I am the main caregiver for my husband. He has had radiation for cancerous tumor on left tonsil in August, 2005. Neck dissection on 10/10/05. Cancer metasized to other parts of his body and he has had chemo treatments. The chemo has brought back the secretions with a vengeance. His radiation oncologist as well as a medical oncologist from MD Anderson did not think it was a good idea for my husband to use Levsin to dry up the secretions. The MD Anderson doctor felt that it had too many side effects. However, his GI doctor prescribed Nulev to help with the secretions and then we found out that Nulev was really Levsin. Has anyone used Levsin for secretions and did they find it helpful.
His medical onoclogist prescribed Transderm scop patch which he used but then when he stopped using the patch the secretions were too thick to cough up.

We use Guaifenesin as well as club soda for clearing the secretions.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions?

Eileen

Have you asked about hiring (from a medical supply company) a suction machine? Many folks on this forum have found one to be a god-send in sucking out thick secretions. Often insurance will pay for it if doctor writes an order but (from the posts I've read) they do not seem to be that expensive to rent.

When did he finish chemotherapy? It may take weeks for thick secretions to ease off, tthough these generally seem to be more associated with throat irritation and salivary gland impairment from the radiation, rather than from chemo drugs.

Gail


Gail

How I feel for you! The secretions were a very difficult part of my husband's side effects! We used a humidifier which seems to help.

My husband's biggest battle is with the secretion problem. He is a year out from last rad, but has had a recurrence and chemo. The secretions are worse now than they were after rad. If someone could develope a safe solution to this, they would make a zillion $. Amy

Gail, my husband used a suction pump for almost a year. The secretions never went away but they had lessened to a degree that the pump was not needed. Then the cancer metastasized and he had chemo. Chemo causes radiation recall meaning he is suffering from the same side effects he endured with radiation last year. The secretions are too thick and too far down for a pump to work effectively. He suffers from severe dysphagia as well and was improving with speech therapy last year but then he started chemo in February of this year and had so many side effects to deal with. He restarted with the speech therapist once he was finished with chemo and the cancer was in remission. He had his esophagus dilated and since mid July has been suffering with severe episodes of nausea and vomiting. In one of my messages re dilation of esophagus I had mentioned that we were being shuffled back and forth between the GI and his Internist. We found ourselves in the ER last Friday and found out that he has an infection in his trachea but they were unable to find the cause of his nausea and vomiting. He does gag when he coughs up the secretions and that does cause throwing up but he throws up 3-4 times a day even without the gagging. It is a challenge to get his full quota of nutrition into him. We have an appointment with Shands end of August. I hope he has the strength to go. Eileen

Eileen, I am pretty well convinced that in and of itself, the mucous collecting in his stomach was what contributed significantly to my husband's ongoing nausea and vomiting problem throughout his treatments. Unfortunately, we never found a way to combat that issue until the mucous eventually cleared up. The reason I think it was the mucous was because not long after his RT ended, the mucous did clear up, and he started feeling better. About a month after RT, he began collecting mucous again, and lo and behold, the constant nausea and vomiting returned for about 7-10 days, and went away when the mucous cleared up again.

Hang in there, I hope this situation improves quickly for your husband.
Take care,
Michele

Michele, thanks for your reply. My husband is in the hospital and had some tests taken. Hopefully, we will find out what is wrong. It did seem that everytime he swallowed the secretions he felt nauseous. However, I am not sure if his secretions will ever clear up. They did a little once his radiation was finished. Chemo brought them back with a vengeance and his last treatment was in May and they are still going strong. All the doctors keep telling him to do is swallow his secretions instead of coughing them up. Thanks again, Eileeen

Keep the faith, Eileen. I don't know about swallowing them, for my husband, it seemed like the more he could get rid of by coughing up, the better off. Although, like you, at one point I felt as if he would be plagued with that forever. He still has problems on and off, like right now, it seems he has been coughing up more phlegm, and says his stomach has been feeling queasy as of late, so I believe that is why. Knock on wood, he hasn't had any vomiting this go round, but is struggling to eat enough to keep from losing more weight. I know how you are feeling, it seems hopeless sometimes, and so very frustrating trying to find ways to make something go away, analyzing every little thing to determine what helps, and what doesn't. It's one hurdle after the other, but we will hope and pray for the best outcome, and persevere to get through each day on to a healthy, new normal. I wish I had some more helpful advice. I hope your husband soon finds some relief and starts feeling better soon.

Michele

Michelle and Eileen, Well, "3 is not a crowd" here We are having the same problem. My John uses his suction machine constantly and still feels like he is drowning in secretions. He doesn't swallow them tho-because he can not really swallow anything. His surgeon told us last week that John's mouth has been so throughly invaded by surgeries, rad., etc. that this condition was not likely to improve [that was a big blow to John] The only thing that has helped him is the hydrocodone- when he takes it at night, it dries his mouth up as he sleeps. But when he is up and active in the mornings, it all comes back. I am doing the same thing Michelle is: constantly thinking and searching for any hint and analyzing every possibility of something that might work to stop this. I get so angry that the Doc just shrugs his shoulders and says athere is no solution. Amy