Bronchiectasis and staving off recurrent infections

Are your sinuses the culprit? I have had bronchiectasis for 8 years, and after all the treatments and procedures it’s become clear that treating the sinuses with nasal rinses twice daily - saline plus budesonide in my case - and regular examinations with an Otolaryngologist (ENT doctor) is an important part of health management. An undiscovered infection in my sphenoid sinus, which turned out to be beyond a very deviated septum, appears to have likely started the whole thing.
The masks we all wear due to Covid have really helped. I will probably always wear one indoors.

Hi Ann, thanks for the reminder to look beyond the "usual culprits" when figuring out a recurrent infection. My primary looked carefully at my sinuses and ears - both long term problems for me - when I had recurring asthma exacerbations. It was on just such an exploration - looking for latent pneumonia - that my MAC was discovered.
You just gave us a good reminder of how interconnected our body systems are.
Have you been able to get rid of the sinus infection, or just control it?
Sue

Hi Ann, thanks for the reminder to look beyond the "usual culprits" when figuring out a recurrent infection. My primary looked carefully at my sinuses and ears - both long term problems for me - when I had recurring asthma exacerbations. It was on just such an exploration - looking for latent pneumonia - that my MAC was discovered.
You just gave us a good reminder of how interconnected our body systems are.
Have you been able to get rid of the sinus infection, or just control it?
Sue

The first year I was sick, I had sinus surgery to straighten the deviated septum him so they could get the instruments in to open up the passageway into the infected sphenoid. It was a long and awful surgery and it took quite a while to recover, but it did help. I had a kind of a continuous runny nose on that side, so there was a second sinus surgery two years later which helps with that a lot of the openings between the sinus passages just weren’t draining very well. The sinus rinses with budesonide really help keep that under control now. I do that twice a day as well as nebulizing and pulmonary vest 2 times daily. It would be a big deal if I could get all this management bronchiectasis down to once a day instead of twice, but it just doesn’t seem like I’m able to do that. I think I’ve gotten away with that twice in eight years. I’m really trying to not let this thing control my life, but…..

I want to know about the budesonide rinse. I have chronic post nasal drainage. Docs have prescribed 3 different prescription nasal sprays and all make breathing more difficult although they help dry up some of the drainage. ENT suggested that I just stick to nasal rinses. I think I could do nasal rinses every other hour and continue to get thick clear stringy mucus. I would like to find somthing that would help the sinus and I believe that would decrease some of the muuc in the lungs.

Hi, Raney - There are two kinds of rinses I am on right now. Both come from the compounding pharmacy at Mayo Clinic. I have to pay out of pocket for both as they aren’t covered by insurance. Depending on the specific problem being addressed they last quite a while and are likely temporary prescriptions, although I don’t know yet how long.
One is budesonide in a capsule form - NOT for swallowing. You break it open and add to the sinus rinse bottle along with the saline packet, shake up the suspension and rinse as usual with the NeilMed system. It is a steroid.
The second is called cefTAZidime and is a clear liquid that has to be refrigerated. It is to treat pseudomonas aeruginosa, which has been an ongoing problem. Dr. said to tilt head way back and hold in to help get into forehead sinuses, etc. I lay on the floor to do this and it is a bit of a hassle but it has helped get rid of sinus junk that drains down the back of my throat. Doc said I may be able to just add it to the bottle rinse eventually. I do all this stuff twice a day.
I hope you find this helpful!
Annfl

Hi, Raney - There are two kinds of rinses I am on right now. Both come from the compounding pharmacy at Mayo Clinic. I have to pay out of pocket for both as they aren’t covered by insurance. Depending on the specific problem being addressed they last quite a while and are likely temporary prescriptions, although I don’t know yet how long.
One is budesonide in a capsule form - NOT for swallowing. You break it open and add to the sinus rinse bottle along with the saline packet, shake up the suspension and rinse as usual with the NeilMed system. It is a steroid.
The second is called cefTAZidime and is a clear liquid that has to be refrigerated. It is to treat pseudomonas aeruginosa, which has been an ongoing problem. Dr. said to tilt head way back and hold in to help get into forehead sinuses, etc. I lay on the floor to do this and it is a bit of a hassle but it has helped get rid of sinus junk that drains down the back of my throat. Doc said I may be able to just add it to the bottle rinse eventually. I do all this stuff twice a day.
I hope you find this helpful!
Annfl

Thank you. I find this veery helpful and will ask my ENT about it. I do not go to Mayo, but would like to in order to get all the problems addressed. Now it is all piece mill and a drug for one problem conflicts with a drug for a different problem.

An oral steroid, like prednisone, is preferred for those of us prone to bacterial infections. An inhaled steroid such as budesonide goes directly into the lungs setting up an environment that bacteria like.