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Excess salivation and mucous remedy?

vetorama
vetorama CSN Member Posts: 16
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

I just finished chemo and 33 rads for cancer of the mandible with fibula free flap. Towards the end i was blessed with excessive salivation and mucous which would inevitably lead to me throwing up. Many people have experienced this, so i will just let you know what works for me so far.

Wal-Act from Walmart dried me up quite nicely and gave me a welcome break. You have to ask for it from behind the counter.

Second, atropine 1% eye drop under my tongue every 6 hrs seems to be effective. My RX was for one drop every 6 hours as needed but i may have slipped and administered two drops. This lasted for about 4 hrs today.I am not an MD so be careful when using atropine. At higher doses it can have some unpleaseant side effects like heart arrythmias and dizziness etc.

What a blessing to go the whole day without throwing up. Hope this works for others.

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Comments

  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor CSN Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #2
    glad you're doing this well

    You've been down a pretty long road with this.  GLad to hear you're still around.  The atropine is an interesting approach.  I can see why it would work this way, and you are right, control of doseage via absorption could be a problem.  This is kind of "off label" use of the drug, which is ok under the circumstances.  Someone down in Australia did this a year or so ago, but I never heard how much help he found it.  I'd have to think of his name, can still remember his avatar, lol. 

     

    The salivation will change.  I had an increase in salivation toward the end of rads, which persisted for awhile this time.  Then I got dry.  A year out now, don't know whether the future has improvement or not.  It takes a long time.

     

    best to you

     

    Pat

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  • KTeacher
    KTeacher CSN Member Posts: 1,103 Member
    #3
    longtermsurvivor said:

    glad you're doing this well

    You've been down a pretty long road with this.  GLad to hear you're still around.  The atropine is an interesting approach.  I can see why it would work this way, and you are right, control of doseage via absorption could be a problem.  This is kind of "off label" use of the drug, which is ok under the circumstances.  Someone down in Australia did this a year or so ago, but I never heard how much help he found it.  I'd have to think of his name, can still remember his avatar, lol. 

     

    The salivation will change.  I had an increase in salivation toward the end of rads, which persisted for awhile this time.  Then I got dry.  A year out now, don't know whether the future has improvement or not.  It takes a long time.

     

    best to you

     

    Pat

    Ray

    Was it RayTodd?

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  • robert77dr
    robert77dr CSN Member Posts: 54
    #4
    wal-act

    I went to walmart and they had never heared of Wal-act Do you think it came from wallgreens????

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  • Grandmax4
    Grandmax4 CSN Member Posts: 723 Member
    #5
    Wal-act

    I googled Wal-act and yes it is available at Walgreens. I had so much trouble with mucus too, am 1 year , almost 4 months out and except for a feeling of something in my throat, it has gone away. Using a nettie pot with distilled water and the saline packages that come with it, helped me a lot, keeps sinuses open. I also gargled with warm salt and soda , watered down orange juice ( no pulp ) helped...this is such an annoying side effect, pray you get relief.

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