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Just found out I have mycobacterium abscessus!

MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Apr 12, 2023 | Replies (118)

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@pandora24

Hi -- So it sounds like we are in the same boat......both waiting to find out which subspecies we have. Apparently, only one of the three subspecies is easily treatable, and that's massiliense. I'm going to cry if I find out I have one of the other two, abscessus or boletii !! However, I'm pretty stable too, feel generally ok so far, and have been told that I've already had this for at least a year, if not longer. Don't know how many colonies I have, I guess maybe a couple, because she showed me two areas on my CT scan... The problem is that I can't cough at all!! (probably a good thing), so in order to find out what I've got, I must do Bronchoscopy #2. My big question is, should I bother doing it if I'm stable? Maybe I'll be one of those people who walk around with this and it never bothers me! But I would still love to get rid of it..................I live in New Haven, CT, so my doctors are at Yale New Haven medical center.....however, they said they will send my next sputum to a state of the art lab in Colorado! Thanks for the new Dr. Daley video. You are right --he is terrific! Keep me posted -- I'm praying that you don't have a "bad" one! (They're all bad...)

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Replies to "Hi -- So it sounds like we are in the same boat......both waiting to find out..."

Pandora, I am from Fairfield, CT but I moved to NC in 2005. Are you using 7% Saline and/or the Areobika for airway clearance? That can really help bring up what's in your lungs and hopefully keep it tapped down. Maybe it could help bring up enough for you to do a sputum culture. Like you, I am praying I will be in the small % that doesn't need to be treated. My first few cultures also showed MAC but the last 3 only showed Abscessus. This is a good video on airway clearance. https://youtu.be/TKA5IR7ePQo