drainage of watery yellow fluid from nose

[hfd102]

Friday while I was bent over blow-drying my hair, bright yellow fluid suddenly started dripping out of my nose.  It felt like a nose bleed and that's what I thought it was until I observed the color.  I had never seen any fluid that color come out of my body before.  The drainage was unilateral--left side only.  I made an appointment with my doctor but cannot see her until Tuesday.  Investigating a bit onlne I saw something that seemed similar--CSF leakages.  But I have had no brain injuries, only a recent cold.  My question is--is this probably what I think it is?  Do I need to be very concerned?  Should I insist on seeing the doctor sooner or go to emergency?  What should I do in the meantime?  It hasn't happened again since then.  I'm really feeling a bit scared.
Thanks so much
Heidi

[Alsnose]

Well it looks like I can join this club. I also had the very first bout of yellow fluid out of my left nostril this morning. Same story as everybody else. Bent forward and out it came. Was shocked. Immediately thought of cerebral fluid, but have no history of head trauma, but have had sinus infections fairly often.
Then I remembered back to nursing school. Cerebral fluid feeds and protects the brain. That is why it contains sugar. One of the things we used to do in head trauma cases was to use a diabetic blood sugar tester to test the clear fluid of the nose to see if it contained sugar. So I think that I will visit a diabetic friend today and test that yellow fluid from my nose to see if it contains any sugar.

However, just seeing the number of people that are all telling similar stories, I highly doubt that it is anything serious.

[Alsnose]

the sugar idea will of course only work if you have absolutely NO blood in the fluid leaving the nose, because blood also has sugar in it.

[over50jlm]

sinus leakage had that and cleared up with medication

[MLCole]

I just recently had the same thing but it was after I had 6 teeth pulled my Dentist told me it was all the bacteria built up behind the infection in my teeth and now its draining and it is sinus infection that is being released.  It's yellow runny and has a rotten smell. It was actually a good thing because it was stuck in there until I had the dental surgery and it had much infection so I'm glad it's draining out just hope it hurries up and be over.  This was my first and hopefully last problem like this.

[madcone]

I am a international student at university of Cincinnati and am not habituated to the cold weather. At night, in 3 degrees celsius (36 deg F) I went out wearing only my shorts and t shirt. After some time, I went into a store (suddenly warm) and came out (cold again) and after a minute, a light yellow/orange clear fluid started pouring out of my nose. It was slightly salty/tasteless and sticky. This continued for about 5 minutes and I leaked around 10-20 ML. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me and am really scared. I have memory problems and some attention related problems. I have university insurance, so probably I will go visit the health center tomorrow. Hope it is nothing serious.
-M

[migueleno]

I can relieve a lot of tension here. I have had this problem for about 10 years now. I get it during or after colds. I had sinus surgery 10 years ago, have had catscans, mri's and CSF fluid tests done. I saw two neurologists as well who specialize in this problem. Turns out it is Rhinitis or infectious rhinitus. May go away on its own or you may need to treat with antibiotics. Be calm, don't overwork or bend to much. It should go away in 4-5 days.

[Pcsteel]

Do you also get lightheaded, dizzy and the chills when this happens?

[Brando_BastRdo]

Let me join the club as well. Same yellow fluid but this time on my right nostril. I had to fix our bluray player so i bent also and this happend. I just came from more than a week long cold. Fluid rushed down my nose like crazzzy.  I was freaking out until i read your experiences. Thanks so much for sharing cause it helped me calm down. Advanced Merry Christmas Guys! We should form a facebook group! =)