Greetings,

I was successfully treated for HPV 16 Tonsilar cancer ( left ) in 2017; I received the Standard dose of rads for the tumour & declined the chemo aspect of the Standard. About a year ago, I began to have fits of severe coughing, typically while eating foods that when masticated, create hard, small bits to swallow. I've assumed the coughing was the result of my rads-affected throat tissue being hypersensitive to certain types of food irritants.

In recent months the cough response has worsened & in addition to food stuffs, it seems to be irritated by the seemingly never-ending joy of post-nasal drip. Other times, and quite often, I have a severe response for seemingly no reason, where my eyes water, I sneeze excessively & cough forcefully. Considerable nasal mucous is generated from this process. It sounds like a classic response to an allergen sensitivity, but I've put that possibility aside until this being a byproduct of my cancer Tx. has been ruled out.

Finally, I've been monitoring the formation of what I believe to be scar tissue on the rads-affected side of my neck. It is hard to the touch & appears as an elongated, faint bulge that extends almost to the tracheal wall. I went to see my Onco about these problems; disappointingly, he didn't have anything useful to say about any of these issues and didn't offer an opinion on what this hard, elongated mass of ?? was on the affected side of my neck.

I'm scheduled for another c-scan of the area in question, which will be reviewed by an ENT specialist. I'm hoping to, in part, learn of treatments that may help with these evermore persistent symptoms.

Question: has anyone with a similar issue & Tx. protocol experienced such symptoms? If you have, did you find any Tx.'s or products to help mitigate the issue?

Sincerely,
Dan

Hi Dan. My case is similar to how you describe yours, although I also had chemotherapy and surgery. However my ten-years-after-treatment symptoms would read almost word for word like what you wrote.

My otolaryngologist assessed the lump as fibrosis caused by the radiation. Nothing to worry about. Hopefully your scan will show something similar. The only bad news is that's just the way it is for me - there's nothing to be done about it.

As for the coughing, I have started using one of those triangle pillows when sleeping which puts me in a more tilted position, helping drainage and marked reduction in coughing at night. The other thing that has helped is guaifenesen DM (Musinex). This makes my mucous drip drain better, and the 'DM' ingredient reduces the cough urge somewhat. I use it as needed, but take it most nights. Standard dose (400mg every 4 hours). My doc is not concerned about ongoing use.

Best of luck finding a way to deal with this. I'd be interested in anything else you learn that helps.
-Peter