hard chunky throat mucus

I wake up every morning and cough up dark, chunky, hard mucus...it's not black, but i would call it brownish green. I feel generally much more mucusy than I've ever been before - the dark, chunky stuff is only in the morning, but I do have mucus during the day as well. For the past 3 or 4 months, I've been getting slight "colds" - meaning, nasal congestion or slight coughing...and it goes away and comes back.  Went to my doc, he listened to my lungs, and told me it's nothing and to take Mucinex - that did nothing for me at all.  Been coughing this dark stuff up for maybe a month or so.  Don't feel at all sick, don't have trouble breathing when i'm working out or anything like that.  I do smoke, but I'm not a heavy smoker - maybe a pack a week.  Any insight would be appreciated.  Thanks.

A nasal spray (Flonase, Veramyst, Rhinocort) at bedtime helps me as well as a Benadryl each night.  I would like to say if you use a nasal spray, when you stick it in your nostril and squirt do NOT -- DO NOT -- snort it.  It is imperative that you NOT snort it.  That will make your throat feel you're swallowing razor blades.  You hold your breath, squirt, and after three seconds you VERY LIGHTLY inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.  I take and rub carmex inside my nose all around, keep water next to my bed at night for drinking, and I scrimped and saved $1,000 and bought an IQ Air Series Air Purifier.  It has changed my life.  I highly recommend one you have allergies or sensitivities such as I do.  You won't regret it!  Good luck!

This should apply to all here..

You must be careful with neti pots. you are never supposed to get tap water inside of your nose ESPECIALLY with a neti pot. It is known to happen but very rare a bacteria gets in through undistilled water (water if a process of sterilization that some Tap water companies don't do) and can be potentially harmful.

The tonsil stones which are foul smelling clumps of paste are cuased by food getting trapped in or around your tonsils, (ussually bread or some kind of pasta), and mucus and other stuff builds up around it. You can cough up really really small ones and never even notice or really really big ones that cause pain. Normally you can see them in the back of your throat by your tonsils.

The hard mucus happens when you sleep. Mucus will be in your throat right above the start of your esophagus and where your nasal cavity meet. As you sleep and breathe the mucus gets basically 'concentrated'. You normally only cough it up in the mornings.

Also, hard mucus that you feel is being coughed up from your lungs can be from cystic fibrosis which is a lung disease that causes harder mucus to accumulate in your lungs and digestive tract. If you commonly see mucus type subtance in your poop you may want to goto the doctors. This can be potentially harmful. Causing a lack of oxygen to get to the parts of your body that it needs to.

 

All of these things may not apply to you but also, you may have a little bit of all of these things.  the firsthe second is nothing to be worried about are called tonsil stones and are normally just uncomfortable, no harm done but CAN cause an infection. The second is nothing to be worried about, keep a glass of water by your bed or try things like a dehumidifier. The last one if a condition and a doctor should be seen.

If the hard substance is a chalky yellow and can be broken up (like feta cheese) these are called tonsil stones. They smell vile and are located if you pull back the flap of skin around the sides of your tonsils. It is a build up of calcium. If your drinking lots of milk or eat lots of dairy that is most likely the cause, they are completely harmless and easily removed with a cotton bud, but if they are coming daily and causing you any discomfort you can talk to your doctor and I believe they can be stopped with surgery. Hope this helps

if you smoke then this is going to be hard to avoid. Even if you don't smoke cigarettes, I know that if I take a few hits from a blunt I am going to hack up nasty brown things when I wake up in the morning. If either of these are you case at all, then as soon as you wake up you should brush your teeth and gargle, cough, spit out what you can. Immediately take a hot shower afterwards. I know for me it feels really good to have the hot water running against the spot where I feel like it is built up. It is so much easier coughing it out in the shower. I also like to have some green tea with mint in the mornings to sooth my throat from all the hassle I put it through after this process.

maybe you can try strepsils, it worked for me.

