A few weeks ago I slightly injured my upper ribs. No big deal (except coughing, sneezing, ouch!) and I knew it was going to go away.

My doctor ordered x-rays as a precaution and although my ribs were fine, the radiologist noted the presence of Bronchiectasis in the lower lobe of both lungs.

Going back a year or so, the motor in my ResMed CPAP machine began making noise and I wasn't going to spend hundreds of dollars on a new one (of, course, no one is willing to fix it). So I took apart my old machine and found that it used the same motor. I swapped them and problem solved.

Now, here's the thing the motor in my current machine had a soft foam thing glued to the top of it, presumably to help keep it quiet, and part of it was missing. I looked around and could not find any pieces of it. So I checked the old machine and it didn't have the foam, although it did have glue residue.

I can only conclude that the foam has disintegrated and I've been breathing it in and I now have an incurable lung disease. Is there a connection between the disintegrating foam and delveloping Bronchiectasis?

Has anyone else had this suspicion, or seen it reported anywhere?