Bob,
I think that the baking soda/salt water mixture works pretty well also...I'm using it every two hours and it seems to help. I also gargle for a few minutes with it, doing a nice turbo wash garle to get out all of the mucous. Then the other stuff seems to be more effective.
Right now, I've found some relief from the pain I was experiencing last week. I actually got to eat a halfway decent meal this evening, thank God.
Oscar