CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE (COPD) EXPERT FORUM
Is this the right diagnosis?

Is this the right diagnosis?

After over 3 yrs i was diagnosised with bronchiectasis by a broncoscope preformed by a critical care pulmologist. he told me after the scope that my lungs looked relatively good for no better than i could breath. previosly, I had  failed 2 pulmonary breathing tests miserabaly. He didn't find any pus or excessive phlem that needed suctioned out. (this all started with a severe chest cold that turned out to be staph and aspergillousw/treatment went away) After I remained really short of breath and cough up a dime-nickel size amount of really thick, copius green stuff tho i don't have a "chronic" cough. i cough just to remove that amount of mucus. the shortness of breath usually subsides unless i am encreasing the amount of air i need to breath in-hurring, walking up stairs, ect. I became increasingly shorter of breath, breathing medication seemed to make everything worse and relied on prednisone to continue on. i ended back in the hospital, this time referred to mayo.There I was seen by a pulmologist, he sent me directly to an ENT who preformed a videostrobalaryngoscopy. he found me to have paradoxical vocal fold movement and superior larynegeal nerve weakness. I was put on flonase and told to try breathing only thru my nose to slow the intake of air since taking in or breathing out large amounts of air caused the spasms. Its also why taking inhalers made it worse. The pulmologist there said i have mild centralobular emphysema from my previous smoking history but overall did not get the impression that i was suffering from clinically significant COPD and/ or bronchiectasis.
my question is : What is your opinion and where should i go from here? thank you!
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You need and deserve to have a definitive diagnosis, along with information about optimum therapy and your prognosis.  Either pulmonologist should be able to provide this kind of information, but I would be more inclined to request it, of the Mayo Clinic doctors.  You stated, of the Mayo doctor, "...but overall did not get the impression that i was suffering from clinically significant COPD and/ or bronchiectasis".  I urge you to ask that the Mayo doctors to clarify this for you.  You need to be told what your clinically significant underlying condition truly is and how it is related to the staph and aspergilla infection.  What is the main cause of shortness of breath and what treatment would be required to improve it?  What is the cause of the superior laryngeal nerve problem?  Were you tested for cystic fibrosis (CF)?  Were you tested for an immunodeficiency state?

If you and your primary care physician do not get satisfactory answers to the above questions and your own questions, you might want to consider seeking another opinion at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado, an institution dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory and immunologic diseases.

Good luck.
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