Gail, my husband used a suction pump for almost a year. The secretions never went away but they had lessened to a degree that the pump was not needed. Then the cancer metastasized and he had chemo. Chemo causes radiation recall meaning he is suffering from the same side effects he endured with radiation last year. The secretions are too thick and too far down for a pump to work effectively. He suffers from severe dysphagia as well and was improving with speech therapy last year but then he started chemo in February of this year and had so many side effects to deal with. He restarted with the speech therapist once he was finished with chemo and the cancer was in remission. He had his esophagus dilated and since mid July has been suffering with severe episodes of nausea and vomiting. In one of my messages re dilation of esophagus I had mentioned that we were being shuffled back and forth between the GI and his Internist. We found ourselves in the ER last Friday and found out that he has an infection in his trachea but they were unable to find the cause of his nausea and vomiting. He does gag when he coughs up the secretions and that does cause throwing up but he throws up 3-4 times a day even without the gagging. It is a challenge to get his full quota of nutrition into him. We have an appointment with Shands end of August. I hope he has the strength to go. Eileen