Over salivating

Hi Galloway, I’m Tony one of the Community Champions, as you see I have a Lary which is a stoma in the neck as your Partner will have having a Trachy, unfortunately having this problem the result for a while will be excess saliva, is it saliva only normally also we also get an over production of sputum which would be through his breathing.

Saliva – may be stomach as you say he’s also had OS like myself I was with my Laryngectomy given Lansoprazole tablets that really reduces acid reflux

Sputum – this my GP prescribed Buscopan- yes it’s a travel sickness treatment but there’s an ingredient that helps reduce production, as he has difficulty swallowing there is a behind the ear patch for same treatment.

Another good source for support is a charity called swallows :

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

Then there is our support booklets this is the link for Head and Neck Cancers

https://www.macmillan.org.uk/dfsmedia/1a6f23537f7f4519bb0cf14c45b2a629/19556-10061/MAC14270_E04_HeadandNeck_LateFX_20250528

I don’t understand why your support team can’t help with matters, if it’s the breathing part – sputum they can loan a suction pump to keep the trachy clear

I do hope he starts to improve I have experienced his problems and it really is so debilitating and extremely frustrating

Take care both of you , Tony

1. Thank you so much for the information. I’ll chase up on the Buscupan. He really needs help with the saliva as its constant flow is making it difficult for him to talk. I also suspect that chemotherapy has made it much worse as he wasn’t like this before. We had the ct scan results today and it showed he has responded to treatment with no spread. His oncologist thought, as he had had been in hospital twice, that there might be. I’ve had a look at the links. Thank you again. It’s such a really hard journey. Hope you’re doing okay. Anne

Good evening Galloway, I can't really offer much advice on this, but maybe you could ask for a second opinion with a different consultant, as they might have a different approach, as it seems a bit hard to leave you and your partner in the lurch. Wishing you both all the best, good luck.

                                                                                   Chris x

Hi Galloway. The issue you describe sounds so hard for your husband. I do hope that you can find something that can help him to some degree. To a much lesser degree I have a similar issue but for another reason and related to my jaw cancer ops so I understand how the excess saliva affects your quality of life. I have constant dripping of saliva out of the right corner of my mouth due to a mandibulectomy that I had in 2013. The right side of my mouth over the years has developed a marked droop compounded by more ops over time. I have had to cut up a towel to mop up the constant saliva. I have been referred to have fillers on the right side of my mouth to see if this helps so I have my fingers crossed.  I have my fingers crossed for your husband too as I understand how trying the issue is to cope with day after day. 

Lyn

Thank you Lyn for taking the time to respond. Having cancer in this area affects it so badly and something we never hear about. I’m sorry you’re in this situation and hope the fillers help to relieve your symptoms. 

Anne ♥️

Thank you Chris. I’ll keep asking until someone comes up with a solution. 

Anne