Hi Everyone!

My Dad finished his treatment last Friday and is plagued with tons of mucous. It's so bad he's gagging and throwing up because of it. Any advice as to how to get rid of that or at least thin it?
Thanks!!

So sorry, I too threw up from my mucous. The dr gave me zofran, it helped a lot, tho i still thew up at times. There are products to thin it out, tho I don't know what they are because I never used them. I'm sure someone will post something to you soon with some ideas. Hope it gets better for him soon.

I was in the same boat. I actually got better with pain meds. Before meds, I would choke, get sick, and then spasm til I was empty. With no PEG it was a lot of work getting 2500 calories down just to do it again. After I started meds, I got sick every now and then but the spasms stopped. It still wasn't fun but it became a lot more manageable.

I had my GP (not my specialists) prescribe me antibiotics for excess mucus as it seems to come from an underlying "normal" lung infection. This helped clear it up - but it does reoccur - rinse and repeat.

A home suction machine, sponge sticks to get in back of mouth, robotusem, mucinex, constant rinsing, papaya juice, pineapple juice rinsing, rinsing with meat tenderizer Aldolf's was suggested, tea, hot soup like egg drop, steam showers helps cut mucus, sleeping on an incline may help not back up at night. Forget the name of the electrical tooth with water nozzles. If your dad goes back to his treatment center, ask if they can spray the mouth out. My radiation center did it.

I'm taking oxycodone for pain, which is minimal, but pain can interfere with healing from surgery, maybe other type healing too.

Hope this helps

Paul pretty much hit them all. The water pik works wonders with about a capful of non-alchol mouthwash mixed with warm water. Also get a vaporizer to keep the humidity up to help with breathing. Get suctioned out at the doctors visits and get a prescription for a portable suction machine to do at home. This phase will pass quickly and be replaced by dry mouth.

He does have a portable suction unit but says that doens't help him as most of the mucous he has to cough up, and then when he gets to coughing that's when he gags and throws up. He's on a fentanyl patch and taking oxy round the clock every 6 hours. So I know his pain is controlled. I tried suggesting he drink something other than water and he tells me it tastes bad. Which I get that's unpleasant but I wish he would just do it!! He has a PEG and gets all of his nutrition through that, but I would like to see him start to use that less and his mouth more. I know that may be asking a lot, but I'm afraid he will never get off that tube because all he will drink is water. My mom tried to give him soup to sip on and he just maked an awful face at her and set it back on the counter. Did anyone else begin to sip on things a week post treatment? This has all been so frusturating. Just when you get a mental high for completing treatment, you get brought back down by all the side effects. I'm just hoping this doesn't last long. Any other advice is much appreciated!!!

Water is good, better than nothing. It took me 7 weeks to drink anything post radiation treatment, and that was only a sip. I think I started out with chicken broth, egg drop soup, chicken broth with pastina, worked from there, and can eat everything by mouth now, but more treatments set me back a while, comes back, and so on. I would watch others eat, watched the food channel, read cookbooks, torture lol, but one day I just got up and started to eat, I coudn't take it anymore...baby bites.

Oxycodone makes me vomit. Constipation can cause nausea, vomiting too.

Dealing with the mucus is just horrible, especially at this point when the patient is weak from all the tx.

One small thing that helped my husband - he could no longer tolerate rinsing his mouth with salt/baking soda solution without gagging and vomiting. Nurse on rad team suggested warming up the solution a little and that made it tolerable.

Regarding moving up his intake, water only should be ok for now, if he uses a PEG. Have they recommended he do more? My husband was very slow returning to eating (he had induction chemo which complicates side effects) but he did force himself to sip water and can now eat almost all foods. You might be worrying yourself too soon about this. This phase does not last.

All good suggestions above, Klr. Sorry your dad is so miserable. But as others have noted, this too shall pass. For me none of the first line nausea drugs did anything and it wasn't until I finally got my hands on some old fashioned Compazine that I got any relief.

Keep us posted. It's wonderful that your father has you to take care of him!

Keep experimenting and make water a must. It helped me to drink bottled to keep track of the amount plus lukewarm was better. Also a rinse with sprite zero will cut the mucous and give some relief. Small shakes can soothe but be careful of what goes in because of irritation. My wife made one every night with coffee ice cream and milk. Eventually make the high protein ones. Again everything is an experiment.

