Nebulizing saline

Nebulizing with hypertonic saline has been a godsend to me. I went from a great deal of struggling to clear my lungs to being able to clear my lungs more easily (especially the first several huff coughs). A different question is how it that your pulmonologist has not suggested it? Perhaps they do not see many bronchiectasis patients and/or have not kept current on bronchiectasis treatment.
https://cdn.prod-carehubs.net/n1/748e8fe697af5de8/uploads/2024/01/Up-to-Date-Bronchiectasis-in-adults-Treatment-of-acute-and-recurrent-exacerbations-UpToDate.pdf
Hypertonic saline can be purchased without a script through Amazon and other places. So you could give it a try and experiment for yourself. I would report to pulmonologist, however, the increased shortness of breath. It is possible that removing more mucus via hypertonic saline might relieve some of your SOB.

I was just diagnosed with BE. Ct showed "mild BE". Pulmanologist didn't say whether it was mild - just said BE. Anyway he prescribed 7% sodium solution to be nebulized 2x a day. It's really inexpensive.
I have a me ulizer that attaches to the aerobika which I felt easier than doing separately. He told me to use it at level 5 on the aerobika but that makes the muscles in my chest ache and ribs. Today I did it at 3 then turned up to 4 or 5 throughout the nebulizer treatment.
The solution definitely made me cough (good they said) but I'm not coughing up much mucus blobs just thin watery bubble saliva filled mucus. They want a mucus sample to check for MAC so I will keep trying (or maybe no plugging in there?)
How long have you had BE? Do you have MAC? What measures have you taken to reduce NTM's from your BE world? Like water filtrations, mask if gardening, dusting, etc.