Bill,

my thick phlegm is also my ralphing/hurling trigger...it's like my lung is going to pop out it gets so bad. warm tea and honey is helping me a lot. the dietitian told me papaya juice helps with the mucous. i haven't tried it though. since i'm about three weeks behind you i can't really help you on the other stuff, but i'll find out soon!...congrats on finishing!

I found the tried and true salt/baking soda/water not only helped mouth but helped cut phlem some.

Tongue is variable -- depends on whether they did Boost treatments directly at the tumor, how many, etc. If my experience is any guide, a couple of weeks and you should see some improvement.

Taste is more variable. A little bit will start coming back soon, but does so slowly. I reached a point about 3 months out where I thought I had gotten back all of the taste I was going to, but then it continued to improve. Today, 15 months out, I would say I have 95% of my taste back.

Tough to do, but be patient. It all comes back in time, and if you expect too much, too soon, you will inevitably be disappointed and depressed\angry. Take it one day at a time, and celebrate the improvements.

Good luck and keep posting!

Jeff, How often did you use the baking soda and salt water daily? And did you just rinse and spit? Thanks, Angel

Bill:

Heres some help with the peg feedings. It will ease the nasuea if you water it down with an extra 1/2 can of water. Try using a feeding pump, if you dont have one ask your doc for a prescription and run it slowly overnight. Gotta lay down propped up on 2 pillows and start out with a speed of 40 and gradually increase it by about 20 every few days til you get up to about 160. Just slow down and water it down those two things will make the world of difference in your feedings.

Right now is a rough part in your tx. Hang in there and push like crazy for 3000 calories so you maintain your weight. Losing any weight right now will make you only feel worse.

The mucous lasted about 1 month for me. Then it turned into dry mouth which lasted about 8 months. Taste buds are gone for quite a while, mine took about 4 months before I could taste anything except the flavor of burnt. That was even water tasted burnt.

Hang in there, you will start to feel a bit better very very soon. Thats whats called walking out of the tunnel, you will know when you do.

Bill, great that tx are over but now you're full of radiation and the nasty side effects that come with it. Your body will need time and all the calories you can pour down the peg to burn this stuff out. For me, it took several weeks before the mucous stopped, I was constantly spitting/foaming during that time ( carried a small cup with me ), and I eased back into food about a month and a half out from tx. Taste buds take a while . . . varies from person to person as you will read. Doctors can't give you any real guidance here time wise. I am still only around 70% back but that's an improvement from where I was several months ago. You are now starting the road to recovery - good luck.

Another option for the feedings - instead of the pump at night - is to use the gravity method (food drips from a bag that hangs on a pole - looks like an IV) during the day. We started doing this for my husband on Thursday because the bolus method was making him sick. It's been wonderful. He doesn't feel like doing much other than lie around so he doesn't mind having to sit/lie around for two hours at a time (that's the time it takes to get two cans in him). He's now regularly getting 2400+ a day, whereas with the bolus he was lucky if he got 1,700 in a day. And he's no longer nauseated.

I'm with Wendy, the drip bags are the way to go. I had the same exact problem and the bad fixed me up.