My Mom is 79 years old and she is getting prigressively more miserable. She was diagnosed a year ago after coughing for 15 years. When she wakes up in the morning she has so much mucus congestion that she takes about an hour or two to get going. She has the nebulizer which she uses twice daily and also the vibrating vest (sorry, I can’t remember the proper name for it). She puts the vest on when she first wakes up and it goes through a 30 minute cycle. She also uses the vest in the afternoon. She “freezes” a slim fast shake and drinks it because she feels like it clears some of the mucus out. After that she uses the nebulizer (twice daily).

Not long ago She used to be able to walk on her tread mill for a couple of miles a day in spite of all the coughing but in the past few weeks she has been experiencing extreme weakness. She is not sure if the extreme fatigue is associated with the Bronchiectasis or if it’s something else. She asked me to post the following questions to everyone: Do any of you experience extreme fatigue that you think is associated with Bronchiectasis? What medications have you found work best in the nebulizer ? Her doctor prescribed the sodium chloride recently but she said it broke the mucus up so much that she coughed twice as much. Is there something that works to dry the mucus rather than break it up so much? And finally, are there any methods for clearing mucus that you find especially effective? She is really miserable because her congestion seems to be getting worse and nothing stops her cough completely— even for a little while.

Thanks to all of you!

Katherine