I have problems with stuffiness and dryness at night for different reasons, related to my surgery, and I have found that I must sleep more elevated than in the past, and I keep a spray bottle by my bed. I find that the mist moistens my mouth more throughly and more gently than drinking, and it doesn't wake me up as much. Also, I can't knock it over in the night and make a mess!

Regular use of nasal decongestant sprays will create a rebound situation that is worse than the original problem. I don't know what other radiation patients do about this problem. An oral decongestant, like Sudafed, might work for a while, and it doesn't create the rebound that the sprays do.

It is very frustrating not to be able to sleep. I am very sympathetic with you on that!

I keep a water bottle by my bed and whenever I wake I take a sip and then usually make a trip to the bathroom. Additionally, everytime I get up our cats (8) think it's feeding time so I have to listen to their disappointment as well. I do this 4 to 5 times a night. I was never one that needed a whole lot of sleep but this is pushing it.

As I have said many times before, the dry mouth thing is the worse side effect I have to deal with and I haven't seen hardly any improvement. My wife called me over to the restaurant the other night to meet a 10 yr survivor of oral cancer. She thought that it would make me feel better, bless her heart. But when I went to his table, the first thing I noticed was a water bottle strapped around his neck. I hope my Tx leaves me differently but he has outwardly adjusted to his permanent dry mouth fine.

Some folks have had success using a humidifier by the bed at night, but it never did much for me. When I get up at night with dry mouth I use a little of the Biotene oral gel and it works pretty well for a while.


Danny G.

Cooldown;
I have had some luck with the humidifier and keeping my head elevated so it could not hurt to try it. My RO recommended oral decongestants but they have not seemed to be much help for me. As August and David have posted it seems the water bottle has certainly become a "way of life".

Best of Luck,

Steve

I live in the Tampa Bay area. The whole region is a big humidifier. Today will reach in the 80's with 80% humidity....my kind of December!

The saliva thing seems to vary from person to person and also the location of the cancer. David had laryngeal cancer and he is 16 months out of treatment. He has about 98% of his saliva back. He is a public speaker and I have to remind him to drink when he is working or he drops words. But he is able to eat bread and crackers and can pretty much eat anything he wants with just a little water to drink.

We did notice last year that when we turned the ehat on and the humidity dropped in the house that he had soem problems with dropping words due to the dryness, but it got better quickly. We also talked to a vocal reconstruction specialist and she said to avoid caffeine and antihistamines.

While David was in treatment, he slept in a recliner. His radiation oncologist pretty much insisted on it. It worked great. Thre is no way he would ahve been able to endure the Attack of the Sticky Mucous if he had been lying down.

David still has allergy problems and it is hard not to be able to take anithistamines. He has a prescription for Singulair and a prescripton for MaxifedG, which is a pill form of the same stuff that is in Robitussen. But they really dont' take care of the allergy problems...especially when the farmer next door is plowing the pasture and kicking up tons of dust.

It took quite awhile after my treatment, but I eventually got back a surprising amount of salivary function -- especially when you consider that there wasn't IMRT or amifostine available when I was treated. For me, it takes a combination of several things:

1. Sleeping with my head somewhat elevated -- using two pillows, one of which has memory foam so it gives my neck some extra support.
2. Taking Salagen 3x a day every day (which I've been doing for almost 16 years).
3. Sleeping on one side or the other, not my back.
4. Rinsing my mouth with Biotene mouthwash right before going to bed.

For a good many years now, I've been able to get through the night without having to get up at all for water, and most days I don't have to have a water bottle handy all the time.

Cathy

It is so amazing to me that so many people are sharing or have shared the same experiences that I'm going thru. Not to mention the recliner idea. I've been shopping around for one and didn't really know if it would help or not but now I know that its a good idea. The elevation idea, I have also done.

Its so wonderful to know that I'm not alone. I feel better already. I also purchased some Biotene mouthwash and put it into a small spray bottle so that if I'm some place where water bottles aren't premitted, I can spray and go.

There must be an end to this madness. LOL
But if not, at least I'm not alone. Thanks for being there for me.

there is also a sensodyne spray called Oasis, that is a temporary fix, Erik carries it in his pocket and keeps it by his bed, although he says that water is really the best. When Erik got stuffy, and mucousy(not really a word) he took Tussin, although I dont know that it helped the dry mouth, but thats when the spray helped.
Jennie

My son found that a "warm air humidifier" works better for him than the cool air kind. We got one for under $9 at Walgreen's. He also is having good luck with the Stoppers4Dry mouth (around $5) in helping him to get some sleep at night.