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Sputum Samples

Posted , 9 users are following.

cc17
cc17

Hi all, I used to have regular sputum samples years ago and the Dr then would prescribe the correct antibiotic.  Which was fine.  I absolutely thought after years I could tell whether there was infection there or not. How wrong.  I now have pseudomonas.  Been on neb colomycin for 3 weeks and my sputum looks fine, but still harbours pseudomonas. Please please, if you have bronchiectisis have the sputum checked regularly.  It is actually stated in NHS guidelines that patients like us should have this routinely and GPs dont do it.  You wouldn't know if pseudomonas is present and it appears that the earlier you find it and start treating it then the better the outcome.  Also GPs  should give you 750mg for 14 days initially before waiting to see a specialist

 

3 likes, 29 replies

29 Replies

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  • Operalyn
    Operalyn cc17

    Posted

    OOh no it doesn't get rid of it!  It just keeps it at bay, so to speak.  I take my 10 to 14 day course (depending on whether the sputum changes back to yellowish white) and if it hasn't changed colour or, more importantly, I still feel ill, I go to the doctors, who are used to me now and we decide whether to take any more or to change. It's at this point we do the sputum culture usually. But as I said I have had this since 1952 and there weren't the antibiotics nor the sputum cultures available when I was a child.

    However, touch wood, I am going through a really good patch at the moment and although the dear old pseudomonas is still there, it isn't giving me any grief - well not all the time anyway.

    I go to the Brompton because I used to live in the south east and was referred there by my GP. I live in the Midlands now but I take the long train journey south twice a year because they are so good and I don't want to lose touch with them if I can help it.  When it all becomes too much I guess I will have to do that but not before.  I am lucky too in that we have a fabulous nurse practitioner at our practice who is up to date with anything to do with lungs and has helped me enormously in practical ways.

  • poemsgalore55
    poemsgalore55 cc17

    Posted

    I agree with you cc17. I only found out about my first colonization after becoming seriously ill and was rushed into hospital. Same with my second! We have to chase our GPs up all the time.
  • jazzy80
    jazzy80 cc17

    Posted

    I too have had bronchiectasis since about 1952.. so used to living with it all my life..and have developed pseudomonas in my lungs.. I generally keep well..

    I often find it hard to get information on this.. hence the reason I have joined this forum...

    Can you also develop asthma as well?.

    • cc17
      cc17 jazzy80

      Posted

      Not sure Joyce, I have just been diagnosed with pseudomonas.  I am finishing 2 week nebulized colomycin on Sunday.  Last Monday I put in a sputum sample to GP and it came back negative.  As she said though its only a step in the right direction not that the PA has gone.  Been fine on the neb colomycin till this week and will be pleased when Sunday comes, however, see the specialist on Tuesday who has suggested IV. Very stressed because my husband has a special number birthday on 19th and my son is married on the 22nd this month as well as a family get together on 23rd.  Not sure what he is going to suggest I don't want to stop treatment but don't want to miss out on my sons wedding.  Dilemma, stress and sleepless nights at the minute
    • supercough
      supercough jazzy80

      Posted

      To be honesst Joyce 6 months ago I would have said no but following an aborted course of Colobreathe (inhaled colomycin) I have been plagued by severe breathlessness which is requiring me to take several inhalers so obviously, I am suffering from some kind of asthmatic reaction. 
    • supercough
      supercough cc17

      Posted

      cc17, I am more or less in the same boat as you with PA colonisation. At first I was offered I/V Tobramycin (Tobi) but I declined because of the serious side-effects and the possible damage to nerves and hearing. I was then offered neb colomycin but had to to stop because of severe coughing fits and bleeding. Like you, they offered me I/V colomycin but once again I declined because, despite feeling unwell, I am not incapacited and I feel that I/V antibiotics should only be a last resort or for when you are having a really bad infection. A two week stay in an NHS hospital for me at least is not to be contemplated.

      I am told that in terms of PA, sputum cultures are not very helpful because usually the infection is located well down inside the lung and it's not easy to get sputum up from that depth. However, it is safe to say that once you have PA, it will NOT go away. 

      If you feel reasonably well and are up to attending the functions you mention, you should attend and postpone or review having the I/V treatment. Doctors, even specialists are panicking over PA and using what in my opinion is a hammer to crack a peanut. Sure having PA with bronch in awful but then so is languishing in some hospital away from your family and friends. These I/V treatments are done simply to keep the infection down, not cure it and if you are not profoundly ill I don;t really see the point of them.

      Now this is simply my opinion and doubtless some of you will disagree with me but I really don't see the point of risking severe side-effects and further drug resistence when you can still get around and are functioning more or less normally. In my view, missing your son's wedding is a step too far for very little long term benefit  

  • cc17
    cc17

    Posted

    Hi everyone.  Well I managed my sons wedding and my husbands birthday.  We had a lovely weekend over the bank holiday.  I went back to see the specialist prior to the weekend who said because I had a negative sputum the Pseudomonas was eradicated??!!!!  I questioned this and said that is not what I understood about the PA.  He then said he would do a bronchoscopy within the next few days.  That happened.  Not pleasant but did it without sedation and survived.  Prior to the bronch had a dreadful coughing fit (after the colomycin) and without being morbid coughed up an amount and type that I had never brought up before.  Dreadful.  Then the bronch which he said during the procedure that there was a hugh lump of sputum he managed to remove.  The results of that was that he then said that the PA was eradicated!!???  However, I had an MRSA infection in the lungs.  He has not given me anything for that at the moment, but suggested a course of Doxycline to my GP>?  !!  So confused.  I am still very tired and can sleep if I sit, hurting in the chest and feeling yuk with periods of sweating/fever..  I have organised a second opinion with another specialist. Had another sputum sample and that doesn't show PA or MRSA.  So I am very sceptical, but on paper the PA has gone!!
  • ohara
    ohara cc17

    Posted

    I have found this discussion REALLY interesting and very helpful, thanks to all thos who replied to it...I too am a life long brochiectasis patient,  I just wish I had known half of what I now know about my condition all those long years of constant infections antibiotics...and not even any proper breathing technique knowledge to help get the sputum up

    So glad you didnt miss your sons wedding CC17,  that would have been awful for you,,glad it all went well

     

  • supercough
    supercough cc17

    Posted

    Stick to your guns cc17, whilst is unlikely that PA can be totally eradicated there is always a chance but it's a very slim one. I used to derive great benefit from flexible bronchoscopy. I enabled my consultant to removed much of the gunk that usually lurks in the base of bronch sufferers' lungs and if this is augmented by a wash out the effects can me almost miraculous. Unfortunately there are just so many scopings you can cope with before irreversible damage is done to your trachea and bronchus. But I should add that I have undergone very many flexible ones and at least 6 rigid scopings, damage was inevitable. I agree with your suggestion that if PA is found in your sputum and IS susceptible to Ciprofoxacin the dosage and length of treatment is on the nail. However, if PA ISN'T present, taking Cipro is dangerous in the extreme, this drug ain't no aspirin!
  • Rodders12
    Rodders12 cc17

    Posted

    Hi. I have bronchiatasís diagnosed in 2005 and prescribed ciprofloxacin without any warning of side effects. Went through 5 years of tendinitis culminating with two Achilles operations without realising it was the drugs side effects!,,

    i go to the Brompton now but in all this time including the last bronchiatasís attack, coughing up phlegm, tired, red raw lungs etc for 4 months no sputum test has ever shown any thing but the occasional thrush? Has anyone else had a series of negative tests?

    does pseudomonas always show up?

    rod

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