copd and Pseudomonas

[the pope]

Hi Frank here,
                          I have COPD - Now a couple of weeks ago I sent in a sputum sample and the results came back and I have Pseudomonas
My Doctor said there was no point in treating it as you cant get rid of it anyway I insisted that  I wanted something done so he gave me some antibiotics I can

[inn0cent]

Pseudomonas has a high resistance to antibiotics, but CAN be treated. When you do sputum samples, the lab should be able to test to see which antibiotics your strain is sensitive to. Some penicillins are active against it, as well as tobramycin and gentamycin. If you haven't cultured it before, there is a high chance that it will be treatable with antibiotics of some kind.

[Libbyjane]

A related discussion, Emphysema & pseudomonas, COPD was started.

[National Jewish]

A nebulizer can be contaminated with pseudomonas.  If you are using a nebulizer, talk with your doctor about switching to inhalers.  Pseudomonas may be found in the lungs, but does not always cause an infection.  If the pseudomonas is causing an infection, you may need to be treated with intravenous antibiotics.  Typically the odds of recovery from pseudomonas are not very good.  It may be controlled, but may not be eliminated.

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a machine that is used as a common treatment for sleep apnea.  Sleep apnea is a condition in which the airway does not fully open during sleep.  This causes breathing to stop for 10 seconds or more while sleeping.  This may happen several hundred times a night.  Each time this happens it is an episode of apnea.  During an episode of apnea people may wake themselves up gasping for air.  Snoring is what often alerts people to the problem.  CPAP delivers air pressure into the lungs to keep the airways open during sleep.  However CPAP has not been shown to help people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Cyanosis is a bluish color of the skin and mucous membranes most easily seen in the lips, fingernails, and ear lobes.  This is not caused by trapped carbon dioxide.  It happens because the oxygen in your body is low.  Normally the blood returns to the heart from the lungs carrying the greatest amount of oxygen possible.  The oxygen is carried by the part of the red blood cell called hemoglobin.  Turning blue may be caused by low hemoglobin or anything that causes the blood to leave the lungs before the hemoglobin has soaked up all of the oxygen that it possibly can.  Some examples are problems of the lung or problems of the heart.

[the pope]

this the pope i have found out the correct name it is a BPAP machine, many thanks the pope - (Nick Name)