour with weights and walk 3-5 miles plus cycle 20-30 miles 3 days a week.