No saliva

Hi, what helped my husband a little was to drink milk with his meal, easier to swallow, it coats better than water.

the doctors told him that  the saliva issue might be permanent but it is improving slowly

good luck

Welcome to the club. As Matt puts it, welcome to the new normal. We never know what that may be. Some I seem to have a little salvia, other times I am chugging water to swallow everything. My distaste for fruit is my worst enemy. I used to love fruit. Now it is putrid to me. Good Luck finding you new normal. It sure is a wild and crazy ride sometimes. I truely do believe that my saliva is increasing ever so slightly. Drink up......

I have the same problem especially when I exercise or talk to much, mouth gets dry as dust.Also have the same problem with mucous especially at nite and first thing in the morning. I haven't ventured to far out from the liquids for my nutrition altho I did get some brothy soup down a few times.

Yes it will be a long ride before I can eat anything normal again.

AnotherSurvivor said:

Beer

I received an email via this site's messaging app, but I haven't been able to respond.  The question was in regard to alcohol and +HPV SCC, possibly related to my comment on beer consumption.

My chemo oncol and I discussed this back during my Quest-for-Origins phase.  There is NO link identified between acquiring +HPV and alcohol.  Head and Neck cancer has been around for probably millennia.  Our forefathers, particularly the WW II generation, picked up some pretty bad habits, smoking being the worst.  When I came of age in the Navy in the Pacific in the 60s-70s I also saw a pretty fair number of that generation with addictions to hard alcohol in practically any form.   They prided themselves in being hard living men with grit, but that life style comes with a pretty steep cost at the end (the end being late 40s to late 50s) and a pretty fair number left the Navy headed to VA hospitals.  VA hospitals were the main repository for H&N treatment knowledge up until the 1990s when things began to change with the spread of +HPV.  The main point tho, is that a great many patients were male, older, and regular users of tabbaco and alcohol.  The record of that linkage persists.

+HPV is a viral desease, and shows minimal linkage to tabbaco and alcohol use.  When it started showing up in large numbers in the late 1980s medical types found it baffling.  I was 'lucky' enough to get one of the nurses who was there when this mysterious new illness started showing up, we talked a lot, including about our fathers and the VA experience.  Point tho, is with +HPV they suddenly had H&N cancer patients in their teens who had no history of tabbaco and alcohol use.  Eventually they made the obvious connection between HPV in women parts, and HPV in the male throat and decided it was sexually transmitted.  I'm a bit of a gritty old man myself so I have no discomfort for my possible past liaisons, but I also have done a lot of graduate study in statistical sciences and am a bit of a **** when I find conclusions drawn from spotty science.  The smoking gun should be an epidemiological study that identifies a direct causal link between multiple pairs of hims and hers.  I've spent a pretty fair amount of time looking and I cannot find that study.  Both my kid the ER doc (who is use to rigorous exam of his faulty logic), and my very gratious and patient chemo oncol have pronounced themselves satisfied with the science plus it wouldn't change treatment modalities anyway.  Both see no issues with 'reasonable' consumption of alcohol post-treatment, both consider tabbaco consumption suicidal, and neither smoke dope even tho it's legal here.  Chemo onc is a wine snob, ER son has a taste for single malts and aged brandies he can't afford so he drinks mine.  Immediately post treatment we experienced a visitation of medical residents of Visagothic proportion, so I am not sure how well my taste has recovered.

BUT! 'reasonable' amounts of beer is okay, especially ales, porters, and stouts.  No one should drink blond beer, not even Germans.  Not even the English.

 

I would like to add that they really dont know enough about HPV to say definitively what all the causes could be. It was always thought to be sex with multiple partners but there are those who dont fit this profile. Furthermore, I was told that there seems to be high risk activities in hospital workers that places them at high risk, especially nurses. Today there are better protective coverings to protect against patients hemorrhaging or getting other risky body fluids on staff but not so even 10 yrs ago. Think SARS and the havoc that caused. One can only hope that funds continue to roll into research where it is needed for this terrible disease.

I received an email via this site's messaging app, but I haven't been able to respond.  The question was in regard to alcohol and +HPV SCC, possibly related to my comment on beer consumption.

My chemo oncol and I discussed this back during my Quest-for-Origins phase.  There is NO link identified between acquiring +HPV and alcohol.  Head and Neck cancer has been around for probably millennia.  Our forefathers, particularly the WW II generation, picked up some pretty bad habits, smoking being the worst.  When I came of age in the Navy in the Pacific in the 60s-70s I also saw a pretty fair number of that generation with addictions to hard alcohol in practically any form.   They prided themselves in being hard living men with grit, but that life style comes with a pretty steep cost at the end (the end being late 40s to late 50s) and a pretty fair number left the Navy headed to VA hospitals.  VA hospitals were the main repository for H&N treatment knowledge up until the 1990s when things began to change with the spread of +HPV.  The main point tho, is that a great many patients were male, older, and regular users of tabbaco and alcohol.  The record of that linkage persists.

