Throat pain, thick mucus and difficulty eating !

Hi Spacey welcome to the forum, I’m Tony one of the Community Champions as  have had Throat Cancer with a Laryngectomy- Voicebox removal followed by Oesophagus Cancer high up so had Chemo and Radiotherapy, I have no experience of Proton Beam treatment I understood that it was more targeted than RT.

I had and I think you will find everyone who has Head and Neck suffer from thick mucus and excessive same, you have an humidifier which is good but a Nebuliser is preferable possibly 4 times a day. Have you spoken with your care team and also if needed your GP, the symptoms I’m afraid will last quite while I still nebulise after 5 years, as for throat problems and swallowing that also may last quite a while-you should speak with your Dietician Team and they can advise foods for best combination of nutrients and swallowing, if I was you I would also possibly have a meeting with the Speech Therapist Team as they can do a swallow test video and see what’s going on in your throat but I suspect it’s still effects of the RT

Another Charity which has loads of support and information + Freebees is Swallows

https://theswallows.org.uk/support/resources/

I hope and am sure your problems will come sure but a lot of the time the recovery is sometimes worse than the cancer was

Take care

Tony

Thanks Kasvin 

Yes my local oncology team have offered a nebuliser if I need one so I might just take them up on their offer, thanks for the advise really helpful. 

At the proton centre I was under the care of both SALT and a dietician who is still in touch. I’ll just need to be transferred to my local team I think. 

Thanks v much 

I'd very much endorse the Nebulizer route to help with the sticky mucus. In my case the mucus persisted for a good 6 months and the n gradually eased.  I found some surprising things easier to swallow baked beans were difficult for me ! But spaghetti hoops tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce slipped down well. 
 I was also prescribed another drug which taken 10 minutes before trying to eat helped with the pain. 

it is a gradual process the most important thing is to take your painkillers without fail - I was a little worried about doing that but now 5 and a half years after treatment am nearly back to normal although swallowing is sometimes difficult for thick foods (bread sometimes takes a bit of work). 

The speech therapist gave me lots of exercises to assist with the swallowing so as Kasvin advised this is a good port of call. I would do the exercises regularly even when out walking during COVID times - I got some funny looks but they worked !!

good luck with your journey - I also took up meditation (loads of free guided ones on line)  this really helped me escape my own personal doom loops and to this day I can always find at least 15 minutes a day to meditate -  not for everyone but worked for me. 

best Wishes 

Martyn 

Thanks Martyn, really helpful and good to hear how things improved for you 

yes, meditation has been really helping me too and doesn’t take long at all so no excuse to fit in each day  

thanks 

I agree with everything you said Martles61. Having the speech therapy team to watch my swallowing helped in my case. Now 2 years in remission I still avoid bread, cookies/biscuits, meat that isn’t in small chunks like a stew- I can eat them but would still rather swallow my calories. Oh well, I no longer have to use the nebulizer and humidifier which were essential for a time.