It really is the most frustrating time. You are right; you go from the high of being done with tx and then the garbage starts. It hopefully will be slowly getting better in a few weeks. He is in the hardest part of the battle right now. Do what you can to push him without ticking him off too much!!
We finished tx the 3rd week in October and Kev ate some of Thanksgiving dinner that year. Everyone proceeds at a different pace though, but know there are better times coming.
It would be good for him to begin taking things by mouth. There are meds that can numb things up for a few minutes so he can swallow.
Blessings,
Kathy

Can anyone give me a timeframe as to when all this mucous will end? I've heard 2 weeks, but he's already past that and it's getting worse not better. He coughs so much and gags, then throws everything up. So his weight is down naturally and I'm really concerned about that. He is using his tube and getting scandi/boost down. But then he just throws it all up. The weird thing is the vomiting only happens at night? We are all so frustrated and worried. I feel like we've tried everything(mucinex,suction, scopolamine patch, benadryl, gargling, hot soup) and NONE of that seems to help at all. I just feel so bad for him because he's exhausted from hacking up the mucous constantly all day/night long. Suggestions? Advice as to when this will end?
Much Appreciated!

Are you suctioning it out? That was what I did for weeks to get the thick stuff out of the throat. It was real brown for a while. Then it turned clear and slowed down.

Could be 3 weeks, longer, and radiation keeps working just as long as treatment lasted, and everyone is different. The thick rope mucus is mainly from the parotid gland producing mainly thick mucus, which as a yellow tinge to it. Radiation destroys thin mucous only, and the other produce a mixture of both.,

Sleeping on an incline may with with gagging, a steam bath may help loosen it, drinking enough water, have your oncologist spray your mouth, usevacwater IOC at home on low, the are sponge wooden stick, some pre-moisturizer to clean mouth, get in hard to reach area in the back of the mouth.

Helps cut mucus
Salt water, making soda
Frequent brushing
Tea
Beer
Egg drop soup
Papaya juice or pinapple juice
Seltzer water or soda
Meat tenderizer rinse mixed with water
Mucinex
robotusm

After feeding do not lay down for several hours, and when raising from bef, do it slowly, which my help with not vomiting.

Good luck

In addition to the above list a water pik using warm water and a little non-alcohol mouthwash using it on its lowest setting helps to get the thick ropey mucous out. That phase usually lasts up to 6 weeks post rads and then seemingly overnight it turns into dry mouth. My mouth was so dry my tongue would be stuck to the roof of my mouth and I had to swish water in my mouth to free it. Hang in there, the thick gunk will be gone soon.

If you ask your doc for a prescription to get a portable suction machine you can suction it out at home.

I had been using apple cider vinegar mixed with water to help me with thrush and noticed it broke up the mucous in my throat. It may burn a bit so dilute it accordingly. Good Luck. Try a spray bottle

I'm officially one week out of treatments as well, and having the same issue. Did your dad ever find anything that helped cut the mucus? I can't sleep because it all gathers so quickly. I have to cough it up about every 15 minutes to keep from choking and then throwing up everything I was lucky enough to get in my stomach. I haven't slept in almost two weeks...and I'm just exhausted. But I fill a 10 qt bucket daily with 100s of paper towels trying to get the mucus out. It just keeps coming.

When you go to your doctors ask the nurse to suction out the mucous. Ask your doc for a prescription for a portable suction machine so you can do it yourself at home.

Rinsing with seltzer water, using a waterpik on its lowest setting and continuing to rinse with baking soda, salt and 16 oz of warm water all will help as well. Some members have found relief with gargling with seltzer water.

The thick ropey mucous will only last a few weeks. It will soon be replaced with the dry mouth phase.

Hi KaylaCole,
I had lots of mucous after treatment as well. Just trying to brush my teeth would make me gag. Nasal rinses would also make me gag to the point of vomiting.
I would be able to sleep a bit better by elevating my upper body and sleeping with a humidifier. Drinking plenty of water will also help with reducing the thickness of the mucous. I also used guafenesin (an expectorant) which helped keep the mucous thin and out of my lungs.
Hang in there,
Steve