bronchiectasis

Right.

Uh, "Bronchiectasis, permanent wide-

But she's never had anything

... damage to the airways." That, that's a no.

And this is a lot more common than people think, too.

Bronchiectasis is afflicting up to half a million people, according to the American Lung Association here in the U.S. Was the diagnosis immediate? Was it a...

Did the doctors get it right the first time or was there a drag factor into determining what was afflicting mom and that added to how the BE impacted her?

So the thing is, that's the crazy thing, right, is that a lot of people can think they may have COPD and asthma, but with bronchiectasis, sometimes it can mask itself as those or it can also be all three.

It's a condition that occurs in the tubes in the airways, uh, causing them to widen and become loose and scarred.

Uh, bronchi- uh, the cause of bronchiectasis is unknown, but there are various things that can contribute, such as infections or, um, injuries to the walls of the airways.

Bronchiectasis affects the lungs by having the small, uh, cells in the lining of the airways, the m- the goblet cells, which secrete mucus, um, to become overactive.

This mucus then can get, uh, lodged in the small airways, causing mucus plugging and can cause infection also.

So w- today we just wanna talk about what it is, who it oc- who it affects, and how we can treat it, and ways that it can become diagnosed.