I made it through my first cancer TX without a suction machine, but after the recurrence & surgery, the ICU had a suction machine available. I wish my ICU nurses had shared the concerns that Brian mentioned since I did not want to suck out my stitches or disturb the flap but when I asked the nurses to do it, they refused & just said I had to learn to do it myself so I asked my wife to do it when she visited that day so I could learn where to safely put it. since I could not swallow, I would have drowned in saliva without the suction and I used a home machine up until last month. It was a godsend for the really thick mucous. My ENT surgeon ordered it for me along with the feeding bags and it was delivered to my door. There was an initial fee but the rental charge was only $6 a month after insurance. I had ZERO bad experiences with it (unless you count the icky chore of washing & cleaning the suction tubes with its slimy mucous residue)