I was diagnosed by a community pulmonologist in AZ a couple of months ago, but decided to get a second opinion at Mayo. There's been an interesting turn of events regarding my diagnosis because my AZ Mayo pulmo consulted with a pathologist colleague at Mayo Rochester who reviewed my culture slides and did not see any MAC, but did see fungi, so now they think the infection and cavity is due to fungal growth. Not sure why the fungi weren't seen the first time around by the AZ state pathologists. He believes there could have been MAC in the culture, but that it was secondary to the fungal infection and that there may have been culture contamination. If there was contamination, still don't understand why the Mayo pathologist isn't seeing MAC on the slides though. Anyway, still need to get more testing to find out if I have a gene that puts me on the 'mild' CF spectrum (also being sent to Rochester). Apparently, 3 to 4 percent of the population have a CF gene, but are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. All this to emphasize the importance of seeking second opinions from experts in the field.

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