Dry Reaching And Gagging

My husband finished his radiation and chem treatment, for cancer on the base of his tongue, a month ago. He had a PEG inserted before treatment so has not had a problem with feeding.  He has handled his treatment well and his neck burns have healed well. His major problem now is he has started to feel a tightening of his throat and is constantly gagging and dry reaching particularly during the night.

He has had problems with mouth thrush but has it controlled but now has an ulcer on his uvula which is being treated with anti biotics.  The worst of the thick mucus has passed.

The coughing is so bad he put a tear in his retina which has been treated with laser yesterday and will have to wait a week to see if it has healed but he feels the constant coughing and gagging will not help it.

His spirits have been really good and has had a positive attitude but is now starting to feel the pressure. Can anyone give us some advise to handle the coughing and gagging please.

Thank you LouRay 

 

Hi, LouRay. I'm 5 months out of treatment for tonsillar cancer, and I had the coughnig and gagging, too.

Try some Mucinex to help thin out the mucus in his throat. Talk to the docs about getting some anti nausea drugs to help the gagging. Drink plenty of fluids, I found orange or mango gatorade tasted better than plain water. Experiment with different sleeping positions, I found that sleeping without a pillow helped me, but I have heard that sleeping upright in a recliner helps too. Some herbal teas like "Throat Coat" may help. Get a humidifier, especially if you live up north where the heat is on a lot.

I had a lot of pain in my throat from radiation and was given a liquid form of oxycodone, which helped not only the pain, but also the gagging and coughing. Maybe he can get a prescription (codeine based) cough syrup?

It never hurts to ask the doctor(s) for something to help, mine were, as most are, willing to do what it takes to alleviate the side effects of the treatments.

Best wishes to you and your husband, I hope some of this helps.

Mike

My husband is a couple weeks out from treatment and also experiencing dry coughing and dry heaving.  He has the same coughing fits your husband does.  He has even caused the tissue around his peg line to herniate.  However, the codeine cough syrup they prescribed works pretty well.  Some nights, however, it doesn't.  On those nights he just gets up, turns on the shower to get steam and sticks his head in there.  This might occur three times a night on the worst ones.  But, for the most part, the script cough syrup does the trick.  He has found a strange correlation between coughing fits and the night before his pain patch is to be changed.  No rhyme or reason to that one, but we've documented it and it is fact.  So, he is currently weaning off.  We'll see once that is done if the coughing goes down.  Another note from our docs - they said that radiation sickness mimicks a cold in every way.  So, he takes cough syrup with cold remedies during the day.  This drys up the mucus but can also dry up other stuff.  So in turn, he sucks on candy or something to keep saliva going.  This combo helps too.

Good luck.

 

 

i found the same problems exactly. Mine started as a tickle and a ver y gentle clearing of the throat and ended up in my convulsing wretching, and semi vomitting... it was bad. Doctor gave me a prescription based codeine which i took in my peg tube and not orally as my throat is a complete wasteland and nothing goes down without a yelp or shedding a tear. it really helped. I see others have had the same results by sitting up, it always happened in the evening as i was laying there on a pillow. Later it would happen towards the end of the day like 5 or so when i would be getting tired( iguess)....this is a real problem but the shower sounds great, the codeine worked quickly too and just simply sitting up stick straight and relaxing, breathing, would do it as well. Good Luck it's the last thing you want to torture your throat with as well I know...