Mellow Yellow

It's hard to know only by sputum color is there is an infection. Sputum color coupled with how you're feeling is important. That said, when I produce yellow sputum I am happy that it is not green or some other ghastly color!

Here's a journal article from 2009 that discusses sputum color. Sputum colour: a useful clinical tool in non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis -- https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/34/2/361

Scoop, thank you for this! The color chart is particularly helpful. I tend to wait until I'm very sick before calling the doctor (heaven forbid I should be a pest!), and this will give me one more tool to gauge whether to make that call. Your research skills are awesome!

Thanks. A bit technical to decipher. Coloration can become a bit obsessive. Spitting onto a white napkin to get an accurate color - but it fills the endless time it takes to get final lab results.

Thanks. Actually feeling very good - once they figured out what to treat. Only took them 6 mos to say let’s do a bronchoscopy. Then hit it with 3 weeks of Cipro.

Coloration can become a bit obsessive. Spitting onto a white napkin to get an accurate color - but it fills the endless time it takes to get final lab results.

I produce a lot of yellow and green mucus everyday for 3 years now. Some in this group don't even produce anything. Some are just clear white. Mine is always yellow/ dark yellow/ green about 2 table spoons . Am I the only one? Do others produce this amount? I think I produce more on the day I inhale Levalbuterol. When I do postural drainage in the back, and they come down just like water coming down:( so tired after doing ACT. Chronically colonized with Burkholderia cepacia. Appreciate any airway clearance techniques and thoughts/suggestions. Thank you.

Given the quantity and color of your mucus, has anyone suggested treating the Burkholderia infection? Do you see an infectious disease doctor?
Sue

I have chronic Pseudo mucoid strain. Bronchiectasis for over 20 years. I produce much more mucus than 2 tbls per day. Actually around 2 to 3 ounces and it all comes up after my late AM nebulizing and aerobika use. The color is always the same. Brownish. I probably win the prize here. My pulmo says people with Bronchiectasis produce all different colors of sputum and how you are feeling is more important. But with chronic infections it becomes harder to say what a flare is. I have found at this point that using the aerobika laying on my back with hips slightly elevated and head slightly downward brings up the majority of the mucus. Then After each round of Aerobika, sitting up and breathing a certain way to as if rattle it around in my upper chest and throat.