Excessive this mucus

@ursala7 You mentioned you have to clear mucus that is there or comes up, all day. Did I understand correctly.??
What about at night, do you wake up at night and have to clear the mucus that is there or comes up?
I wake up at least 3 times each night and sit on the side of the bed for about 10 minutes to remove what comes up, appears to come up on its own to my throat..the feeling of "need to clear mucus."
This need to clear nearly 1/4 of the 24 hour day is so frustrating for me and the worst of it all for me. Knowing what I know about other individual's health problems mine is "minor" however it is life limiitng in terms of time and feeling comfortable around others.
Barbara

@blm1007blm1007
Are you using saline close to bedtime? Moving it earlier might be helpful.

@blm1007blm1007 Yes, much of my sleep is interrupted with gunk moving up and a need to hack. I don't neb immediately in the AM, instead, I make a decent breakfast and take a mucinex, which doesn't work immediately; I can eat in peace without coughing. Then at 11ish I do the nebulizer and vest. Coughing or huffing after this starts to become productive - but it's just the clear stuff the nebbing deposited and not my daily pooling thicker stuff - yet.
As the day goes on, and as I walk, do errands etc - that effort brings up mucus. I have a constant need to clear/huff into a tissue during waking hours. By 9pm I take a mucinex and do the second neb set and vest. By 11:30 I begin sleep in my recliner because I know a lot of mucus is coming. It must be the lying down or the relaxing that triggers the day's pool of deeper, darker mucus to begin moving. I have to clear this stuff for an hour and a half, meaning, while I drift off. I feel the obstruction (cough and hack up, repeat, many times) before any hopes of sleep. Eventually, I move to my bed, but the gathering of the sticky stuff continues to move into my main airway for the next couple hours, at least. It feels distressing when it's trapped there. When I get it out it's a quarter size glob of sticky grey or brown stuff. It's probably 20 -30 repeats of this gathering glob, hacking and hocking. No "gentle huffing" (what you learn in airway clearance class) is going to get this thick sticky crud out - when your airway is obstructed - your body responds as nature intended. This cycle is repeated over and over, from 11pm-2am, and then less often from 2am until morning, because if I'm lucky, by that time I'm sleeping. I certainly can't sleep with my husband because of this, and I'm even worried about keeping the people up in the townhome next door. Like you, Barbara, I am resentful about the life-limiting nature of this disease and the time spent for self-care, when we could be having some fun. I can't really be around other people and go to gatherings for fear of catching something, like I did in the spring. I'm happy to have my spouse to be with, and we watch out for each other, but I also have to adjust my schedule to his needs (diabetic, meals, etc), so I can't easily re-adjust my patterns. My only ME time is the morning. I was hoping that the Big 3 and Brinsupri would cut down on the volume of production, but not yet. I'm afraid to give up any of the treatment, because of what the consequences may be.

@ursala7
I'd be curious, if, in the morning before breakfast, you took mucinex/albuterol/saline and got in the recliner in the position that brought up gunk, if that might help with the mucus burden at night?

@scoop Yes....I have been talking to myself that if I do it earlier in the evening t might help, so I will try to adjust. Thanks Scoop.
Do you think, your thoughts, that the more damaged your lungs the more mucus you make and, as well, the more plugs that form and have, the more mucus is made???? Have you wondered about that...or do the doctors know.....if you know?
How do you work it all in, just saying, .......considering we have to eat small meals, more often, eat slow, (Acid Reflux/LPR) exercise, nebulize and full therapy, get enough restorative sleep, prepare cook and clean up... take care of our residence and all other things our health has caused....doctor appointments. Oh and then grocery shopping, trying to be social etc. etc.
Barbara

@scoop Hi and thx for th suggestion. I certainly could try to arrange an early morning therapy, but after 5 - 6 hours of real sleep, when I do get up, I cough up anything that's obstructed me during the rest of the night, and I go make a hot drink and eat a little something because my blood sugar is low in the AM (not diabetic) so I'm watching that problem because it's been low since starting the meds. ID doc thinks I may be pre-diabetic, but more likely I'm just burning through that many calories and after 12 hours of fast, I'm just that low. But I realize the earlier I can move these neb sessions then I might align my sleep schedule to the early bird ways - but I will likely have the same issues, just timed differently.