(MAC/MAI) Mycobacterium Avium Complex Pulmonary Disease: Join us

Posted by Katherine, Alumni Mentor @katemn, Nov 21, 2011

I am new to Mayo online .. I was hoping to find others with .. MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM COMPLEX PULMONARY DISEASE (MAC/MAI) and/or BRONCHIECTASIS. I found only 1 thread on mycobacterium accidently under the catagory "Lungs". I'm hoping by starting a subject matter directly related to MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM COMPLEX PULMONARY DISEASE (MAC/MAI) I may find others out there!

I was diagnosed by a sputum culture August 2007 (but the culture result was accidentally misfiled until 2008!) with MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM COMPLEX PULMONARY DISEASE (MAC/MAI) and BRONCHIECTASIS. I am now on 5 antibiotics. Working with Dr. Timothy Aksamit at Rochester Mayo Clinic .. he is a saint to have put up with me this long! I was terrified of the treatment . started the first antibiotic September 3, 2011 ... am now on all 5 antibiotics for 18 mos to 2 years. Am delighted at the very bearable side effects!

I wrote on the 1 thread I found: If you google NON-TUBERCULOUS MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM COMPLEX PULMONARY DISEASE (MAC/MAI) you will learn a LOT about the disease. But PLEASE do NOT get scared about all the things you read .. that is what I did and nearly refused to do the treatment until after a 2nd Micomacterium was discovered! Educate yourself for "due diligence" .. but take it all with a grain of salt .. you are NOT necessarily going to have all the terrible side effects of the antibiotics! Good luck to you!

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January 2017 Update

One of our great Connect Members .. @Paula_MAC2007 .. had a wonderfully helpful idea that I wanted to share! Her idea .. as you read through the pages to gather information on our shared disease of MAC you can develop a personal "file cabinet" for future reference without the necessity of reading all the pages again!

If you have the "MS Word" program on your computer:
- Document Title Example: Mayo Clinic Connect MAI/MAC Information
- Then develop different categories that make sense to you such as: Heath Aids .. Videos .. Healthy Living .. Positive Thinking .. Baseline Testing and Regular Testing .. Antibiotics ..
Tips for
- As you read the pages .. copy/paste/save things of interest into that MS Word document under your preferred categories for future reference.

Then as you want to refer back to something in the future .. YEAH! You have now created your own personal "file cabinet" on MAC/MAI! Go to it!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the MAC & Bronchiectasis Support Group.

karensarasota | @karensarasota | May 23, 2018

In reply to @gaelawree "Hello group, my name is GaeLawree, I was just diagnosed with Mycobacteria Avium Complex (MAC), I..." + (show)

This kind of chat does not belong on a medical website you are filling up my email box with chatter I'm going to have to get off and I didn't want to emails are supposed to be for medical content only

jewel8888 | @jewel8888 | May 23, 2018

Your painting and jewelry are so beautiful.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | May 23, 2018

In reply to @gaelawree "Hello group, my name is GaeLawree, I was just diagnosed with Mycobacteria Avium Complex (MAC), I..." + (show)

Hi Karen and everyone in the MAC group,
I can appreciate that some members would like to keep the discussions on Mayo Clinic Connect focused on medical issues only. One of the hallmarks of a connected community of members supporting one another while living with chronic conditions is the spill over into “off-topic” discussions as people get to know one another.

To respect everyone’s use of this community and to choose what conversations they take part in, I suggest that non-medical discussions be kept in separate threads. For example: @windwalker started this discussion a while back that is a great place to talk about more than just MAC:

- We are so much more than our disease https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/we-are-so-much-more-than-our-disease/

If anyone has any questions about the use of Connect and the supportive, informative community you’ve built, please send me a private message or contact me using this form: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/contact-a-community-moderator/

boomerexpert | @boomerexpert | May 24, 2018

In reply to @gaelawree "Hello group, my name is GaeLawree, I was just diagnosed with Mycobacteria Avium Complex (MAC), I..." + (show)

Or...have those conversations in private messages available on this site.

irene5 Irene Estes | @irene5 | May 24, 2018

In reply to @gaelawree "Hello group, my name is GaeLawree, I was just diagnosed with Mycobacteria Avium Complex (MAC), I..." + (show)

Yes, you are probably right, but it is nice though boomerexpert to see that we can still have a life outside of this (for some of us)debilitating disease. I don’t have Facebook so I miss a lot I am sure, but our ten kids are the Facebook police and will rat each other out to me if necessary! The first of the ten went to RISD so I enjoyed reading about Mayo members’ creativity even if I couldn’t see it. But that’s just because I have no “active” life since MAC! The reprieve was nice!

Terri Martin, Volunteer Mentor | @windwalker | May 25, 2018

In reply to @gaelawree "Hello group, my name is GaeLawree, I was just diagnosed with Mycobacteria Avium Complex (MAC), I..." + (show)

@karensarasota My apologies Karen. I certainly do understand your point about your emails getting jambed with non-sense. (You couldn't know this) I wasn't going to continue the discussion about art, or get off-course of our focus for mac & bronchiectasis. It was a brief reprieve to show the group that one can still enjoy life through hobbies when energy is at a minimum. Loss of an active life is depressing to many of us in this group. I will respect the space and put any further off-topic posts in the now designated spot. Thank you for commenting; that's how we make improvements!

Terri Martin, Volunteer Mentor | @windwalker | May 25, 2018

In reply to @gaelawree "Hello group, my name is GaeLawree, I was just diagnosed with Mycobacteria Avium Complex (MAC), I..." + (show)

@irene5 Thank you Irene, that was my intention. I would love it if others would share some personal pics etc. on the designated Discussion thread 'We are more than our disease'.

Terri Martin, Volunteer Mentor | @windwalker | May 25, 2018

In reply to @gaelawree "Hello group, my name is GaeLawree, I was just diagnosed with Mycobacteria Avium Complex (MAC), I..." + (show)

@colleenyoung Thank you Colleen, that is an excellent idea. I totally understand what Karen said, I wouldn't want to wade through off-topic items on a medical site either. It could also be easy for personal/off topic posts to get out of hand.

Suzie2017 | @suzie2017 | May 25, 2018

I took my husband to the Infectious Disease Doctor yesterday. He said there is no way to correct his collapsed left lung because it was caused by excessive secretions. He said the secretions will continue. He is holding off on prescribing the MAC treatment until he gets the report from Colorado on the secretions that were extracted during the bronchoscopy. One report has come back already showing he has pseudonymous again. He is now on Cippro and the ID Doctor wants to wait until the Cippro is gone plus 7 days before he begins the treatment. He also said he wants to see all of the medicine bottles (there are many) so he can do a good analysis to make sure the MAC treatment will not interfere with his current regiment. My husband was fully dressed and weighed in at 115. He lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks. He is very thin and weak.

tdrell | @tdrell | May 25, 2018

In reply to @gaelawree "Hello group, my name is GaeLawree, I was just diagnosed with Mycobacteria Avium Complex (MAC), I..." + (show)

@windwalker ....terri....I agree with all your commentary....whether it be discussion of your art/horses/conditions etc. You have shared with our group your multiple physical conditions and the challenges ( and your empathetic thorough helpful teaching and input re all of our questions and thoughts)....to read about your creativity and interests for me was 100% delightful and inspirational. Yes, inspite of all the physical challenges and debilitations we have, there are the bright spots! Again thank you for accepting the challenging voluntary challenge of being our mentor...a huge cyber hug. Tdrell