Bronchiectasis and Pneumonia tips on prevention

Welcome @donnadewey01 you've come to the right place to ask such questions. Sadly, our respiratory conditions, especially bronchiectasis, make us prone to repeat pneumonias.

Off the top of my head, I'd say to be sure to keep up with yearly vaccines, along with others such as the pneumonia vaccine, covid, RSV, shingles etc. As we age our immune system defenses decrease accordingly. Eating "right", getting 7-8 sleep each night, and daily movement can all help improve the immune system.

Masking in high risk areas, I believe, is also important (grocery store, airports/planes, theaters), anywhere where there are a lot of people in a small area. I tend to limit my people exposure, outside of family, in the colder months. If we meet friends for dinner we go on the early side to avoid a crowded restaurant.

Maybe at the top of the list should be consistent daily airway clearance. Many pulmonologists recommend twice daily 7% saline via nebulizer followed by an airway clearance routine, which may include Active Cycle of Breathing and Autogenic Drainage. Can say more about your airway clearance routine?

Lastly, learn to recognize the prodrome to pneumonia. For example, in December I had pneumonia after a very nasty head cold. My first clue, (which sadly I ignored!) is that I was unable to clear my lungs. Crazily, I thought I was getting better. No! The gunk was festering in my lungs and creating havoc. In hindsight, I would have stepped up my inhalers, nebulizers and contacted my doctor.

Can you identify your prodromes to pneumonia? What is your plan with your care team if you begin to feel ill? The key is to "catch it" before it progresses to pneumonia. Other prodromes might include fatigue, headache, malaise, lack of appetite, increased coughing, etc.

I hope that others will weigh in with their experience and suggestions.

I’m very sorry you are dealing with this. It can wear us down. Scoop has given good advice. Knowing your routine might help us give suggestions to find time it.

I do have one suggestion from my doc. The winter before this one, I had repeated respiratory infections despite airway clearance. This past fall, he recommended I try 7% hypertonic saline a few times a week to see if it would decrease them. I’ve only had 1 URI since I started that in October. I have young grandkids and twice 6 yr old spiked temps a few hours after she left my house. I expected to get sick, but didn’t. The change seems to be helping (or I was lucky).
Here’s a webinar by McSwain on airway clearance many of us found helpful.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VEYK67nld_o

It seems Donna is the one with frequent pneumonia. I have severe asthma and bronchiecstasis and got pseudomanas but I never had pneumonia. I think it is because as soon as an infection enters my lungs I have an asthmatic reaction. So I am alerted and put on antibiotics quite soon. I use 7 percent saline solution in my nebulizer. Is hypertonic different from that I put in my nebulizer?

Hypertonic saline = 7% or 3% saline (really anything over 0.09% saline) . Hyper means "increased."

Isotonic saline = 0.09% saline (same as what's in our spit, eyes, and other fluids in human body). Iso means "equal."