Having a hard time breathing

Elizabeth, there's a pill form of the MucaMyst, or there was. Slightly different name.

I can't believe a saline solution works just as well. I'm not saying I don't believe you. I'm just surprised that salt water works as well as a drug. Interesting. Do you buy it as a prescription?

Aitarg, Elizabeth, Amkoffee,

Nice to see several of you are chiming in on this. Interesting that the MucoMyst had a bad smell, a little like rotten eggs, because the Inhalation Glutathione I used to get from an alternate physician, had that too and I think it is a hallmark of glutathione, especially as it gets older. Is it still available? You are saying it is not the real thing, Aitarg. What I am using together with the salt solution is a product that also smells a little like rotten eggs and is billed as Reduced L-Glutatione 200mg, Sodium bicarbonate 50mg per capsule. It is formulated for use in nebulizers. I hope they do not take it off the market too like the Inhalation Glutathione I used to get. I am wishing you all a joyous Xmas day. I am recovering from some bad virus and feel a bit pooped. Amkoffee, the 7% salt solution I get on prescription from my Pulmo does help me get mucus out but I sometimes, when it seems too harsh for my throat, add the glutathione. I find it effective, especially in addition with some stretching and light exercise.

Louise

Louise & Amkoffee

This wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong, Louise! Until that post here, I'd never heard of any form of glutathione, Reduced or the L-, used as an inhalant. I wanted to look back at that post to see what one of the other ingredients was, the one I recognized as a mucolytic. Maybe it was NAC. Glutathione is an anti-oxidant so I can see how it would help with BX tho i don't understand it as a mucolytic. Maybe I'll read up some more. As I think I said, apparently folks with bad livers are taking glutathione like crazy.

Amkoffee, the thing about the saline solution is that we don't all have the same degree of difficulty getting up the mucus. Whether because our mucus is thicker or we have more of it, or more dead spaces, or we have other issues such as your cement thing, and/or broken ribs, it's different for all of us. Without ALL 5 of the blasted lung meds I do multiple times daily plus the vest, I'd be back at working all day every day for days trying to get up one sticky clump. Then no relief as I'd already feel the thudding of other clumps stuck further down.

But in the States there are, last time I checked, 3 strengths of saline solution in ampules for nebulization. It has double the volume of one other neb med & 1/4th more than the other neb med. Still, without my 1200mg Mucus Relief 30-60 minutes before I start the big rounds of nebs twice daily, i'd be working quite hard to get up the gunk.

And that's the talk we avoided at the dinner table today! Hope everyone had a good one or, at least, like me kept bad symptoms at bay well enough to avoid the hoapital on a holiday.

And about the taste or smell of glutathion: my pills/capsules didn't smell good. I now take a liposomal lozenge, must be allowed to dissolve on its own in the mouth, and they've gone to great length to give it a citrusy taste akin to a lightly sweetened piece of grapefruit rind. No one would mistake this stuff for candy.

Hi Aitarg,

The smell of the glutathione comes from its sulphur content, which is supposed to be a good thing, like in onions. NAC is a precursor to glutathione, if I remember correctly. I am getting over some sort of a virus and had much thicker than usual mucus which was almost impossible to get up and out. What finally started things moving was making some attempts at postural draining where the head and torso are lower than the rest of the body. That combined with some movement exercises. Other than the difficulty breathing and the weight loss, I thought I was doing alright until I was now told I may have this MAC. I am still researching that one.

Louise

Yes, Louise, in body chemistry NAC is a precursor. They're supposed to work well together in the brain but in me, adding NAC was a disaster of rage. Will never know whether I could take it by itself as I won't try it again. It was given to me to help w/lungs after a kitchen fire with tons of smoke.

does a stronger saline simply mean it has more salt in it ?

You never know how different things affect different people. Sorry you had such a bad experience. No wonder you shy away from NAC.

Louise

That's what I've assumed, Amkoffee, but never asked. There is also hypertonic saline for nebulizers, and it is even saltier and can irritate the lungs. I've never been offered it; all i know is that some people on here use it.

Yes, I would get it by prescription. I don't use it any more. It got to the point that I felt I didn't need it. I've been feeling much better the past few years.

Some people use salt lamps. I'm not sure how they work. Also, I have noticed that when I'm vacationing near ocean water, my breathing is better. Saline solution is use for people who have cystic fibrosis.

But also, what may work for one person, may not work for another.

I didn't know that, pill form would be much easier (and less smelly).

I don't know whether the pill form has lung effect. May take a long time to find out.

I've been told it's like Musinix or Robatussin and both are taken orally. So I'm guessing it would work but not as fast.

If doc wants you to use guafenisen, the mucolytic in Mucinex and Robitussin, go for the Mucus Relief at Costco, $10.99, 400 pills, 400mg ea. Waaay cheaper & the brand has been around decades longer than Mucinex. You can order it online. That's assuming that it's safe for you to use this. You've got a complicated situation.

Somewhere in this thread I think I recall someone making a distinction between treatment of CF and non-CF BX. As I understand it, people w/cystic fibrosis have BX , and the rest of us have non-CF BX. When it comes to treatment and meds for the lung part, as opposed to the causal condition of CF, we are all in the same boat of coughing and thick, nasty mucus & need mostly similar treatment.

Yes it is a bit cheaper but my doctor told me I could take up to 2 guafenisen in addition to the meds I use in my nebulizer. The stuff I use in my nebulizer is not notguafenisen. I think he just meant it works the same way.

Don't know what you use in the neb, but doc might've meant that the guafenisen taken ahead of the neb would help you & help the other med work better. On pulmo's orders, i take 3 guafenisen in the a.m. & 3 in the p.m., total 2400 mgs daily, ahead of the 2 biggest rounds of neb sessions (3meds, separately). He's very specific about the order of my meds, and that either i use different kits for each med or rinse the neb in between the different ampules.

I think you can have CF without BX too.

Can you explain to me how to do a search through all posts in a group? I think people have mentioned that it can be done.

What little reading I've done says BX can come alone (non-CF BX) or it's part of CF. I can't bring myself to read too much about it, though, so I'm not a great authority. Too depressing for me especially at times like now, where i've been sick & stuck in the house forever. Sigh.

I don't know how to search through posts other than scanning the topic lines within a given forum. Since the latest redo of the site, I don't even know how to get them to show the correct year/month i joined nor how to access every post in a long thread such as this one. Lately it's become impossible to look back and I don't know if that's the site or if it's my phone.

I understand what your saying. I really never understood this show even before the update. LOL

I don't know your situation, but a few years ago, I was tired and breathless most of the time, like you, while working full time (I had a desk job, but stressful, but I loved my job).

But, in the last four years; I retired, causing less stress (I'm a 69 yr old female), we moved to a less polluted area (to be closer to kids and grandkids), so I'm breathing cleaner air, I talked to my specialist about treating my asthma (made a big improvement in my health). Three years ago, I had a stem cell treatment done (I live in the states) that was to help repair the damage to the lungs. I also looked into alternatives to prescribed meds.

As a result of these changes, I have felt better and I am more active and I need less prescribed meds.

Take a more proactive approach, talk to your specialist about different meds, if what you are taking now is not working for you. Try alternatives, such as certain vitamins or minerals (I take turmeric w/pepper everyday). Get a flu and pneumonia shot (and stay away from sick people).

Beth

Janet, you replied to the wrong person. Not my thread.

Oops, i said Janet and it should've been Elizabeth

I thought of another way to search, especially for posts in which you participated : from your own page, look down at the activity listings.

Yes that does work well. Thank you. Now if I can only figure out how to search across the entire group.