Ask about renting a suction machine (from a medical supply house) -- if it is prescribed insurance will probably cover it, and others have posted that (even so) it was not that expensive considering the benefit in controlling excess secretions.

Inability to swallow also inhibits your ability to get rid of mouth secretions in the normal fashion (swallowing them, unconsiously) and the excessive, thick stcky ones accompanying radiation are even more intolerable. The guafenesin helps because it thins secretaions. So does gargling (or swishing) with a salt/soda mixture -- some have used soda water to good effect.

I think it is inexcusible for doctors treating HNC patients not to caution them about the possibility of trismus (restricted jaw opening) and to have them start appropriate exercises (or using a TheraBite device) from the get-go. Ditto continuing to swallow something, anything, to keep the muscles at least somewhat functional. My husband's ENT had herself had radiation (the old-fashioned kind) 15 years or so ago for a head cancer and knows only too well these side-effects. She warned him about continuing to swallow -- she had to gargle with lidocaine to be able to swallow, but managed it. So did my husband, but it was hard...

Gail