Hi
I have been recently diagnosed with bronchiectasis and getting my head around managing it. I recently had to look after my little grandson while my daughter had her second baby. He was very poorly with a cough and cold. I did my best with hand sanitizer but I have now developed a sore throat and inflamed upper chest and slight bringing up of mucus. My chest is tight. I have started Doxycycline on advice of GP. Normally I do 30mins of exercise daily but am resting completely today and taken day off work. Please could someone advise if doing the right thing or should I be keeping as active as possible
Than you
Home from Hopsital after a second flare up/ Appointment at Sheffield hospital
Bronchiectasis 
Bronchiectasis/ Atelectasis
Struggling with Bronchiectasis 
Oh our little darlings do pass their viruses on to us and bronch bacterial exacerbations take full advantage to ride on the back of any virus we get. The sore throat and sore upper chest are symptoms of the virus. If you are coughing up more mucus than usual and it has changed its colour, that is the sign of the exacerbation. Your GP is trying to head off the bacteria breeding and making you really poorly. How much exercise you do is guided by how you feel. The virus is probably making you feel rotten anyway. The most important thing is to keep clearing the mucus from your chest. The bronch guidelines say 14 days antibiotic for a bronch exacerbation. So make sure that your GP is aware of this. Otherwise any shorter course is fine for copd or a normally healthy person with a chest infection but does not do the job in bronch. I hope that starting the antibiotic pronto stops the exacerbation in its tracks.
Thank you so much for the advice. Being new to all of this and having been well and exercising regularly for quite a few weeks and doing all I can to stay healthy I just feel a bit low it seems to have taken hold again and worried I will be as poorly as before I was diagnosed which was 2 bouts of pneumonia and feeling so ill for 9 months. Hoping now I have the diagnosis I will recover from this bout quicker. I think if I’m up to it I will try a swim tomorrow
Thank you again. Really glad to have found this group
Actually, I wouldn't be going swimming with a virus, let alone an exacerbation trying to get going. Your body is under stress from the virus and if an exacerbation is not going to get a hold you need to take the pressure off. A walk in the fresh air followed by a session to clear the mucus that has moved is probably better. You need to stay warm. Now you have been diagnosed you will be able to manage your condition so that you stay well with good chest clearance every day and the right antibiotics when you have an exacerbation. More strenuous exercise can be re introduced when the exacerbation fails to develop fully or the antibiotics stop it.
Thank you. That is so helpful. If dry tomorrow I will wrap up warm and just go for a walk in the fresh air
Lovely. Keep an eye on what you are coughing up. If you finish the abs but the mucus still isn't right get back to the doc for some more. You also need to be under the care of a true bronch spevialist. They have extra knowledge to GPs and general respiratory consultants who do not have enough training or experiemce in it. They have their own physios to teach you proper chest clearance and will tell your GP which abs to give you in a rescue pack. They can usually be found at big teaching hospitals. Have a look at their websites and take the name to your GP and insist on a referral. There are members on here who will tell you that doing just that has increased their quality of life no end. There are quite a few experienced bronchs on this forum who will be happy to support and advise you on living with it. It is a complex condition and we are all different. So you definitely came to the right place.
Thank you I will. When diagnosed with pneumonia twice I had 5 courses of clarithromycin which didn’t work. I then got the diagnosis from a CT scan and got prescribed Doxycycline which cleared my cough finally. I just wish I had been prescribed this sooner and worry I wouldn’t be in this position if I did. I don’t have any specialist follow up but am now under the care of my respiratory nurse who had visited and said I am managing well and doing airway clearance correctly. I have started another course of Doxycycline and am hoping it is the right antibiotic for this flare up. I haven’t been asked to provide a sputum sample but am wondering should I do one anyway. Thank you so much for all your advice. It is so helpful and appreciated
You definitely do need to be under the care of a bronch specialist. The respiratory nurses are trained in copd which is very different to bronch. The cause and lung damage is different. They can be very supportive when it comes to clearance and recognising when an exacerbation is starting up. But do not know the complexities of bronch.You need to learn about your condition so that you can manage it. Yes doxy is used in bronch a lot but not for me. I have a heart condition and take digoxin so can't take that or clarith. Putting in a sample when you have bronch isn't always useful because the lab results in bronch are notoriously unreliable. As the clarith didn't work your doc is trying another drug which is effective against a lot of bacteria. If the doxy doesn't work it would probably be a good idea to take in a sample. You probably had bronch for a long time before you had the pneumonias and the bacteria wasn't being treated properly which led to the pneumonia, insufficient ongoing treatment and pneumonia again. Hopefully, now that you have the diagnosis and most importantly, if you get your self a bronchiectasis consultant, the management will be much better and you can get on with life.
Thank you I will be contacting my GP and asking to be referred to a bronchiectasis specialist. You have been really helpful
We are here for you. X
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my posts I feel so much better having this reassurance x
I have Bronch and have been given doxy as an emergency antibiotic. I also take digoxin for AF and am now concerned that you say you have been told you shouldn't take the two together. Could you say why please?
Thank you. I think this is a message for Littlepom and not myself
It is addressed to Little Pom 🙂
I have never taken doxy even before I started taking digoxin because my consultant doesn't particularly like it as a drug for me and as I am colonised with pseudomonas, against which doxy is not the most effective and can take cipro it hasn't been an issue with me. She only mentioned once that it wouldn't be good to take it with digoxin.I also had to stop azithromycin when I was diagnosed with AF and cardiomyopathy. I also take 3 other heart drugs.As we are all different I think that you should speak to your consultant about it to put your mind at rest.
Thank you Littlepom, will do, and will also recheck the instructions to both digoxin and doxy.
Yes best thing
u should have a Rescue pack from your Doctor/Nurse in case of a flareup when surgery is closed our Pulmonary Rehabilitation Group Physio's recommend this