I can tell you that I was right where you were last summer with a perforated esophagus and on lots of pain meds after a surgery to open my esophagus (this was surgery to cut through a complete stricture, though, not a routine dilation). I was in the hospital for a week. What are they doing for the perforation? Have they done video flouroscopy to see if it is still leaking if/when you swallow? They ended up putting a stent in my thorat because the perf. was big enough they didn't think it would heal quickly. I don't know what they told you about this, but a perf. esophagus actually puts you at risk of a nasty infection of your chest cavity from saliva that can leak through the perf. So if you've been frustrated at having no saliva, that actually is a good thing right now. But they probably put you on strong antibiotics and that is why.

For me, it was incredibly frustrating because for the first time in 6 mos I could swallow my saliva (what there was of it) and they were telling me to try not to!

It just sucks that some of us have to go through all these esophagus problems on top of the cancer treatment--like that isn't more than enough by itself. But you aren't the only one that's been there. Hang in there.

Nelie