+HPV is a viral desease, and shows minimal linkage to tabbaco and alcohol use.  When it started showing up in large numbers in the late 1980s medical types found it baffling.  I was 'lucky' enough to get one of the nurses who was there when this mysterious new illness started showing up, we talked a lot, including about our fathers and the VA experience.  Point tho, is with +HPV they suddenly had H&N cancer patients in their teens who had no history of tabbaco and alcohol use.  Eventually they made the obvious connection between HPV in women parts, and HPV in the male throat and decided it was sexually transmitted.  I'm a bit of a gritty old man myself so I have no discomfort for my possible past liaisons, but I also have done a lot of graduate study in statistical sciences and am a bit of a **** when I find conclusions drawn from spotty science.  The smoking gun should be an epidemiological study that identifies a direct causal link between multiple pairs of hims and hers.  I've spent a pretty fair amount of time looking and I cannot find that study.  Both my kid the ER doc (who is use to rigorous exam of his faulty logic), and my very gratious and patient chemo oncol have pronounced themselves satisfied with the science plus it wouldn't change treatment modalities anyway.  Both see no issues with 'reasonable' consumption of alcohol post-treatment, both consider tabbaco consumption suicidal, and neither smoke dope even tho it's legal here.  Chemo onc is a wine snob, ER son has a taste for single malts and aged brandies he can't afford so he drinks mine.  Immediately post treatment we experienced a visitation of medical residents of Visagothic proportion, so I am not sure how well my taste has recovered.

BUT! 'reasonable' amounts of beer is okay, especially ales, porters, and stouts.  No one should drink blond beer, not even Germans.  Not even the English.

TheDrj820 said:

my theory

There could be other ways, like french kissing someone with oral hpv And transmission from mother to child at birth. But i am pretty confident in my steep research on the subject. Tons of people have oral sex. We are not the only ones. The issue is when you have oral sex with someone who has hpv16 and you don't already have it in the genital area. I believe it is similiar to how a vaccine works. Once our bodies are exposed, most will develop antibodies to fight off future infections. Our bodies either didn't develop the appropriate antibodies and we became host of the virus in two locations, or the oral cavity became the first host. this is my guess for why more of the country isn't rotting with oral cancer. I know it's not about multiple partners bc I've only had two, I just chose oral first bc I wanted to be safe. Meh. Pretty unlucky we are.

i do not believe "99%" of men clear this virus when it is an initial exposure. I just think most don't have it in the throat because they already have the infection somewhere else. Where we went wrong was where our first exposure was, not that we are 1 in a billion who can't defeat the virus before problems arise. Just my 2 cents.

Hi, I am just pointing out that though we have all done a lot of research, the research and treatment is nowhere near definitive on this ugly virus. Neither is the medical community in total agreement. There are still unanswered questions and it requires an open mind to find those answers, and ask the appropriate questions. No story can be dismissed without full investigation. Viruses are capable of mutation, does this one mutate? I dont know. Because of the multitude of people affected, and the changing face of H&N cancer, I think the answers will come sooner than later.What if it was discovered that a nurse got it from a patient following a bad needle stick- think of the political fallout if thousands applied for disbility work benefit..Back in the 80s there was talk of viruses causing all cancer. So many questions. I hope to do some fund raising when I am stronger.

Curlyn said:

Hi, I am just pointing out

Hi, I am just pointing out that though we have all done a lot of research, the research and treatment is nowhere near definitive on this ugly virus. Neither is the medical community in total agreement. There are still unanswered questions and it requires an open mind to find those answers, and ask the appropriate questions. No story can be dismissed without full investigation. Viruses are capable of mutation, does this one mutate? I dont know. Because of the multitude of people affected, and the changing face of H&N cancer, I think the answers will come sooner than later.What if it was discovered that a nurse got it from a patient following a bad needle stick- think of the political fallout if thousands applied for disbility work benefit..Back in the 80s there was talk of viruses causing all cancer. So many questions. I hope to do some fund raising when I am stronger.

I understand. I wasn't declaring my opinion as law. I was just saying the theory formed based off my experience and research. I do think as we get older our immune systems weaken so it is possible the "older" crowd can't fight off a secondary infection. But I still think it has a lot to do with where the first exposure takes place. I think this because many of my friends have more sexual partners than me, and many had had oral sex. But I know I chose oral first and I am the one in this position. I could be wrong. Im not declaring it law, this is just what I have come to believe. 

Dennis, I am sorry that I hijacked your thread. A thousand apologies. I am at 11-12 weeks post treatment, 6 months post surgery. I had radiation one side only along c chemo. Some days I have more saliva then others but it's generally not bad. The oncology dentist told me that in a year I would have all the saliva that I am ever going to have. But reading what the folks on here have to say, with the newer thinking and treatments, it appears that things evole even past a full year. Good luck. Research is also evolving, anything could happen. PS.I seem to be full of piss'n'vinegar this morning.