What is Dry Bronchiectasis?

Welcome to connect. I’m sorry you need to be here, but believe you’ll find it a helpful and supportive group.

You certainly have my sympathy. Before my diagnosis and treatment (sinuses and mild asthma), I had horrid bouts of coughing along with a little nagging cough. Exhausting and embarrassing.

A few questions…
Since the coughing occurs with eating, have you been checked for reflux?

Has your doc ordered another CT?

Do you do airway clearance?

Agreed. On top of BE, I recently found out I have swallowing disorder that causes food to get stuck in my throat. It adds a lot of coughing and occasionally, sneezing bouts. An ENT can send you the right practitioners to see if you have these issues.

Yes I am dealing with the exact same thing. I’m sure it’s reflux. So far I haven’t found anything that helps. I’m taking both Prilosec and Pepcid. If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate your sharing. Thanks

Here’s a Mayo article with some tips on dealing with it. It can cause issues with bronchiectasis and I think some here have the head of bed up on blocks and avoid eating 3 hours before bedtime as well as spacing airway clearance away from eating.
https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/heartburn-burn-becomes-a-burden#:~:text=People%20can%20experience%20different%20types,evaluating%20symptoms%20or%20performing%20tests.
National Jewish
https://www.nationaljewish.org/getmedia/e5fda3e9-1bfc-4d29-97c7-ff7aae0fc4b4/MF-GERD-Gastroesphageal-Reflux-Disease.pdf

I was diagnosed with bronchiectasis and MAC by ER on 11/23. I felt something bubble up in my chest and made myself cough.
I coughed up a handful of blood clots. no sputum. could not tell you last time I so much as had a cold but it was precovid. I was told to see lung doc and told I had MAC and started on 2 of the 3 required antibiotics. could not get in to see pulmo doc for year so saw
infectious disease doc. he did extensive blood tests but other than elevated RA found nothing. told me to STOP taking antibiotics immediately because you have to have 2 positive sputum cultures for diagnosis. also send me fir another CT. went to Rheumatologist who redid test which was within normal limits and found nothing else wrong.
eventually saw pulmo who did lung function. 1/24 I had CT again! (each CT is equivalent to hundreds of xrays!) no one is interested in scoping to get sputum. I never cough. no one has mentioned ANY of the treatments that I see in here.
I am 72 yrs. weigh 91 pounds.
actually infectious disease said if I could move out of Florida I might reduce my bacterial load.
easier said than done! thank u for reading.

I have dealt with acid reflux for years and an endoscopy confirmed I had a sliding hiatal hernia. If you cough while lying down, you are likely to have the hernia slide. I found a YouTube post by a chiropractor, Dr.Kulla, from Synergy Wellness and have implemented one of his reflux prevention techniques before sleeping. I chose the manual compression of the stomach downward from the xiphoid process to the waist a few times each night to keep my stomach from sliding upward. I have done it for 3 weeks and have had no gastric reflux episodes since. I did not do well on Prilosec as it caused me insomnia and the proton pump inhibitors have many side effects like osteoporosis. Hope this helps, we are all in this together!

It sure can be hard to get a diagnosis with a sputum culture, but most docs are right to hesitate on doing a bronchoscopy - these are definitely not without risk, especially in someone who has already had hemoptysis (coughing up blood.)
Has anyone ever talked about doing an induced sputum culture? Under the supervision of a respiratory therapist or assistant, you use a nebulizer to inhale 10% (hypertonic) saline solution, which typically induces coughing and brings up sputum.

thank you @pacathy . I did a CT scan a few months ago, the bronchiectasis is there. My last pulmonary ( I have seen several since 2017) is albuterol nebulizing, followed by 3% saline and then the smart vest. = twice a day. I can go for a long period of time with no mucus but the dry cough is what I cant understand. I have appoint to see pulmonary again in April. Some days are better than others, but I can sometimes cough for 15-20 minutes which is exhausting. talking and when I first start eating, triggers, but sometimes it comes out of nothing. It feels like spams but at times feels like its coming from the stomach...

Thank you @jannah. Yes, I cant lay down flat with my stomach up - i cough right the way! Last time I went to get a massage, i couldn't lay down flat either belly down or up, I just start coughing, its so frustrating - I sleep on my side or need to elevate my head. thank you for sharing!

I have never been able to produce much. It IS exhausting and frustrating. Getting a sample is almost impossible also!