Sputum culture questions?

jbrandonAW · Apr 23, 2010

So I am currently in the hole for a 2 week tune up. I wasn't feeling awful when I came in BUT def not 100%. I think alot of it is due to sinuses/allergies but my cough had increases, gotten sticker, BUT only a yellow colored mucus.

Well I went to my local doctor since my clinic is 3 hours away. They started a sputum culture, blood work, did PFTs etc.

I called today to get the results of my sputum since I won't know the ones from this hospital until monday. They lady that read them was only the traige nurse so she just read the sheet to me.

Is said:

Bacteria - only normal lower respitory flora

Then it said some stuff about some postive and negative gram bactilli and rods. What are these???

So my major question is: How can I have cultured PA for 20ish years and then all of a sudden NOT culture it. My sputum was a good one. I had it and coughed into it for about an hour while they were doing PFT's and lung volumes, so I know it was some good deep stuff.

jbrandonAW · Apr 23, 2010

So I am currently in the hole for a 2 week tune up. I wasn't feeling awful when I came in BUT def not 100%. I think alot of it is due to sinuses/allergies but my cough had increases, gotten sticker, BUT only a yellow colored mucus.

Well I went to my local doctor since my clinic is 3 hours away. They started a sputum culture, blood work, did PFTs etc.

I called today to get the results of my sputum since I won't know the ones from this hospital until monday. They lady that read them was only the traige nurse so she just read the sheet to me.

Is said:

Bacteria - only normal lower respitory flora

Then it said some stuff about some postive and negative gram bactilli and rods. What are these???

So my major question is: How can I have cultured PA for 20ish years and then all of a sudden NOT culture it. My sputum was a good one. I had it and coughed into it for about an hour while they were doing PFT's and lung volumes, so I know it was some good deep stuff.

jbrandonAW · Apr 23, 2010

So I am currently in the hole for a 2 week tune up. I wasn't feeling awful when I came in BUT def not 100%. I think alot of it is due to sinuses/allergies but my cough had increases, gotten sticker, BUT only a yellow colored mucus.

Well I went to my local doctor since my clinic is 3 hours away. They started a sputum culture, blood work, did PFTs etc.

I called today to get the results of my sputum since I won't know the ones from this hospital until monday. They lady that read them was only the traige nurse so she just read the sheet to me.

Is said:

Bacteria - only normal lower respitory flora

Then it said some stuff about some postive and negative gram bactilli and rods. What are these???

So my major question is: How can I have cultured PA for 20ish years and then all of a sudden NOT culture it. My sputum was a good one. I had it and coughed into it for about an hour while they were doing PFT's and lung volumes, so I know it was some good deep stuff.

jbrandonAW · Apr 23, 2010

So I am currently in the hole for a 2 week tune up. I wasn't feeling awful when I came in BUT def not 100%. I think alot of it is due to sinuses/allergies but my cough had increases, gotten sticker, BUT only a yellow colored mucus.

Well I went to my local doctor since my clinic is 3 hours away. They started a sputum culture, blood work, did PFTs etc.

I called today to get the results of my sputum since I won't know the ones from this hospital until monday. They lady that read them was only the traige nurse so she just read the sheet to me.

Is said:

Bacteria - only normal lower respitory flora

Then it said some stuff about some postive and negative gram bactilli and rods. What are these???

So my major question is: How can I have cultured PA for 20ish years and then all of a sudden NOT culture it. My sputum was a good one. I had it and coughed into it for about an hour while they were doing PFT's and lung volumes, so I know it was some good deep stuff.

jbrandonAW · Apr 23, 2010

So I am currently in the hole for a 2 week tune up. I wasn't feeling awful when I came in BUT def not 100%. I think alot of it is due to sinuses/allergies but my cough had increases, gotten sticker, BUT only a yellow colored mucus.
 
 Well I went to my local doctor since my clinic is 3 hours away. They started a sputum culture, blood work, did PFTs etc.
 
 I called today to get the results of my sputum since I won't know the ones from this hospital until monday. They lady that read them was only the traige nurse so she just read the sheet to me.
 
 Is said:
 
 Bacteria - only normal lower respitory flora
 
 Then it said some stuff about some postive and negative gram bactilli and rods. What are these???
 
 So my major question is: How can I have cultured PA for 20ish years and then all of a sudden NOT culture it. My sputum was a good one. I had it and coughed into it for about an hour while they were doing PFT's and lung volumes, so I know it was some good deep stuff.

hmw · Apr 23, 2010

Everyone cultures normal respiratory flora and that is usually on the report (the reports will also often indicate if it was a light or heavy growth of the normal stuff.) However, the mention of gram-positive & gram-negative bacilli & rods is an indication that other stuff was found in the culture too: those are descriptive terms for various strains of bacteria. Positive and negative refer to how the bacteria responds to a stain being applied to it and 'rod' refers to the shape. There should be more info there about what strains, exactly, were found and what it's significance is- I would ask the dr about it rather than just going by what the nurse said.

I hope the rest of your hospital stay goes well. <img src="i/expressions/rose.gif" border="0">

hmw · Apr 23, 2010

Everyone cultures normal respiratory flora and that is usually on the report (the reports will also often indicate if it was a light or heavy growth of the normal stuff.) However, the mention of gram-positive & gram-negative bacilli & rods is an indication that other stuff was found in the culture too: those are descriptive terms for various strains of bacteria. Positive and negative refer to how the bacteria responds to a stain being applied to it and 'rod' refers to the shape. There should be more info there about what strains, exactly, were found and what it's significance is- I would ask the dr about it rather than just going by what the nurse said.

I hope the rest of your hospital stay goes well. <img src="i/expressions/rose.gif" border="0">

hmw · Apr 23, 2010

Everyone cultures normal respiratory flora and that is usually on the report (the reports will also often indicate if it was a light or heavy growth of the normal stuff.) However, the mention of gram-positive & gram-negative bacilli & rods is an indication that other stuff was found in the culture too: those are descriptive terms for various strains of bacteria. Positive and negative refer to how the bacteria responds to a stain being applied to it and 'rod' refers to the shape. There should be more info there about what strains, exactly, were found and what it's significance is- I would ask the dr about it rather than just going by what the nurse said.

I hope the rest of your hospital stay goes well. <img src="i/expressions/rose.gif" border="0">

hmw · Apr 23, 2010

Everyone cultures normal respiratory flora and that is usually on the report (the reports will also often indicate if it was a light or heavy growth of the normal stuff.) However, the mention of gram-positive & gram-negative bacilli & rods is an indication that other stuff was found in the culture too: those are descriptive terms for various strains of bacteria. Positive and negative refer to how the bacteria responds to a stain being applied to it and 'rod' refers to the shape. There should be more info there about what strains, exactly, were found and what it's significance is- I would ask the dr about it rather than just going by what the nurse said.

I hope the rest of your hospital stay goes well. <img src="i/expressions/rose.gif" border="0">

hmw · Apr 23, 2010

Everyone cultures normal respiratory flora and that is usually on the report (the reports will also often indicate if it was a light or heavy growth of the normal stuff.) However, the mention of gram-positive & gram-negative bacilli & rods is an indication that other stuff was found in the culture too: those are descriptive terms for various strains of bacteria. Positive and negative refer to how the bacteria responds to a stain being applied to it and 'rod' refers to the shape. There should be more info there about what strains, exactly, were found and what it's significance is- I would ask the dr about it rather than just going by what the nurse said.
 
 I hope the rest of your hospital stay goes well. <img src="i/expressions/rose.gif" border="0">

jbrandonAW · Apr 23, 2010