Connect
← Return to Testing Positive and Negative after MAC Treatment
Discussion
Testing Positive and Negative after MAC Treatment
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Aug 28, 2022 | Replies (32)Comment receiving replies
When I had my last appointment with the doctor, he took me off drugs because I had had 5 negatives in a row and it had been two years. At that appointment, I gave a sputum sample and lo and behold, it came back positive. I have not had a bronchoscopy. It appears that I intermittently test positive. My local doctor and Dr. Huitt at National Jewish will go by symptoms, CT scans, and colony count (magic number may be 50) in determining when and if (probably just when) I should return to the meds. Hoping and praying if it must be that it will be in future. Who knows! Have an appointment at National Jewish in November. Just wondering if there are others reading this blog who intermittently test positive after completing the drug treatment. Would like to hear from them.
Replies to "When I had my last appointment with the doctor, he took me off drugs because I..."
@128128terry11t I was on two antibiotics for a year (did not tolerate rifampin) and 2 of 3 sputum samples were positive. I have decided not to resume antibiotics at this time as minor coughing is my only symptom.
@12818terry11t, Hi Terry. When you were taken off meds and testing negative for mac, were you not taking any kind of antibiotic for two years? If that is the case, you need to know that mac patients cannot be totally drug free. We need to be on lose dose maintenance meds to keep the mac away. The circumstances that allowed you to get mac in the first place, do not go away with antibiotics. This is what my Mayo dr explained to me. The preventative maintenance meds have kept me mac free since 2014.
Connect
Terryb, I have been waiting 3 months to get into Jewish. How long did it take you? I'm going to see an infectious disease Doc in Denver who has a license to give me a drug my doc here thinks I need, until I get to Jewish. It seems EVERYTHING is slow except my side effects from these antibiotics! Thanks!