I am very happy with my pulmonologist in NYC who is very knowledgeable and just as important, kind.
Dr. David Posner
178 E. 85 St. New York, NY 10028 3rd floor
212 737-0470
Wishing you good luck and success.

I am wondering if the medications were stopped because they were making her weak. They tell me that allot of patients don't tolerate the combination of 3 antibiotics.

I guess it all depends on how her scans and symptoms are. I hope she is being seen by an MD familiar with the condition. Has her sputum bee positive for MAI and did they show the exact species?

 JO Ann

@liangctoo Hi Charmaine, I'm so sorry to hear about what your mom has to go through. I'm not a doctor. But I have done a lot of reading on depression and mental illness because I have loved ones who have and are still going through it. From what I have learned about MAI/MAC, unless your mom has had other problems with her lungs or other organs that have caused the decrease of her lung functions and drop of her energy level, having MAI alone should not make her feel week. However, depression can certainly make people feel physically sick and listless. Severe depression can even cause people's immune system to become vulnerable which might have led to her being infected by this bacteria. If her CT scan does not show worsening of lung conditions, then I would actively seek treatment of her depression as priority for the time being. In the meantime, you might want to find out if she is suffering from other health problems that may also cause her energy level to drop. I have not been on any of these antibiotics. So I can't tell you if it is normal for them to be discontinued for your mom. But I do think you need to actively seek treatment for your mom for depression as soon as possible. Depression is a tough illness to conquer. It may be a long haul. But it is very true that depression is the source of many physical symptoms. But people do not realize that and would try in vain to treat the physical symptoms rather than tackling the source.

I am a Counseling Psychologist by training. Your mother does indeed need to see a therapist...Psychiatrists are generally med writers only...do no therapy. That 30 minutes is for medication review only. Best, find a Psychologist who does both therapy and meds.

Hi liangctoo,

I know for a fact that St John’s Wort is very good for depression and it is a natural remedy but it can not be taken with other anti-depression med. Check it out!

I had a big pneumonia once and I was soooooo weak I could hardly walk. My sister gave me whey protein ISOLATE because i had no apetite and that was great to give me energy. I thought I was going to

die. It took me a good month to regain my energy.  I kept taking it forv3 months.  When you have a pneumonia you need good protein for healing so that can be taken with any medication because it is also a probiotic so if she takes antibiotic she needs to take

it 4 hours before or after.  

 Not too many doctors can give you advise for natural remedy but you can consult a naturopath or a natural nutritionist.  To me Whey Protein Isolate was a savior! My American sister come to Montreal

for Natural med consultation so she knew what she was doing. Good luck! If you live in Florida i’ll be there in december. I could visit your mom.  She needs a good supportive team.

Check it out!

We will give the protein a try (as well as some of the other tips from everyone). Thank you for the kind, kind offer. We are in New York unfortunately.

@liangctoo , Hello Charmaine, and welcome to our group. I am happy that you found us. As you can see, we are a caring community. We can all sympathize with you as your mom's caregiver. I know one can feel helpless when answers are hard to find and your loved one feels so badly. There is a lot of info in our older posts if you want to take the time to read through some. We are happy to help answer your direct questions as well. Many people that contract a MAC infection often discover a secondary issue in the lung that made them susceptible to the infection. There is a disease called 'bronchiectasis', it is a structural lung disease that often goes undiagnosed. It can be found with a CT Scan. I would ask her doctor if he saw any evidence of bronchiectasis. Some doctors never even mention it (that happened to me) If your mom has that too, that would explain the lack of energy. The strong antibiotics she was on to treat the MAC can also drain your energy and may take awhile for the body to recover from. I am concerned that she caught pneumonia after coming off of her meds. Pneumonia is a serious infection. It drains one's energy and is uncomfortable; it can be downright painful. It can take months sometimes to get over it. Once she gets over the pneumonia, she may benefit from 'maintenance antibiotics. You can ask her physician about that. That is the regimen that I was put on. She needs to see an Infectious Disease doctor as well as a 'knowledgeable' pulmonologist. As for the depression, it is natural to feel depressed when you lack the energy to live your own life and feel so cruddy. That might even dissapate when she is feeling better (if she did not have depression issues prior to getting MAC). What is your mother's age? Are you able to get her to the doctor that @128128terry11t Terry recommended? We are here for you, big HUG to you both.

Dear Liangctoo,

Maybe you could check all the secondary effects of her anti-depression pills because my mother was more depress with anti-depressor pill. It really made a big change after we stop it so double check the secondary effects of all her medication.  That could

be the cause also. Good luck!

@nick52 @liangctoo a good therapist will do that...

@liangctoo , I can't remember if you told us your mom is already seeing a therapist or not. But I agree with @boomerexpert . If she already sees a therapist, you should ask her to look into whether her meds for depression could cause some of her physical symptoms. But if she is not on any meds for depression, then her symptoms could very well be caused by her depression. She should be treated for this mental illness right away.