Dealing with the mucus is just horrible, especially at this point when the patient is weak from all the tx.

One small thing that helped my husband - he could no longer tolerate rinsing his mouth with salt/baking soda solution without gagging and vomiting. Nurse on rad team suggested warming up the solution a little and that made it tolerable.

Regarding moving up his intake, water only should be ok for now, if he uses a PEG. Have they recommended he do more? My husband was very slow returning to eating (he had induction chemo which complicates side effects) but he did force himself to sip water and can now eat almost all foods. You might be worrying yourself too soon about this. This phase does not last.