Has anyone had e-coli found in a bronchoscopy culture ?
About 9 years ago, I had recurrent asthmatic bronchitis for over a year. The lack of pulmonologists had left me with an aged M.D., who I didn't have much confidence in. After multiple rounds of antibiotics +adding the normal meds Still every 6-8 weeks the wheezing, SOB, & coughing returned, the diagnosis remained the same and all he wanted to do was add another med. 2 which made me worse. All this time I was virtually incapacitated, frustrated & angry! After year+ he said I needed a bronchoscopy. My biopsy came back with a drug-resistant e-coli Off to an infectious disease DR., tests, 21 days IV exotic antibiotic for 21 days. He found I had pneumonia. After treatment no more problems.
Hi "K" and thanks for this very interesting post and question. While I hope others in the community will chime in if they have personal experience with this organism (E-coli), in the airway/lungs, I do have something to add.
It sounds like you had to undergo any number of different attempts by your medical team to have this identified, diagnosed and treated. It also sounds like once the correct diagnosis and organism was identified, the proper antibiotic/treatment could be selected to insure a successful outcome.
I am glad to hear this is all behind you - I am quite sure you are too
That's wild! Did you have any GI symptoms as well, Kathy, or was it just (I use the term loosely, of course) pneumonia? So glad you recovered! -Melissa, asthma.net team
The way the specialist explained it to me is that E-coli and other types of organisms can cause be found throughout the body. He thought the # of antibiotics might of made it drug resistant that I had been given over the last year, or if it had just been hanging around down there and was the cause of the persistent bronchitas that I had over the past years No, I didn't have any G.I. problems, because it was isolated in my airway. However, the specialist had me buy a very expensive probiotic formulation because of the strength of the antibiotic to prevent G.I. probs. The pulmonologist just relied on the thump on the back and cough method for his diagnosis of ho-hum pneumonia. It was the specialist who did the imaging and confirmed pneumonia. He didn't do the biopsy. I posted this experience because I wondered if it was just odd or if people who had persistent airway infections might want to discuss it as a possibility with their DR. Thank you for your kind reply. K
