How much mucus do you cough up a day?

[Grendel]

How much mucus do you cough up a day?

I spit into those colored 8oz. solo plastic cups, and depending on the day and my effort, etc., I usually cough up 8-12 oz. of mucus (yellow & jade) a day. On a bad day, I cough up as much as 16 oz. or more a day (not too often). Or I cough up 8oz. in the fist 2-3 hours of when I wake, this is also a bad day.

How about you?

Grendel
33/m

 

[anonymous]

i cough at least something up every time i cough. about 1 teaspoon each time. and i cough pretty much all day so i cough a fair bit up. not sure about the easurements though!

 

[JazzysMom]

I cough up about what Jonathan does. The only times that my cough & sputum is truly minimal plus remains & very light in color is after 2 weeks or more of IV & manual clapping 3 times a day in the hospital. However, I never seem to be able to maintain that clearness after getting home.

 

[anonymous]

I am shocked that more CFers don't monitor themselves more closely.

Ben
w/CF
36/M
Albuquerque

 

[Emily65Roses]

I don't monitor how much I cough up closely because a lot of it gets swallowed. But if I'm on a day where I spit most of it out... I can easily fill several of those Dixie cups. The tiny ones... what are they, 4 or 6 oz, I think?

 

[anonymous]

Darn it, i'm not sure about ounces as a measurement, i'm metric all the way. I usually cough up about a tablespoon in the morning while using my PEP and about 1/2 a tablespoon at night, again after using PEP. During the day, on average I probably cough up another tablespoon or two - i think that equates to about 2 ounces a day.............not much it would seem compared to some. My question is though, is this a good or a bad thing? I'm not sure if it indicates that i don't have much gunk in my lungs or if i'm just not able to cough it up very well. I'm new to all this, having ignored my illness for the past 18 years i'm a little ignorant to say the least! I only wound up in hospital for the very first time 3 months ago and now do PEP each day, but apart from a pulmicort inhaler and a combivent which i use twice a day, i take no other medications at all - is this normal? I'm a New Zealander and after reading throug these forums I'm a little concerned that everybody on here seems to a) know SO much about their disease and b) seems to be taking so many medications on a daily basis that i have never even heard of, let alone used! It's a bit concerning to be honest, is NZ way behind the rest of the world with CF treatments or is my doctor just not that clued up????? The plot thickens...................

KrazyKat
37 w/cf

 

[Purplelungs]

I was never taught to measure my sputum. I just would notice if i was coughing up more per cough and color was darker and consistancy. Still that way. My docs still dont ask how much I cough up just if its more than usual...a little more, medium or alot more is what i usually tell them. I mean how am i supposed to measure it. Im not going to carry a cup around with me everywhere. Like Emily alot of times it gets swallowed. Sorry if thats gross but thats what happens.

 

[JT]

<blockquote>Quote<br><hr>My question is though, is this a good or a bad thing? I'm not sure if it indicates that i don't have much gunk in my lungs or if i'm just not able to cough it up very well. <hr></blockquote>

I've wondered the same thing. My guess is that if you have lung infections several times/year or have low FEV1's that you're not able to cough up what's in there. If you don't, maybe there's not much there.


<blockquote>Quote<br><hr> . . . but apart from a pulmicort inhaler and a combivent which i use twice a day, i take no other medications at all - is this normal?<hr></blockquote>

From most of the people I know, that's not normal. Even people with "mild cases" (or what I'd call "not yet advanced cases" from my experience) are usually on a lot of meds both daily to prevent infections and as needed at the earliest signs of a lung infection (a minimal drop in PFT's). Then again there are people with CF that don't do much medication wise but they seem to be the minority by far.

Do you know what your FEV1's are now and in the past? Is your weight steady? Do you have a significant amount of energy for life's tasks or are you drained often? Are you physically active? I would think the answers to those questions are indicative of if you are being proactive enough.

In my personal case I had great weight, energy and was very physically active yet my FEV1's kept dropping over a period of a couple years. I wish I was more proactive sooner (IV meds) to slow the decline. Good luck in your search!

 

[anonymous]

