Thought I would share an update. Today was two full weeks post radiation. I am Not had solid food in over a month. Until the mucous in my mouth goes away I do not even want to try. I am having great success with large amounts of water taking big gulps, the shakes and instant breakfast no problem going down. Pain is not a big deal just discomfort. Weight loss has stableized it seems, have not lost too much recently. Tightness in my jaw near where the tumor was/is I continue to stretch interesting how uncomfortable when I yawn, it pulls on my throat, Jaw mouth. I continue to stretch but it goes back to the tightness. I have not seen much about this topic if it is remains this way forever or you just get used to it. Of course the mucous is the biggest problem today. Entering three weeks post radiation, I hope I am one of the lucky ones that this ends for soon.

Leonard, fortunately I did not have the problem with the mucous so I don't have any first hand knowledge of what to do, however, some OCF members recommended seltzer water. I found a post from June 2012 by Charm2017 talking about this. Charm was a very knowledgeable and helpful OCF member who passed away a few years ago, but his posts contain a lot of valuable information. Hope this helps. Wishing you the best!

As discussed, the thick mucus or rope mucus mainly goes away 2-4 weeks after radiation treatment ceases, when the saliva glands, mainly Parotid, starts producing more thin saliva, which radiation mostly effects, and the two other major salivary glands, and hundreds of minor salivary glands in the mouth and throat compensate for the loss, and a reason why we have more thick mucus until then. IMRT is designed to be salivary gland sparing, and the radiation dosage, less than 30Gy, Volume, less than 50%, is usually planned so they may recover, and in some trials, are not radiated or only one side of the head and neck instead of bilaterally depending on varying factors.

Treatments, including chemo, have acute, less than 3 months, and long term toxicities, longer than 3 months, and It may take up to 2 years to fully recover from some, like salivary glands, although now at 6 years with various treatments I still have some that are on going, dry mouth, others new or being newly addressed, but can say it does get better, and most things will be a blur as more time goes bye, and felt differences at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year intervals maybe that coincided with my doctor visits/scans.

As far as thick mucous, I have tried a number of things, through several of my treatments and after treatments. Milk does not cause thick mucous. Its enzymes replicates saliva, coats the mouth, gives a feeling of such. I couldn't drink milk, ice cream, even yogurt, for years, since the lactic acid burned my mouth, plus having altered sweet taste.

Sleeping on an Incline
A humidifier as mentioned
A warm shower
Hot soup
Drinking often
Rinsing with or drinking pineapple, papaya juice, now I drink beer occasionally!
Rinsing with brewed tea
NeuraSal, a prescription rinse which helps with mucocitus and dry mouth
Having the radiation center spray my mouth out with saline solution
Brushing often, tongue, gums too, gently with bristles softened with warm water
I've only used a suction machine in the hospital
Oral sponge brushes to get in the mouth, get out thick mucus, brush teeth with

As always thank you for the updates, I hope they help others as well. There are some new ideas here to try to get my mouth clear. This morning I had another challenge I decided to eat a prune to help and had some fiber added to my morning shake. The prune was the first solid item I had eaten in over a month. My stomach was making some very odd noises and bubbling. Actually for the first time in a week, I am not feeling so wonderful. If Paul and others are correct this mucous will magically disappear in one to two more weeks. That will be wonderful.

Leonard, the tightness in your jaw could be a sign of trismus. There are varying degrees of trismus. Do you have a dental department in your hospital? The doctors there can advise you about trismus (if indeed that's what is happening). There is a contraption called Therabite that can help stretch those muscles.

Thank You Gloria, never heard that term before, reading up on it now. The the exercise the speech therapist has me doing since before treatments began including the jaw stretching and three finger stretch as mention on the page with information about this condition. Just never heard it called that, Learn something new every day, almost.

Unfortunately, you cant rush the healing process. I thought as one of the younger patients (38yo at the time) I would breeze through my treatment. It was a solid 6-8 weeks post treatment I think before I could start working half days at a desk job.

It takes a loooong time for your saliva to thin out a bit, the radiation continues to do damage for a number of weeks after the actual treatment stops. Then finally you start to heal.

I would say 2 years post treatment I can eat some small amount of dry foods before needing a drink. I can sit at my desk without a drink no problem for hours on end. Flying is a bit different. I need a bottle of water. Also at night I wake 1-3 times depending on relative humidity and need a drink.

I would say the jump/timeframes in differences between functionality of the salivary glands are around 3 months out, 6 months out, a year out then 2 years out.

Thank You Brian, here is hoping you are wrong on the time table for the mucous to go away. I expect there will be some other challenges with the dry mouth, I just need you to be wrong in my situation on the mucous. This is week three so I guess we will see how it goes by the end of this week. It is beautiful out this week on the east coast. Looking forward to getting some fresh air this week outside.

I know everyone is different, I am back at my desk working more about half a day but i have the luxury of working from home. I admit there are somedays I can't stay at my desk and night times are uncomfortable.

I wouldn't like for you to set yourself up for any disappointment, but there are no right or wrong answers as far as each persons recovery time nor are there any guarantees, and reason I said, it "mainly" goes away, as far as the ropey mucus. I'm 5 years out from my first radiation, although 6 years from my first chemo, which was worse, and still have thick mucus, but it's not the ropey mucus it was right after radiation, even chemo, that needed rolls of paper towels, suctioning, medication, trial and error as far as what worked for me. Besides the time frames, there are many other factors that influence ones recovery, at least ones I know about, that may need to be looked into, some with your medical team, to help maximize.

Try to take one day at a time, each accomplishment as a giant step, at least I try to do, sometimes lol, even though at times it seems like I take a step backwards, but it does get better, and been through this many times before to know.

Good luck with everything, and keep up the good work, and posting. It probably helps more people than each of us know.

I think I am going to be disappointed and frustrated if this does not clear soon, I need to get back to work full time and have several projects that I need to travel outside the country for. I want to get back to eating foods again. I have tried putting certain foods into my mouth, what a bad experience that was, I guess I tried too early, everything is so dry and sticks to your teeth. I will keep trying until I can get past this and some sort of normal.

For my treatments, I never had Chemo I had radiation as my only treatment.