Bronchiectasis, airway clearance & cataract surgery

My eye doctor told me not to use the vibrating vest for 2 weeks after cataract surgery. I have no idea if this is necessary or not but it was his orders. They do the two eyes separately so that was a total of 4 weeks no vest. Luckily it did not come at a flair time

I had cataract surgery x2 in the fall (6 weeks apart) . I skipped airway clearance on surgery days. I ate lightly after surgery and avoided cold water. I just coughed if i had too , but only enough to clear . It seemed to work ok.

I have so much thick mucus that I can't skip, Wish I could

I can relate to your concerns. At some point I will likely need cataract surgery. I have had the narrow angles procedure done (Iridotomy) making cataract surgery very important just as soon as needed. But like you I could not skip my airway clearance. I have about 3 ounces of mucus a day. But since almost all of that comes up during my first airway clearance late morning, I wonder if doing the cataract surgery after that would make it safer to do. I could skip the evening "cough up" but would need to resume the next day late morning. Wonder if that would be enough time after the surgery. Let us know if you find any solutions to your issue or if doing your clearance prior to surgery would allow you to do it?

Irene, I too had concerns prior to my December cataract surgery. My doctor also told me all would be fine. She was correct. I am referring to MAC and not the hernia problem. I had absolutely no problem at all, not during or after. The surgery went well, I continue to use my vest and nebulize. I too have a lot of sputum but again no problem with my eyes while clearing and coughing. My surgery was in the morning and my last air ways clearing was the night before. I omitted the morning session and resumed that evening. I was able to cough some sputum out without the use of vest.
Good luck and by the way the only problem I actually had after surgery was seeing how dirty my house was along with all my new “face wrinkles “. 😂

My concern is bending over the sink and huff coughing to do the postural drainage. I gargle in salt water and bending over cough and the bending over sink and coughing and drainage goes (just that part) adds up to about 45 mins or an hour a day.
Do you bend over to cough it out?

thank you that is encouraging. Do you suppose it would be ok/safe to use the Aerobika? I really have to use that every day. But again would try to have the surgery after my late morning airway clearance. Then resume use of saline and Aerobika the next day.

My doctor was very specific about bending. She said the caution was any position below the waist. She used the example of touching one’s toes or while sitting in a chair and bending to pick up something on the floor. She said if I ever forgot and remembered to turn my head to the side. Regarding the posterior sink position, I tend to get better draining lying flat on my back. I was told that bending over the sink to brush my teeth was safe and I did with no problem. I do tend to cough up sputum at that time. Aerobika and Huff coughing caused no problems. I resumed all procedures the night of the morning’s surgery. The actual surgery was less than 2 hours and I was home, a bit groggy but fully functional in 4 hours. Again best of luck and keep us informed regarding your surgery. Prayers for success.

Hi, what do you mean with “My doctor was very specific about bending. She said the caution was any position below the waist. She used the example of touching one’s toes or while sitting in a chair and bending to pick up something on the floor. She said if I ever forgot and remembered to turn my head to the side.”
Is this type of bending dangerous?
Oneofyou

Her point was to avoid toe touching or any movement that takes head below the knee. I related certain positions to her such as bending over sink to brush teeth and those bends were okay. However, I was careful not to linger in those positions. If I dropped anything to the floor, that could take a full bend and was avoided. The grabber was used. Her advice was mainly to use common sense. I wish you much success and feel sure you too will enjoy the results.