I finished radiation March 3rd. I have been spitting up green mucus for about 2 weeks. The ENT and the Radiation Dr. tell me its drainage. Surfing the web I found out I have Thrush. Went to local Doctor Saturday to get some Nystatian. I probably had thrush for about 4 weeks. Well the Thrush is getting better,
but the green mucus stays the same. Is this green mucus normal?
Thanks
Terry

The mucous will be around for awhile... in my case for about 5 months after the end of treatment. Some here have had a shorter go of it, but at least you can be comfortable in knowing that it is normal. Candida blooms were a problem for me for a full year after treatment off and on, and Diflucan cleared it up each time in a matter of days. The main body of the site ( in dental, under complications) has a bit of good information about Candida that you should take a look at.

Terry,
If you are in doubt whether something is normal, call your doctor. That is what they are there for and if they are good and caring, they would want you to call.
Meredith

I went back to the Radiation Doctor today. I was very lucky because my Doctor was not there. So I saw the Doctor on call. She anwsered all my questions. She put me on some Trimox for a posible Sinus infection.
Things are much better today.
This site is a blessing.
Thank you All,
Terry

I was going to say it sounded like a sinus infection. Meredith is absolutely right. With our compromised immune systems it is never good to wait on stuff like that.

I agree that it is always the best to consult your doctors with anything that seems out of the ordinary, and you have done the right thing. I do have some objections to part of this, and that related to the antibiotics. The doctor that saw you made an ASSUMPTION that you had a sinus infection, no swab and culture to know for sure, which would have taken a day at the most and identified what type of antibiotics (gram negative or positive) would be the most successful. You are now on a broad-spectrum antibiotic that you may not need, for a condition that just about everyone who goes through treatment ends up with. The blanket prescribing of Rx antibiotics in this country is out of hand, and it is creating patients for whom the existing antibiotics don't work anymore, and new strains of antibiotic resistant bugs. For sure after treatment we all get a variety of bugs that take hold while our immune systems are puny, and I too had my share. These need treatment to resolve, as our immune systems for the first year or so are not up to speed. I do not know for sure whether or not you have an infection which needed antibiotics, but neither does this doctor

I have always been told that clear mucous is ok but when it turns green or dark yellow it is the sign of an infection. One of our daughters is a general physician and that is what she always asked her patients who called in. What color is it. John had lots and lots of mucous but it was always clear or just slightly yellowish.
Meredith

Today in Laguna Beach the sky was a beautiful robin's egg blue.... what does that mean to you? Was it brilliant blue, gray-blue, light blue with gray flecks....... Mucous has variable colors in different individuals. Individual interpretation of yellow, green, yellow-green, sort of clear with some color, etc. etc. leaves a lot of subjective room for error. With all respect to your daughter

Brian,
Yes I understand and with all due respect to you, we had a doctor treat John a few years ago telling him that the yellow sputum he was spitting up was just flu. Unfortunately, four days later as he was rushed to the hosptial that the flu was legionaires disease. He was diagnosed by an alert first year out doctor who reviewed the symptoms including the yellow sputum. Medicine is still as much an art as a science. And yes some doctors rush to find put people on antibotics. However in Johns case by the time the tests came back, he would have been dead.
Meredith

I'm not sure how we got from cancer to legionellosis, but you are making my point, so we must be in at least partial agreement. And that point is that misdiagnosis happens too often, as we all read on these boards, and in your husband's case with the flu that was actually legionellosis. If that first year intern suspected legeionella, I guarantee you he didn't diagnosis it from recognizing the symptoms. There is a very specific test for it as symptoms vary wildly from patient to patient. Patients with Legionnaires' disease usually have fever, chills, and a cough, which may be dry or may produce sputum. Some patients also have muscle aches, headache, tiredness, loss of appetite, and, occasionally, diarrhea. Laboratory tests may show that these patients' kidneys are not functioning properly. Chest X-rays often show pneumonia. It is difficult to distinguish Legionnaires' disease from other types of pneumonia by symptoms alone; other tests are required for diagnosis. Which is my point. Unless a specific test is done for Legionella pneumophila, and that bacterium was specifically identified, the doctors would not know what antibiotic, in this case erythromycin, or in severe cases rifampin, to prescribe. Guessing what antibiotic, based on symptoms and not on a definitive test related pathological finding, is Russian roulette. In your husband

Brian,
As a matter of fact, the diagnosis of legionaires was not confirmed until after John was discharged. The doctor prescribed a broad specturm antibotic based on symtoms.
Meredith

I guess I will have to let this difference of opinions go, since it seems that my point is not what is important to you, only that results were achieved. But it doesn't change my mind about the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which after years of misuse by the medical community have created a whole new world of antibiotic resistant strains of disease. This is a very serious problem that impacts all of us. This is not my opinion, but an issue of constant discussion and worry in the medical community and at the CDC. And as I said before, the issue they had originally with Legionnaire