Brown mucus is usually linked to people who smoke cigs and/or pot. Solution cut down or even better quit. Brown mucus is often associated with people who work around subtances such as, fibreglass dust particles (boat builders, plasterers...). (Tonsil stones otherwise known as crypts are the result of left over food trapped in tonsil cavities, hence the unpleasant smell. These stones are not a cause for concern. Yellow chunky mucus is generally viral, if you smoke you need to stop or it will not get better, flush out any bugs, toxins by drinking water. Green mucus is bacteria and needs medical attention such as, antibiotics. If you are a smoker the best advice is to quit! Hot smoke is your lungs worse enemy and in years to come it will be harder to quit and you will feel worse off!

It could be GERD. I too experienced morning sore throats, coughing and "chunks" only to have my doctor say it was acid reflux. She put me on omeprozole, 40 mg first thing in the morning and I have stopped all the coughing and sore throat issues. Doesn't seem likely that you stomach can cause coughing but it can. See you doctor soon!

I can confirm this. I have cystic fibrosis and this is almost a common occurrence for me - which is disgusting. My understanding is that its because ppl with cystic fibrosis are constantly getting lung infections and coupled with the crazy amounts of mucous that we produce, causes this type of thing to happen a little more frequently then the norm.

I get the same thing. When I take dairy and wheat out of my diet they go away completely after about a week. They are so annoying, especially when in public.It makes your throat hurt and  you choke on them, yuck!

i coughed up a very strange thing the other morning, it came from the back of my throat not my lungs and it was solid like flesh.it was about 1cm by 1cm and had the feeling of soft flesh like a raw chicken, it was pink and healthylooking, i got it tested and they have no idea what it was!!! im pushing to get more tests done, there was no bleeding but i have a cold , im just so amazed by it and even took pictures

I can also confirm that the green/brown/tan hard chunks coughed up in the morning could be from infection in sinuses, lungs or rarely the throat. I have spent my life with asthma, allergies and chronic bronchitis/sinusitis with excess and very, very thick phlegm. To make it worse I have a deviated septum which almost completely seals off one nostril causing breathing to be just that much harder. Besides I get several serious infections a year which aggravate the mucus production thus causing these mucus blockages or plugs as I call them to go from bad to worse. A couple of years ago I was exposed to aspergillus mold in my lungs, this moved my lungs into severe bronchiectasis mode, now I am coughing these plugs up 24 hrs a day. The mucus is so thick I have broken several ribs coughing, even though I take guifenesin constantly and use the neti-pot, avoid allergens etc... I cough so hard it feels as if my head will burst!  On top of this I am on oxygen therapy full time so that it dries out my nose and throat constantly, so I keep up on the fluid intake for sure! Mine does not come with a fever other but with feeling of one, I have never felt sicker in my life.

There has got to be a better way for Dr's to address this thick, hard phlegm issue! I swear I stop breathing so many times during the night because of it and then feel lucky when I wake up choking on the phlegm.

By the way 'FLIPPER 40', I have coughed up blood with what appeared to be a perfectly good piece of blood vessel, I don't know if it was, I didn't get mine tested but when I told my Pulmonologist he did not sound too concerned.

Flipper40, did you ever find out what the raw meat substance was that you coughed up? This happened to me this past Saturday. I coughed up a piece of something that looked like raw pink chicken about hslf the size of my pinky fingernail. Prior to that, for 3 months I often got this sensation in my throat that something was stuck but I could never cough it out. After this thing came out, I was so freaked out. The stuck throat feeling Is gone. I took it for pathology but I'm so freaked out that it may be some type of cancer. I took a pic of it too. Did you find out what yours was?

It is not tonsil stones, those are stred toward the back of the mouth in the tonsil area, are small, hard, white and foul smelling. The mucus balls you are experiencing are just the hardening of excess mucus in your sinuses while you sleep, similar to the way it hardens in your nose, but with more mucus and moisture to create that odd size and texture. This it most common during spring as pollen can trigger the body's mucus response, or during sinus infections.

-c

I get the hard, yellow-brown, smelly, throat chunks in the morning as well. I have Learned this about it. Its a ball of plaque. like from your teeth. probably FROM the teeth and mouth and tongue. It is significantly worse the morning after any type of dairy or soy was consumed prior to sleep, it's worse when one does not brush, scraping the tongue is important. its worse when one is dehydrated. So bush teeth and tongue drink plenty of water and watch the dairy or vegan intake within four hours of bed time.  I do this and I don't get the chunkies at all. I fail and I get big smelly chunks in the morning that hurt to come up.