susanp64, I live north of Austin in Ceorgetown, which is a 4 hr commute to Tyler.You must be near San Marcos or New Braunfels.

I go to UTHSC in Tyler to see Dr. McShane. She focuses exclusively on bronchiectasis and MAC and is highly regarded in her field and by her patients.

When I got no guidance from a local pulmonologist and did not have all of the proper testing, Tyler did everything to set me on the right path. You need an excellent physician who is well versed and experienced with your issues. I cannot say enough about the excellent care from Dr. McShane and her staff. Then when you are not there and have questions, you can use their MyChart to communicate with the nurse or doctor. Dr. McShane also does televisit, but your first visit should be a thorough and in person evaluation.

The Aerobika can be completely taken apart and boiled, so you can rally clean it. I was given a PARI Green compressor and PARI nebulizing kit as well as 7% saline. (by the way, I order my prescription and saline from the UTHSC hospital pharmacy, and they mail it for only $5 shipping charge! The pharmacy staff is great. The previous doctor denied me the devices and saline when I read about them, so I went months without clearance. You are right, the active cycle of breathing along with the Aerobika (or other device) and nebulizing saline is extremely effective, as is exercise. Dr. McShane prescribes their use to all of her patients and says that studies prove their efficacy in reducing bacterial counts.

I am so relieved for you that you do not have MAC, and I encourage you to be very vigilant about airway clearance and avoiding exposures to any bugs going around. Your bronchiectasis puts you at higher risk of contracting respiratory bugs, and your airway clearance goes a long way towards protecting you.

There is a University of Virginia microbiologist named Falkingham, and he came up with some guidelines to help people avoid or reduce exposure to MAC. It is very enlightening and provides a lot of information on how to protect yourself.

The drive to Tyler, by the way, is a pleasant one, once you are out of Austin! After Georgetown, you will go through only two smaller cities of Temple and Waco, after which you turn off and head northeast through a lot of rural areas before reaching Tyler. Since the lung center is more on the outskirts of Tyler on the northeast side, you don’t even need to approach Dallas.

I encourage you to make the drive. Consider staying in a hotel for the night. The first visit consisted of x Ray, CT scan, pulmonary function testing, labs, and a thorough evaluation and discussion with Dr. McShane. All of this is done in one day. Since it is a research facility as well and a highly regarded center for lung disorders, they have an advanced lab. They have microbiologists on staff working with the lung center, so you do not need a separate infectious disease specialist there. The doctor knows all the meds and how they work, and the lab is first rate. She will want to do her own sputum testing to fully evaluate the findings.
I mail in a sputum sample monthly for my MAC but can also send in samples whenever I feel that I may be coming down with an infection due to the bronchiectasis. ( They supply you with sputum kits and mailing tubes. I take mine to a postal annex and mail them through UPS for around $12). Lung hygiene techniques and avoiding unnecessary exposures has kept me pretty free of infections. I am on a 2 drug protocol for the MAC now.

You will need to have your pulmonology records forwarded to her with a CD to bring with you, if you have had CT scan and/or x-rays. When you contact UT, you will be sent a packet of information that is very helpful.

My appointments have always been at either 11:00, 2:00, or 3:00. An early appt might require you to drive up the night before. Otherwise, you could drive up in the morning. Testing is done before your scheduled visits with the doctor. Sometimes the appts run late because the staff is always so, so busy.

Since you will be tackling the Austin traffic on your return home and then even the Georgetown and around Rock before that, you will maybe want to time it so that you miss that. If you want to stop for food or restroom on the way to Tyler, the last good outpost before then is Waco. Just something to think about. I always enjoy the rural drive!

I hope that this helps.