A horrible question. I always thought green mucus meant an infection, a learner gp some time ago told me that wasn't the case. Now im wondering if he was wrong?.
Yuk!: A horrible question. I always... - Lung Conditions C...
Yuk!
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Burs
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I'm not familiar with with that title either in hospitals we call newly trained.... junior Doctors I live in the UK
A qualified doctor just starting his extensive gp training refered to himself as a "learner gp" to me as it was so new to him. Its not a technical term as far as i know.
Your right he’s a GP in training with your Doctors surgery it must be a teaching surgery same as ours x
Green but yellow is
I would say Burs that any colour that is not your usual normal needs attention. Many of us with bronchiectasis produce yellow/green as our normal. We can tell we have an infection by an obvious change in colour but also by other symptoms eg elevated temperature, feeling unwell, more breathless, taste, fatigue and intolerant of things which would normallly not bother me at all.
Some folks normal, if they do cough up gunk is white or pale yellow and so dark sputum could make it more obvious, but it is usually accompanied by other symptoms.
Junior doctors - bain of my life - I call them baby doctors - but they have to learn and soon find folks with chronic illness can’t be fobbed off!
Cx
Thanks cofdrop. That was a better explained, clearer answer than i got from my "baby doctor". Im also realising that when you have a chronic illness you are often palmed off !! I am now standing up for what i need from them. Burs x
in reply to Burs
Brilliant answer from cof drop. Agree with everything she says including the problem of dealing with ‘baby doctors’ who have terrible training in lung conditions but immense attitude towards patients.
Angelsstar in reply to
The first thing I was asked by my baby dr was to bring in my husband for a discussion I assked why and he said he wanted to know if I wanted resuscitateing if my heart stopped. He needed a form signing . My husband flatly refused to go near him and the language was BLUE . That’s my baby Dr. He never asked again .
Hear hear
Its not so much tbe colour but what is normal for you and if it changes. If you normal produce green then nothing to worry about if however you normaly produce clear then you need to see your gp. I hope this is of some help
Colour can also be to do with age of sputum - littleun has tracheobronchomalacia (‘floppy’ airways) meaning that no mater how much physio we do her chest clearance is always slightly below par; the stuff we don’t get up at the time tends to come up looking delightfully grim further down the line. When she’s well, her sputum is generally completely clear or white, so anything really interesting that comes up usually goes off for culture just to be on the safe side, but generally speaking, if what she’s bringing up is funky due to infection there will be other indicators beyond just the colour. I was looking for the explanation our consultant gave me regarding white cells and phlegm colour, and found this link to a piece that may reflect what the baby doc was telling you, but it does go on to say that green phlegm in COPD is more likely to be an infection:
psnc.org.uk/sunderland-lpc/...
Baby doctors can be a real pain in the bum 🙄
Burs in reply to
Thank you so much for the obvious effort you have made to help answer my question, the more information i can get the better armed i am to be proactive in my treatment !! Which can only be good, and make me feel mire in control. Thank you again, burs x
cofdrop-UK in reply to
Thanks for the link - one of those I believe speaking of the normally fit and well. As you say there are indicators for people with lung conditions other than just the colour.
I have to remind myself that the cf/bronchiectasis proactive consultants I now see were once baby doctors, but I can’t imagine for one minute they were as crass and stupid as some of the bdocs I have come across. One deciding it would be a good idea to stop all my inhalers and nebs until I was seen by respiratory. He was told in no uncertain terms he couldn’t do that. Never saw him again and my con was horrified! One tried in the middle of the night to put a longline in with untrasound. What a farse. I ended up wth pools of blood on the bedding either side of me, which he tried to mop up with the paper towels! He was christened Sweeney Tod.
The others folks with bronchiectasis always seem to get is a sharp suited (usually a guy) with a host of students, watching you and waiting to pounce. Good crackles, which you will be well aware of with your daughter, but not your obvious copd conclusion. They do like to get their hands on a bronch! Like to use us in finals.
Hope your littleone is on an even keel Charlie.
Cx
My understanding is that any colour that is not your norm needs attention.Good wishes.
Hi Burs, any mucous thats green for me is bad infection. I have a bug for 2 yrs in my chest that antibiotics cant shift so looks like i have to live with it for now as it multiplies. Been on a macrolide antibiotic to keep it at bay for now. Was always told green is not good nor in my case. Hope this helps. karen x
I think one of the problems is that COPD is a wide field as is treatment and progression. A couple of years ago I was asked to speak to a group of nearly new doctors about COPD, not just about medication but how it feels to live with it and its impact on family life and day to day welfare. Perhaps it is something that should be taken up by other professionals.H
Dunno about COPD but with my bronchiectasis I have learnt never to call an infection just because my sputum has changed colour. I need to feel properly unwell and/or have other flags of infection to go along with it before I reach for the antibis. There are countless times when I check my sputum, decide to call infection if my sputum is the same (typically streaking with yellow or a small number of rice grain-like yellow structures the next day (because I do have say a couple other lowish grade flags of potential infection) and then find sputum colour has returned back to normal when the next day arrives.
The British Thoracic Society guidelines for adult patients with bronchiectasis seem to support such an approach.
I would not knock other sufferers who, based on their long-run experience, reach sooner for the antibis but I would not recommend that newbies get too reactive to that initial colour change taken in isolation
