By: Aviva Regev
Mr. S is a 68-year old man with longstanding COPD and a 40-pack-year smoking history. He presents to clinic with three days of increasing shortness of breath, and complains that he has been coughing up “more junk” than usual. As I watch him spit a wad of chartreuse sputum into his tissue, I reach for the prescription pad and tell him he’ll need a week of antibiotics. He wants to know why he can’t just go up on his inhaled medications instead…
