Severe phlegm post-radiation

elkegirl

My husband completed radiation/chemo for SCC of base of the tongue. Since then he has had horrible phlegm. He had to have feeding tube inserted because he lost so much weight from not eating, due to the phlegm. He has a suction machine which has helped somewhat but he just wants to know how long to expect this to hang on, as he wants to eat normally again. His doctors use the standard "everyone's case is different" but don't seem to have any suggestions about medications or procedures to help get rid of this. Has anyone been through this? Thank you.

Adrien

HI! We are going through kindof the same thing. His cancer was at the base of his tongue, then into the lymph nodes. Chemo and radiation. Everything is clear but his salava glands are shot and still not eating. (Diagnosed Aug 16th finished treatment end of Oct) We tried Salagan first and is now on Evoxac. It helps with the dry mouth and phlehm. Sipping on water or 7up all day helps too. The phlehm is getting better with time. It gets hard hearing 'everyone is different" and 'it takes time' doesn't it?? I hope the outlook is good for you.

Adrien

I got to thinking later .... something else that we found helpful was speech therapy to help rebuild the throat muscles. The therapist did a barium swallow xray and found out that he was aspirating too.

bsanberg

My sister is going through the same thing. She had the suction machine but the radiation doctor told her not to use it anymore. She is very sick to her stomach.