Mucusitus is painful mouth sores. Most of us who did rads with chemo endured very painful mouth sores that lasted for weeks. This usually does not cause patients to have extra saliva. Most patients will have a very thick ropey gunk that is difficult to get out of the mouth/throat for the first few weeks after finishing rads. Out of the blue usually 4-8 weeks after rads ends it stops and turns into the dry mouth phase where your tongue will stick to the roof of your mouth. This happens to 98% of all patients who went thru rads. I can count on one hand the patients Ive talked with who ended up with the extra saliva issue months after finishing rads. Out of the thousands of OC patients Ive been in touch with, theres been less than 5 who have had to deal with extra saliva. This has been especially difficult on those who first went thru heck with their treatments then have had extra saliva that creates issues with talking and eating. I discussed this with several top specialists who all agreed its very rare to have the extra saliva instead of the dry mouth issue. Ive had a couple of the docs tell me sometimes a few select patients will experience the opposite of what the majority do (dry mouth). Unfortunately nothing much can be done to change the extra saliva or dry mouth. Some have found Manuka Honey helpful with mouth sores. For dry mouth theres a few things that might be helpful. OC patients have reported success with using some over the counter mouth rinses, hard candy and gum with xylitol that helps some, and prescription medicine pilocarpine increases saliva but it also causes extra sweating as well.


Christine
SCC 6/15/07 L chk & by L molar both Stag I, age44
2x cispltn-35 IMRT end 9/27/07
-65 lbs in 2 mo, no caregvr
Clear PET 1/08
4/4/08 recur L chk Stag I
surg 4/16/08 clr marg
215 HBO dives
3/09 teeth out, trismus
7/2/09 recur, Stg IV
8/24/09 trach, ND, mandiblctmy
3wks medicly inducd coma
2 mo xtended hospital stay, ICU & burn unit
PICC line IV antibx 8 mo
10/4/10, 2/14/11 reconst surg
OC 3x in 3 years
very happy to be alive smile