Thanks JT, that was very helpful. I'm a bit of a strange case in that i was misdiagnosed and put through horrendous tests, given the wrong medication for diseases i never had etc etc for 19 yrs until i finally suggested they retest me for cf, after burning me with the electrodes when sweat testing me at age 5 (i threw a false negative obviously). I was tested because at age 5 i had my first and only dose of pneumonia. After finally being diagnosed at age 19 i said 'thanx a lot' took away some pancrease and never went back again to any cf specialist until i got really sick 3 months ago and needed IV antibiotics. Over the years from 19 to 37 i had maybe one or two chest infections a year which i simply took oral antibiotics for. I had lead a normal life up to my diagnosis, played sports, travelled etc and apart from a permanent nasty cough, never had any significant health problems. However once diagnosed, i believed i would be dead before i hit 25, so i was also sort of on self destruct after that smoking, drinking and paryting like a lunatic not to mention consuming just about every illegal substance known to man without a second thought - i just wanted to numb the pain and forget i was going to die. Stupid attitude but i was ignorant and scared and this was how i decided to deal with it - by not dealing with it.
However after winding up in hospital earlier this year and actually talking to a cf specialist, i have now got myself together. No smoking, no drinking, minimal partying and certainly no naughty substances!! When i was very sick they made me do pft's and my fev1 was worse than we all thought it would be - i was about 36%. Since coming out of hospital i have put on 6kgs (about 10-12 pounds i think) and am now fatter than i've ever been in my life and my cough is less frequent and way less severe. I also lift weights 3 times a week, have a treadmill at home which i use every second day, i play netball, roller-blade, ski and go for long bike rides regularly. My lungs feel absolutely great and i bring up minimal mucus, but in tru Kat style i have refused to do more pft's since my hospital stay because i simply felt i didn't want to know. While in hospital i cultured staph, psudonomas and i think cepacia, although the doctor didn't actually tell me about he cepacia at the time, my cf nurse just mentioned it over the phone one day when i was talking to her...........sheesh!!! see why i don't have a lot of faith in the medical system? Did they just 'forget' to mention it while i was in hospital or what??!! I hear cepacia is a nasty but know next to nothing about it.......................I don't know what to think, i have plenty of energy most of the time, work full time in a very stressful IT job and have no problem keeping up with my friends and partner in everything they do...................i don't seem as sick as i am (apparently), which is why the doctors were so surprised at my fev1 result............................i'm also now on antidepressants as i started having panick attacks when i came out of hospital - just totally focussed on my breathing all the time to try and work out when i'm getting another infection - it started to freak me out and still does a bit.
How will i know when i need IV antibiotics again? i keep track of my temperature which is always between 36 - 36.5 degrees centigrade and my mucus production stays pretty much the same.............i'm very confused to say the least!!

 

[JT]

<blockquote>Quote<br><hr>How will i know when i need IV antibiotics again? i keep track of my temperature which is always between 36 - 36.5 degrees centigrade and my mucus production stays pretty much the same.............i'm very confused to say the least!!<hr></blockquote>

Every patient <i>and</i> doctor would have a different answer. FOR ME temperature is the <i>last</i> sign of infection. If I spike a temp, I waited WAY too long. For some people, increased mucus is enough of a reason to go on antibiotics. I used to strictly go by physical symptoms like energy level, appetite, weight, new cough, etc. Now that my FEV1 is way too low for my comfort level (ranges from 20's to 30's) I not only go by the above physical symptoms but by a drop in FEV1's. I sometimes feel fine (as you mentioned), but talk myself into IV's based on lung funtion (FEV1). It took me a long time to be ok with going on IV's 2 or 3 times/year and in that time I went from 60's to 30's in FEV1.

When I dropped to 50% FEV1 I wanted to prove that the doctors were crazy saying I needed IV's. So I packed up and rode my bicycle for 1000 miles over a month to demonstrate how fit I was. All I proved was that without my normal meds my lung function dropped (even with all of that mucus clearing exercise!). I once felt as you do in not wanting to know what my FEV1's were. I wish I could go back in time . . . Oh well, I'm pretty damn functional for having low PFT's. I know plenty of CF'ers with way better PFT's than me but sure seem a lot sicker. So for me, PFT's don't tell the whole picture but are worth something as an early sign of infection.

I was put on a lung transplant list over three years ago in case my health continued to plummet. Thankfully it hasn't and with aggressive treatment I have better lung funtion now than three years ago. Keep me posted, or post your email address if you want to chat more.

 

[anonymous]

When I was a young boy, I too use to swallow mucus. But, my doctor told me not to do that. It took me a while to break the habit, but once I learned that mucus isn't digested, and that it ends up either plugging up my digestive tract, reducing my already limited ability to absorb nutrients, or end up in my BMs. I figured I would stop ingesting what I coughed up.

So, for those of you who don't spit out everything you cough up, know that in not doing so, you are further complicating your ability to digest food and nutrients.

My fev1 is around 40-50% on average when I am as healthy as I can be, and I cough up 1-2 cups a day (8-16 oz.) or .3 deciliters.

But I also drink 3-5 liters of water a day, so the mucus comes out a bit easier than if I were dehydrated. And I am also am not intimidated to cough around others or in public. If I have a coughing fit coming on, I simply excuse myself to more private spaces and have at it. I almost never restrain my cough or keep from expectorating. I figure this is how God made me, and if others don't like it or feel uncomfortable, it is their burden imposed upon them by God not me. I am only a messenger of sorts, communicating that pulmonary diversity exists... or so I tell myself.

I use to have amazing health in my late teens up through my mid-twenties, till I cough a series of bugs, lung related and non-lung related, and I have never been the same. When I was healthy, I would cough up probably at the very most 4 oz. and usually it was white-ish yellow (except when I was sick, then it was jade to almost British Racing Car Green & zoom zoom!).

Ben
w/CF
36/M