Sputum cycle to the throat and clearing it

It’s bad for you to keep swallowing it. Honestly, the best thing you can do is spit it out in a cup or whatever you use I wouldn’t even worry about that.

Hi, I wonder if you have GERD like I do. My problem started with throat clearing and coughing up clear, frothy mucus. This later (after 2 years)turned green and I became very ill. Was diagnosed with MAC and bronchiectasis. I have always coughed up the sputum - need shares in Kleenex! I do airway clearance twice daily but I cough up the most when I wake up. It can be difficult when you are out and about. I have a sealed sandwich bag in my handbag so that I can dispose of the tissues safely. My natural instinct was always to spit it out as otherwise you are letting bacteria back into your system. Just my opinion. I hope this helps.

@blm1007blm1007 It is perfectly okay to swallow mucus. Even when I had active MAC and Pseudomonas infections, the ID doc assured me it just goes into your stomach and gets digested.
Here is what another doc had to say:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/is-it-bad-to-swallow-mucus#1
@rosefoxx1 Why do you say it is bad to swallow it? It doesn't go back into your lungs, so that shouldn't be a concern.

In most situations, I find it better to swallow it than to carry a "spit rag" around, as that is full of germs, and I wouldn't like to carry a spit cup either. Besides, every time you handle the cup or tissue or cloth, you may be contaminating your hands, not just with MAC, but with any bacteria or viruses your mucus is trying to carry away.

Thanks Sue for the article.
Yes, I wash my hands constantly for the very reason you stated..... having thought about it myself. When I am out I use the short stout medical specimen cup with cap. I literally scrap the mucus/sputum off my tongue into the cup with using the edge of the cup and then cap it. ( Such detail!) Of course hand wipes and liquid hand sanitizers with me. I understand what you have said about either way.
I have got to find my way to swallowing it, at least when not doing Air Way Clearance etc. and especially away from the house and around others.
Life has sure changed and I know it will continue to change.

If you have a minute more. In reading your involvement with computers, with having a career in computers....if I understood correctly and I being horribly ignorant about all the wonderful aspects of computers/internet etc., ....is the address of the article called a DOI when it is a journal article? I have wondered what the right terminology is. In my search for understanding that is what I found DOI. Is that what it's called with a journal article? What does DOI stand for?

Wishing all safe gardening and masking for us both and all who do. However, OK may float away with all the rain this season.
Barbara

To answer your question if you swallow too much mucus it’s very bad for the stomach. You need to read up on it and see what it says. I mean a couple times if you do it now, but we’re talking about a lot of mucus here and it is very bad for the stomach. I promise you that!!
Read the following:

ntribute to stomach upset or even nausea. When mucus drains down the back of the throat and is swallowed, the body may be sensitive to the excess fluid, leading to digestive discomfort.

Postnasal Drip:
Excessive mucus from the nasal passages can drip down the back of the throat, leading to a sensation of needing to clear the throat and potentially swallowing more mucus than usual.

I was told at NJH, after testing, that I do not have acid reflux. NJH did GI testing and found a hiatal hernia which can cause mucus and throat clearing and acid reflux. However if the hiatal hernia is causing mucus/reflux it's not causing me the typical symptoms. It is more like silent reflux for me. Hard to tell where it is originating from...however it is what it is. mucus.

My mucus/mucus plugs were green in color when I, every so often, found myself needing to clear my throat before diagnosis. That was before being diagnosed a year or so after telling the PCP doctor something is wrong and telling him about what I was bringing up. He finally did a C Scan about a year and a half after my seeing him multiple, multiple times due to it and telling him about it. The C Scan was ordered by him due to the weight loss problem. So for me it was about a year and a half before my diagnosis after my original concerns of saying "something is wrong". I think he was a surprised as I was with the results of the CScan and showed great concern for me.
Regarding the color, as of now I do not have the green color mucus, mucus plug/puss I use to have. It is very light yellow, nearly looking white. However I do have the white bubbly frothy matter that comes up also much of the time. I have MAI and have not started the antibiotics, my choice for now.
Thanks for your response.
Barbara

I have been spitting into kleenex and into mini trashcans around my house (I have a pink one with a cat face that we call "Spitty Kitty") When I am out I discreetly use a kleenex and excuse myself to throw it away. I have kept on eye on my sputum since I got out of the hospital. I don't want a huge plug again. I've had day when there's blood in my sputum so I am glad that I check. That led to the CT showing my cavities and upping my meds.

I started doing airway clearance 3x after I was discharged, I am down to 2x a day (albuterol followed by 3% hypertonic saline). @sueinmn Do you know what it means when we're coughing up less? My the only time I was barely coughing up sputum was before my diagnosis and when I had a huge mucus plug in my upper right lobe. It is clear, with tiny yellow parts and the volume is way down. I am taking this as a good sign.

You asked"...Do you know what it means when we're coughing up less? ...
I can't tell you in an expert way, but I can tell you my personal observations of my mucus - isn't that a yucky topic?🤪🤢 When I had Pseudomonas and MAC at the same time, I felt like I was drowning in mucus whether doing airway clearance or sitting, sleeping, moving... This had been going on for over 2 years before my diagnosis - I would be dosed with steroids and antibiotics, get better for a month or so, and star all over again. I have had asthma for many years was always "bronchitis complicated by asthma and over-reactive airways." And I coughed day and night - even narcotic cough syrups didn't help.
Once I was diagnosed with Bronchiectasis, then Pseudomonas and MAC, I was treated first for the pseudo - 3 courses of antibiotics ending with Tobramycin. And I started airway clearance with levalbuterol and an Acapella device. At that point, my mucus went from green and actually odorous to yellow, and it diminished by half. But the cough, weight loss and fatigue did not improve. After I started the big 3 antibiotics, both my sputum and cough VERY gradually decreased, but I continued to test positive for MAC. At 12 months, against the wishes of my pulmonologist, I consulted an ID doc in our clinical group. The pulmo "fired" me and the ID doc found me a new one. ID doc increased my antibiotics to daily (Arikayce was in trial and I didn't qualify), and I actually got worse - probably too much for my then-100 lb body. After 6 months, I heard about 7% saline and started using it, and my mucus got thinner and clearer. By then, even though I never had a negative culture, with the pulmo and ID doc, I decided to stop antibiotics (I was down to 97 pounds, sick from the drugs and exhausted.)
6 months later, the amount of clear, thin mucus began to decrease, my cough was reduced and I got mixed positive and negative cultures.
That was over 4 years ago. Three years ago, I started a new inhaler, Symbicort, to manage my asthma, it was a game changer for me. My annoying cough rare and I only produce mucus over a couple tablespoons a day, and is based on exposure to allergy/asthma triggers, or it signals an exacerbation. At the first sign, I double down on 7% nebs, airway clearance and rest. I even weathered Covid with only a short course of oral steroids..

That was long - to summarize - I know "something" is going on when my mucus production increases and try to get ahead of it.

I wonder, how people avoid swallowing it.
It comes into the pharynx and I can't get it into the mouth,
e.g. for a sputum-sample.
It also mildly triggers some swallowing effect,
I can delay the swallowing for some seconds after coughing it up
but hardly avoid it.
(it = mucous , clear/white, a little salty , maybe 0.1 ml per cough/multi-cough)

You might find some of these podcasts useful. Hope the link works. https://ntmtalk.buzzsprout.com/1357462/episodes

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