Hello Everyone,
I am new here, I am a 34 year old female from Massachusetts, who has just went through 8 weeks of radiation and 7 weeks of chemo, for tonsil cancer.
It has been 3 weeks since my last treatment, and my mouth still aches, I keep taking this magic mouthwash to numb my mouth. I have thick saliva and sometimes I hack up thick saliva with blood in it and what appears to be little pieces of flesh. It scares me. I want this to be over with and want to go back to eating at Wendy' and Having Pizza but I know that will be awhile still. Though I did have a few bits of a meatball last night and let me tell you that tasted so good. I am happy that I have my taste back.

How long have people here had to deal with thick saliva and a feeding tube. Also do you take Saligan and is it something we will be on forever?

Cindy,
If you do a search of topics using key words such as Salagen, dry mouth, or tonsil cancer, you can find several recent discussions. If you do a search on all topics you can be sure to catch all references to your specific search. After only 3 weeks, your description of symptoms doesn't seem surprising but be sure to tell your doctor exactly what you described in your message. He/she can tell you which things are normal and which you should be on the lookout for as indicating a problem. After radiation for tongue cancer I had all kinds of "yucky stuff" including blood for quite some time. I'm impressed that you could taste the meatball. Nothing tastes the same to me (my radiation was last year) and any spice burns terribly (oh how I miss Indian and Thai food). Given our different types of cancer my mouth was probably more fried. I don't think that Wendy's or Pizza will ever be on my diet again but this doesn't mean it will be the same for you. My saliva was really bad for at least 2 months after radiation and I had suction available for 3 months (but the usage decreased over time). I was unable to eat anything by mouth for 6 months and after that it was liquids for another few months and finally on to soft solids.