Finished radiation and chemo treatments in January 2013. Side effects pretty disheartening... but currently cancer free. Just finished a TENS (Trans-cutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) treatment that didn't seem to do much but I'm still intrigued by the treatment so I bought a unit. Has anyone tried this at home?

I havent heard of this being done at home. From what Ive seen on the forum, its about 50/50 with the results being helpful. Hope it works for you!

Best wishes!

I have a TENS Unit, but used it for neuropathy, which didn't do much. Good luck.

Understand that we all can recover differently for tons of reasons and also understand that this recovery can take every bit of 2 years so please be patient. I didn't see any improvement in my taste or saliva until my 4th month PT and I saw my biggest improvement 14 months out and even saw some additional improvement at 24 months so I wouldn't give up yet.

Thanks Dave

I would love to see people post when they got their saliva back, and how much, as David did above. I'm 13 months post treatment with virtually no saliva. Tried acupuncture about a month post-treatment unsuccessfully. Have pretty much given up hope of seeing it return. The lack of saliva to help start breaking down solid food together with my having all but one set of molars removed means that eating solid foods is almost impossible. Combine that with my altered taste which makes most food unpalatable means that I am on a daily liquid diet of a combination of Scandishake and Boost VHC three times a day. This is worse than boring, it's depressing.

It would be nice to know that there is the possibility of light, however dim, at the end of a tunnel.

Are you able to eat yogurt, pudding, applesauce, soup broth, or even jello?

I began to get my saliva back about 6-10 months after finishing rads. It came and went for months before I noticed the dry mouth really wasnt so bad anymore. Im sorry, my memory is a bit foggy as to the exact time frame when I realized the saliva was almost like normal again. Im pretty sure it was sometime between my 2nd and 3rd round of OC. I still usually carry a drink with me most of the time but alot of times its more a habit and just in case. When the dry mouth hits, it can hit pretty hard and make it hurt to talk, forget about swallowing too. I think weather has alot to do with it too, you are in NV where there is no humidity. I suggest trying to run a vaporizer to add moisture into the air in your house.

Since you are 13 months post rads, there is still plenty of time for you to improve. Ive seen some members talk about saliva and taste getting better even after the 2 year mark. What I see mostly on the forum is patients steadily (and snails pace slowly) improving until around the 2 year point. Dont rule out improvements after you hit 2 years post rads but they may be smaller and not as easily noticed. During the next 11 months I would be very surprised if you did not notice your taste and saliva being better than they are at this time. I know how darn frustrating recovery can be! Im sure you have had more than enough of being a patient and having your life upside down for so long. I have to give you alot of credit.... you are a better patient than I am if you can drink the scandishake and boost VHC. To me that stuff is so bad it could choke a horse.

Hang in there, you really will still make improvements.

Hi Lefty,

At the risk of pulling this thread more OT, to me saliva and dry mouth are related but different.

Throughout treatment, the lowest level of saliva production was about 60%. Needed extra fluid while taking in food during the times I could manage.

Dry mouth on the other hand was very low, maybe 10% with an exception or two. Recently, for the first time, I had a bout of dry mouth while sleeping. It went on for a month or so until I figured out when really tired and sleeping hard, I would breathe through my mouth which caused the dry mouth. Either not tired now or trained myself to keep the yap shut while sleeping as the dry mouth is gone.

dofoo, there is no doubt that mouth breathing causes or worsens dry mouth but, believe me, if you don't have saliva you have dry mouth. I have little, if any, saliva.

I just met with my Radiation Oncologist and she told me that in most cases saliva recovery is within the first six moths with little or none after that. Obviously we have anecdotal evidence from this forum of other responses.

Weirdly, after leaving the Doctor's Office I started trying to make saliva by rubbing the back of my tongue against my molars, like you did as a kid to make spit balls, and I was able to make some though it's thick and I can't do it all the time, so I'm hoping that this is a sign of continuing recovery.

Christine, I also have taste issues and am lactose intolerant so my eating is further restricted.

Basically, the salivary glands reduce of cesse production at night, to complicate matters, sleeping with the mouth open dries it out even more. Bacteria builds up with lack of saliva, and reason people have morning breath. There are some contraptions for snoring, that helps keep the mouth closed or use tape