Bronchoscopy ILD

I have not had a bronchoscopy but, I would like to read about your experience afterward. Hope all goes well.

I have had so many bronchoscopies that I can't count anymore. At the hospital that I go to they take you in and get the IV set up and then bring you up to the procedure room. When there they hook you up to IV and a blood pressure cuff. They will give you anesthesia through a mask, which usually only takes a few minutes. They wake you up and have you transfer to another bed and bring you to recovery. You may have a bit of a sore throat and lips. You can't eat or drink anything for a few hours and they may release you during this time. You need to have someone drive you home, because you just had anesthesia. I am tired most of the rest of the day afterwards. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

I had my first one in February. All drugs including anesthesia delivered through IV. No problems during or after. Not even a hint of a sore throat. Sang in a concert the day after. Best to you.

Thank you very much for the reassurance.

Thank you very much. My only other bronchoscopy was in college in the 70’s so it was nice to hear updates.

Thank you very much!

This procedure sounds worse than it is, and it is absolutely necessary for the specialists to see what you might have in your lungs.
First, they freeze the tongue and the back of the mouth to stop any gag reflex. Next, you will be entirely sedated with a short-acting anesthetic.
You will not be aware of anything.
The scope will be inserted into the lungs. I am assuming you will have bronchial alveolar lavage (BAL). This means they will feed 100 - 125 ml of saline into the bottom of one or both lungs. They then suck the saline back out and analyse what is in it. That could be contaminates of anything from bacteria, viruses (pneumonia), mold, fungus etc. They'll also be looking for contaminates that might be related to your work (farmer? miner? and many others)
The test can also reveal contaminates that have nothing to do with the ILD.
The anesthetic wears off very quickly.
I see that other people here have noted sore throats etc. I had no side effects at all, although I was a little bit tired.
Don't worry about this test. It is quick and easy and extremely important to the management of your disease.

Thank you very much for your detailed description and words of encouragement.

Hi, I had a bronchoscopy 2 years ago and the test itself was fine. However, an infection showed up two days later which I believe I got from having it done. They said it was the flu ( this was August). I waited for 6 to 8 weeks for the results. Told me I had MAC. The Dr. wanted to start me right away on all 3 meds. I resisted and decided to see an ID Dr. She did not believe I should start on the meds since I had no symptoms. 2 years later and I am still not on the meds and see a new pulmonologist . I do cough up some white mucus, but it's not a lot and does not interrupt my sleep. I do consider myself very lucky since after requesting my records all the way back to 2019, I discovered that a radiologist suspected MAC but my previous pulmo Dr. ( the one that did the bronchoscopy) never told me about. I am debating what I want to do about that! Good luck with your test.
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I am so sorry you went through all that! But I truly appreciate you sharing!