I had a little persistent cough with some episodes of horrid coughing before my abnormal CT’s. The docs didn’t take it seriously.
Once I had the “terrible CT” and saw a pulmonologist, he was very concerned and diagnosed me with asthma and gave me meds to get my PND under control. That helped some and got rid of the horrid coughing episodes. After my culture for Mac was negative, Mayo switched my inhaler to one with a steroid and gave me their triple spray for PND. The nagging little cough improved remarkably within 24 hours of the switch. I do airway clearance faithfully, but don’t produce sputum.