[quote=Hockeydad]I remember being scared of stuffy nose as well. My mask was so tight for the first 5 weeks that I could not breathe thru my mouth while it was on. Doc gave me flonaze, which I used out of fear more than need. Afterwards, I found that Afrin works well but listen to your docs. Afrin can have rebound congestion issues that might make it worse. Be careful, a simple cold, or worse the flu, will make things more difficult and stressful. Lord know, more stress is not something we all needed at that time. [/quote]

The doctor did say Afrin but I'm avoiding it for the reasons you stated. My cold has raged for over a week now. Basically it's get up every hour or two in the middle of the night and hack up a chunk of lung. I can still eat for the most part, and drink, so I feel lucky there but I did lose 13 pound between chemo treatments (mostly not eating and taking in enough water last weekend) which freaked the docs out. Weight has stabilized now.

If I can shake this cold finally It will help a lot. Most of my mild throat pain at this point (15 rads, 3 Chemo) is caused by the coughing. I've been taking Tussin religiously which keeps everything coming up but with my WBC less than half my norm it's just taking a long time to kill it off. Add in that my tongue has swelled to twice its normal size and one gets a bit frustrated but I'm staying positive. I still have some sense of taste and decent saliva most of the time. I feel luckier than others.