7% saline continues to deliver.

New to this disease. Is the saline done daily in a nebulizer? Thxs Don

Hello, and welcome to the Mayo Connect community. We are people living with a wide variety of diseases and conditions, who try to help one another along the way. We each strive to be informed medical consumers, and our own best advocates in our care. We are not medical professionals, so not able to provide medical advice. We can tell you what has worked for us (or not) and provide you with information and conversation about your question.

Can you tell us a little more about why you ask? The saline nebs help for many of us, but are not a substitute for a good diagnostic workup by a pulmonologist, with primary treatment prescribed by her/him. The we add the nebulized saline to help keep out lungs clear. Frequency of use varies by our symptoms. Right now, I am in an exacerbation, nebbing 3 times a day with duoneb and saline to clear things up.
for a long time, it was just saline once a day.
Sue

Hello FDixon, I will tell my experience in case it helps. I started right up with 7% saline (which I mixed so could be between 6 and 8%) last September, I experienced no problem until about 2 and a half to 3 months later, when started to feel a soily taste in my mouth, so I stopped nebulizing w/saline. Later the taste changed to metallic and the lining of mouth and teeth felt extremely, abnormally clean and sensitive, permanently. Only since about two weeks ago, this uncomfortable feeeling has subsided to some degree. A month and a half ago I also stopped inhalating too, because I decided to avoid any extraneous substance going trough my mouth.

Sue
I did the half 7% and half 3% for about 2-3 weeks and now back on 7% full strength twice a day. My voice is back to normal as well. I'm also using the vest once a day simultaneously with my nebbing. Feeling much like my old self again. Thanks so much for sharing your experience. The downside is that now about once a week for the last two weeks I have coughed up the dark brown sputum. Looks like Pseudomonas is trying to come back. We all have to stay strong and keep fighting. Faye

Faye - Maybe that dark sputum is just a sign of how deeply the vest and saline together are able to get in loosening the mucus. I was seeing green in mine for 2 weeks after my flare in May/June, but now its clear or occasionally yellow.

We are experiencing "minor" air quality issues, but my daughters and I all find them quite difficult. For most of a week, I was wearing an industrial N95 mask (with the exhalation valve) outdoors. Today it looks like the overnight rain & wind cleared the air a little.

Hang in there!
Sue

I just joined connect. I have MAC and bronchietisis. I also am on blood thinners for life. My pulmonologist recommended the 3 antibiotics, but I'd have to not take meds for my autoimmune conditions. I just couldn't tolerate all the meds. 3 other doctors agreed, I wouldn't tolerate it. So I just do vest and 3% sodium chloride. Religiously 2 times a day. 30 minutes. I do cough up blood occasionally.. But am interested to know how you get along without the meds.

Appreciate your experience, wisdom and willingness to share. I've been reading and dealing with this for 2 1/2 years but continue to learn--mostly from this great group. I should know by now not to panic but instead I just need to reach out to "connect." So blessed to have this site to go to for help and encouragement. I keep a calendar using various color markers to see (at a glance) what I experienced, the treatments used, medications taken, etc. I even take it to my pulmonary appts. The doctor said he "loves it." Thanks again Sue.
Faye

I use 7% saline, as do several others in this group. That percentage has been shown to suppress the MAC bacteria.
I still had positive MAC cultures when I had to stop the antibiotics, and after 19 months I have only had one exacerbation which was managed with a variety of nebs, saline & prednisone - didn't need to move on to antibiotics. And this was in spite the additional irritations of smoke, heat humidity and working in my daughter's 70 yo house.

You might want to ask about moving up to 7% saline.
Sue

Yep. I’m enough of a child to get a kick from the coincidence that one of our best maintenance tactics (7% solution) shares its name with a work by famous author, Arthur Conan Doyle, source of the Sherlock Holmes tales. “The 7% solution was what Conan Doyle titled one of his yarns. 7%. saline rocks. Don

Because I'm on blood thinners my doctor said it would increase bleeding. I can't do antibiotics, but it seems I would do better with the 7%. I'll ask again when I go in October.