Your sputum colours...

[Hermit]

Just curious to see what colours people cough up when they have flare-ups and how that correlates to what they grow.

I realize that this may be gross for some people, but I'd like to know.

Myself, for example:

I grow Cepacia, Staph and Pseudomonas and when I flare up it's yellowish-gray (sometimes pink or bloody), and it tastes like rotten eggs. Sometimes I get the hard dark-yellow or brown plugs too.

 

[princessjdc]

Mine are usually a dark yellow to a brown and I culture psuedomonas, but I havent coughed anything up in a long time, but the last time I did it was that color. Oh and the taste is nasty too, I cant really discribe the taste other than its a nasty taste.

 

[coltsfan715]

I grow Pseudo and Staph/MRSA (sometimes I culture basic Staph sometimes MRSA it just depends).

When I am having a Psuedo flare up the mucus I cough up is more yellowish - ranging from light yellow to a mustardy yellow - no really strong taste.

When I am having a Staph/MRSA flare up the mucus I cough up is a dark greyish green color. It also has a horrendous taste when it is the Staph flaring up. I can ALWAYS tell by the color, taste and consistency if MRSA/Staph is the problem. I even predict it with my cultures - I will tell my doctor I think that the Staph is out of control and they always say we will see. When we get the culture results back after my saying that the results have always shown Staph as the predominant bug.

Take Care,
Linds

 

[mum2kj]

My daughter usually grows staph, it is usually a yellow to green when she has a flare up. But most of the time her sputum is yellow.

 

[MCGrad2006]

I culture for Pseudomonas and MRSA, and when I am sick its usually like a green-yellow color. Other than that it is clear or lightish green. Lindsey, thats interesting what you say about knowing what is flaring up. I will have to try and pay more attention to that when I get sick. I never thought of the connection, but it makes sense.

 

[Diane]

Usually my sputum is like a yellowish green to a khaki color on a good day. Other times its like an army green. Right now while i am on iv's it is more like a khaki color. I have psudomonas and cepacia .

 

[Marcy]

Ok, I read all of your responses. My sputum is always green. All differant shades of green. I culture only staph. I ALWAYS have sputum-beginning to wonder if it is my norm-just concerned that my lungs are getting so much damage. Seems like it would stop sometimes? It will subside after antibiotics or be less while on them, the only time it stoped completely was on prednazone.
Question-what does a mucus plug look like?
Thanks
Marcy
PS I could only tell you guys this-how gross-hahhaa

W/CF, sleep apnea

 

[mum2kj]

my daughters yellow is the norm to and she never has white sputum even after antibiotics it doesnt go away. I was just wondering if inhaled tobi helps with staph infection as kj's doc never prescribes it.
She is on permanent antibiotics (Augmentin duo forte) 2 a day.

 

[Ender]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>mum2kj</b></i>

my daughters yellow is the norm to and she never has white sputum even after antibiotics it doesnt go away. I was just wondering if inhaled tobi helps with staph infection as kj's doc never prescribes it.

She is on permanent antibiotics (Augmentin duo forte) 2 a day.</end quote></div>


I mostly cultured staph until a year ago, when i started culturing pseudo. I was interested in trying tobra before that, but my doctor at the time said he wasn't going to put me on it cause i only had staph.

Anyways, here we are, and I am on it, and i feel so much better. I looked on the package, and it did say that tobra does treat staph, so i am kinda upset that i wasn't put on it earlier. I think if i was to do it a bit differently, i would have started using tobra when i first started seeing my sputum change colour.

I think if your daughter was to give it a try, she would notice a big difference...

Kiel

 

[thelizardqueen]

My sputum varies from clear, to a yellowish color, to a lightish green. I grow Pseudo, and on the occasion I've shown Staph, but that's super rare. During my flareups my sputum is usually yellowish green, and when I'm not sick, its clear to yellow. I have had the odd brownish bloody plug as well, but that too is rare for me.

 

[cysticfibrosisgirl]

do any of you know what bacilli and cocci are in the sputum when they are positive? Is it a tape of pheumococcus?

 

[JazzysMom]

My usual sputum is medium yellow. I only remember being able to get to white one time & that was after months of meds. When sick with usual flareup its PA kicking in which makes it green. Last year with my first bout of MRSA it was brown....really gross!

 

[mum2kj]

Thanks Kiel (Ender),
I will be definitely asking the docs why they havn't put her on it.

I would like to know what a plug looks like too, Is it different to normal sputum?

 

[LauraLou]

My sputum has always been green - (sometimes lightish but mainly murky coloured). I grow psuedo and I grew staph up until february this year. I can't say I noticed a change in my sputum when the staph disappeared though.
I have ABPA and when it flares up I tend to get a clear stringy type of sputum as well.
I rarely cough up blood but I do cough up a lot of large plugs (dark green).

 

[shauna]

i culture pseudo and my sputum is usually yellow/green unless im having a flare up when its green green and tastes nasty. sometimes its been so gross there's chunks in it. sorry i'll stop now. ew! lovelyyy topic!

 

[Emeraldmirror]

my sputum is green... varying from dark to light green... thick to thin... i grown pseudo and sometimes asperilligus (usually really low cultures of asperilligus)

Ashley 22 w/cf

 

[Momtana]

Lisa V. put a link on here a while back that showed a mucus plug - I can't find it by searching. It was pretty amazing.

 

[cfsucks]

bumpin an old thread...
mine i would classify as light green/yellow... often in the mornings when i wake up and cough its a bit darker.
i wouldn't mind seeing that mucous plug... what do they look like?
we should all put pics up of our sputum to compare lol.

 

[maryiris]

I always have the pseudo. And the tobi - i know this from my super doc - tobi is a great "last resort" type tool. but resistance builds up pretty easily so it is always avoided until nothing else works. It no longer works for me. But for a while did great. So not treating your daughter is just keeping the "heavy weapons" on call for when there are no other options - excellent decision if you ask me.

After the tobi there is now another one that is pretty new - another month on / month off thing - odd name that I cannot complete remember - pronounced a stray a nam. Working like the tobi used to.

I used to ride a stationary bike to move plugs - i could feel them when I coughed them up - felt like hard little solid pieces - like a grain of rice - but the color of your mucus - dried - so tinged brown and green for me. Felt so much better when those things moved.

Later all <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

 

[maryiris]

I have to nix the whole pictures of sputum thingy - sorry.