← Return to Might my anemia and lowered hemoglobin be related to MAC?

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@colleenyoung

Welcome @salynn. How long have you been dealing with MAC? What do you do to help with the anemia?

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Replies to "Welcome @salynn. How long have you been dealing with MAC? What do you do to help..."

Thank you for the welcome! I was diagnosed with MAC in January. I had caught a cold in early December that kept getting worse. I finally went to urgent care on New Year's Eve where they promptly called an ambulance after discovering that I was hypoxic. I was hospitalized with multifocal pneumonia with acute hypoxic respiratory failure and severe sepsis. On the bronchoscopy, the only pathogen initially identifed was rhinovirus, but they also suspected aspiration pneumonia because I apparently had some dysphagia. A few weeks later, the AFB cultures came back showing MAC. They chose to start me on the Big 3 because of the clinical presentation and because I am significantly immunocomprised secondary to a treatment for lupus. In March, I had my second CT, which was when I was diagnosed with bronchiectasis. Since the anemia is thought to be due to chronic inflamation, the main focus has been trying to get the MAC under control. I had to go off of rifampin due to adverse effects and am now on moxifloxacin and hope to see movement in the right direction. This forum has been a font of very useful information as I go through this!! I think I have learned more to help me on this journey from all of you here than anywhere else!