Hi Laurie - congrats on treatment completion, and now part two of the journey begins.

My treatment phase was quite easy, very few side effects. I can't say the same about post treatment. I had all you're having, mucositis, ropey mucous, it was gross and quite uncomfortable in the beginning. And it stuck around for awhile, as in a month or two, but it does slowly get better. Improvement seemed to be at a turtle's pace, but it does improve.

Three suggestions for you. Get a humidifier and use it at night beside your bed. The moisture helps with the dry throat dry sinus problem. If you don't have that yet, you will soon enough. Mine felt like somebody coated the back of my throat with glue and it dried, actually made it difficult to swallow without a sip of water during the night.

Another is the sinus irrigator. Mine is the NeilMed squirt bottle type (not the Netty Pot). It took some getting used too, but it works wonders for keeping the sinuses clean and breathing easy. I'm on my second box of 50 salt packets I like it that much.

Lastly, chew Trident gum. The xylitol sweetener is great for dry mouth and for when you get that horrible metallic taste that seems to come and not want to leave.

Realize there are some things that make mucositis worse. Iced tea is one and milk is another. Iced tea was by far worse, it seemed to double the number of sores and pain quickly after ingestion. I only made that mistake once. Milk (particularly really cold milk) would seem so soothing when drinking it and then bring a nasty surprise later. Lastly, hot, spicy foods will aggravate it also.

I'm six months post treatment right now and still have to watch the hot spicy, but the mucositis is gone and I can drink both iced tea and milk. I can also taste most foods, though none taste as good as they did before treatment, particularly good ice cream.

take care
Tony