My husband Dan had his 22 of 42 radiation treatments today. Today he has been coughing much more b/c the mucous is worse than usual.....I did give him some Robitussin, but wanted to know if I can give him more than the recommended dose on the bottle? It dosen't seem to do much, and he is sooooo miserable. He will cough and gag until it causes him to vomit. I'm going to have him try the squares of gauze between his cheek and gums tonight, but he has never had this before during the day. We are already using a humidifier, so I guess I will have to look into getting the suctioning machine for him. Which I will do tomorrow....but I wanted to see if anyone had any other recommendations for this awful problem???? Thanks,
Michelle G.

Typically the toxicity levels of over the counter medications are 10 times higher than the indicated dosage. I would still check with a doctor or pharmacist first especially if there are contraindictions with other medication(s) that he is taking.

I did a lot of the cough, gag and vomit thing myself - thank God it passes.

Thanks Gary.....I'll check on it! How long after your radiation ended did it begin to improve? Did you notice any difference when the rad tx area was coned down? Even a small improvement would be nice at this point!!!! The coughing just started but it is horrible! Any other suggestions????
Michelle

Michele, make sure Dan sleeps sitting up. This will help keep the mucous out of his throat and cough center. Even with that, toward the end of my treatments and for three weeks after, I was still up every 45 minutes or so to cough, hack, spit, etc. It is just part of the deal. Fortunately, this side effect from rad, which keeps giving for a long while, fortunately this ends. It's ironic, I have difficulty now remembering how bad it was. Dan will get to that point as well. Look what you both have to look forward to. Another thing, try to always have water available to help keep the throat clear. Other than that, try to anticipate the joy of not having to deal with it in a few weeks.

Dear KirkGeorgia: Thanks for the info. I'll see if I can manage to get him to agree to sleeping upright........I wish I could get him to look at this site.....but all he does is sleep....(and cough, spit, hack, and vomit. He FINALLY allowed me to give him extra pillows to elevate his head last night, but still lots of coughing. Up until the other day, he did sip on water, but now his throat is so sore, he dosen't want to do that now. He is taking everything thru the g-tube now, and that worries me, b/c the docs have said, and I've seen on this site, that it is good to keep swallowing even if it is only water. I KNOW that he will get thru this and beat it.......but it sure is tougher than I had ever imagined!!!! I'm still so angry at the damn doctors for misdiagnosing him for over a year.......I guess that's something that I need to heal from, 'eh? If you have any other tips, I'm all ears!!!!

Thanks again for the info!
Michelle G.

Michelle,
I had to drink bottled water ice cold and had to be careful of the brand. Some bured and others didn't. Yes, it is a good idea to keep swallowing if he can.

Take care,
Eileen

Eileen: wow, that is so awful that the water sometimes burns! One of the last days that Dan took the Ensure by mouth, he said that it was burning! Before all of this, we always drank Deer Park bottled water......I believe that was one that Dan was drinking the other day. I hope he can continue to drink some by mouth, but it seems to get less and less every day. Not to mention that NOTHING tastes right to him anymore....just awful! Thanks for the advise!
Michelle G.

Michelle and Eileen,

Many of my worst memories of radiation have faded into the background over the years, but one that sticks with me is that I got to the point where I had to do the "swish and spit" routine to numb my mouth in order to drink a simple glass of water -- absolutely everything burned for a good many weeks.

Cathy

Michelle,
My Dan went for at least 6 weeks w/o being able to talk and even longer w/o eating or drinking anything at all. He used the PEG for everything as nothing would go down...not even a sip of water. He had the PEG for 5 months and then slowly was able to just eat tiny little bits and drink lukewarm water. He also was able to drink Carnation Instant Breakfast some and that had some good calories for him.
God bless and take care,
Debbie

Dear Debbie: Thanks so much for the information.....it sounds like both Dan's experienced very similar problems with eating and drinking....even water. I hope that your Dan is doing well now, and mine will be shortly. Thanks so much for the info!

Take care,
Michelle