THanks to all who posted in response. I continue to struggle with intake but a recent hospitalization for unrelated complications has helped me catch up and I regained some weight there courtesy of being better hydrated. Something gave me a several day "vacation" from mucous that was much appreciated; doc's thought it might be that I had for the first time used narcotic analgesics and that those may have dried up the mucous, or that the internal blood loss I had experienced might have somehow reduced mucous. Anyhow, I am hoping for the beginnings of relief from it soon as I am now two weeks out from my last rad tx.
Curiously, since my original posting on this issue I have done a reverse in terms of cold fluids being better: now cold hurts my throat and cool is better. This illness and its treatment is certainly full of surprises!

Ed H