How to time airway clearance after eating/drinking?

If your mouth is clean (teeth brushed and well rinsed) how can you aspirate? I never thought about this. In the hospital they didn't care what the state of my mouth was when the respiration therapists came around to do treatments. I was given an aspiration swallow type test as a normal thing for pneumonia in the "elderly" age 77! Maybe this is yet another thing to worry about. Interested in learning more about this.

I do nebs and airway clearance at least 3 hours after a meal ( which means i dont do post dinner treatments. ). Mostly this is because of doing postursl drainage after nebs and arrobika. The reflux would be awful for me.

I neb and do airway clearance after I have had coffee but before breakfast in the morning. I do it before dinner at night. Its usually around 7 am and 5 pm. I don't know if this is right but it works for me.

It’s definitely hard to fit in When I went to NJH they said the best way is to do it first thing as part of routine. I wake up do some yoga, nebulize then eat breakfast. Then after I finish eating lunch. I wait 2hrs and do second nebulizer.

I try to neb before eating but sometimes that is not possible in which case I will use my water pic, brush my teeth and finally gargle briefly with warm water. I am often amazed at the amount of small food particles this produces. Surely don't want to accidentally inhale that. Bill

I eat first around 8. Sometimes I do airway clearance right after and sometime I exercise first. The second airway clearance is usually between 4 and 5 but sometimes at 6. Always before dinner. Honestly, if it is a busy day with lots of appointments, I only nebulize once. If I do aerobic exercise really hard for an hour, I sometimes count that as a treatment.
My Doctor would probably not like this. I just started this airway clearance 3 months ago and have found it very stressful and difficult to have a life and get everything done.
After I see my Doc in April, I might be more consistent with airway clearance twice a day.

Like you, I find it hard to establish a routine for nebulizing. The group of wonderful people here has emphasized the importance of nebulizing to keep NTM tapped down so I’ve been more diligent in doing it twice a day. My pulmonologist said if it was roughly 6 hours apart, I’m okay. I find it hard to nebulize first thing in the morning. So most times I do my first nebulizer treatment around 11 am and my evening treatment between 7 and 8. I try not to eat past 5 or 6 pm. My pulmonologist did have me doing albuterol twice a day, but I stopped doing it at night because of the jitters and finding it hard to sleep hours later.

My routine sounds quite different from most people. I do my first nebulizing of saline followed by Aerobika at around 11 am. That gives me time after breakfast plus my mucus simply does not accumulate till later in the morning. If I nebulized early in the morning nothing much would come up and yet at 11:30 a lot comes up. I do my second treatment around 6 pm well before dinner time. Not much comes up the second time but I always feel better after doing it.

I put my Waterpik away when I was diagnosed with Mac and realized I’d have to be so cautious with water.
What kind of water do you use and how do you clean it?

Sally - It sounds like you have found a routine that works for you. Years ago the ID doc told me "Bronchiectasis is a disease that we live with, you need to learn how to do it and still live your life." That is the advice I follow.

I find that I can use my Aerobika (or not) and huff cough after exercise and bring up a lot of mucus without any neb, so when I am not having much congestion or mucus, I too count it as airway clearance. My bronch has not progressed for 5 years, so I feel like I'm doing OK.

Sue