Thick saliva makes drinking difficult.

For thick saliva try sparkling water. Apart from that it’s time to use a feeding tube. Why struggle? 

Edit. I looked back at your last posts and I read he hasn’t a feeding tube. How is his weight? 
Can he drink a smoothie? You can make up high protein high carb smoothies from banana avocado and nut butter. That might be easier to swallow than thin fortisip 

They won’t give him a feeding tube, say he has got this far without one and they don’t have the support to help us. If they did, he would have to be hospitalised, which he really doesn’t want.

six weeks ago the dietitian told us to stop trying to find foods he can tolerate and save energy for the fortisip as it has better nutritional value. Starting again, I haven’t found anything he can eat or drink so far. I know it is early days, but I feel what he is taking in is not sustainable. He is very tired and depressed, which really doesn’t help the situation. 

He hasn’t lost much weight, about 5kg so far, which he can spare. He hasn’t managed any smoothies we have tried so far, but i will keep trying. 

Thanks Dani for your continuing support. 

I found…

1 Nebulise

2 Use a 50/50 dilution of Benzydamine water and gargle but gargle into the roof of the  mouth, have a toilet roll handy, and indelicately, gob into a bucket.

3 The mucous will be thick but should be white, not green unless it has an infection.

4 It might make your partner gag but I found that worked.

5 Do it again and then blow the nose properly like you have a big cold !

This is a bit of a performance but it may help

Presumably they won’t do a naso gastric tube?

Good luck and KEEP GOING week 5&6 are a bit weird I found.

John

Hi Mandalu. I feel for your husband. I too had to do radiotherapy without a feeding tube but this was because it was for jaw cancer and did not affect my swallow. However it did not make it any easier and I ended up losing 10k.g. My mouth was so sore with ulcers that I found eating really painful. I'm surprised that he was not given a feeding tube as swallowing must be really painful for him. In the end I was prescribed a lidocaine mouthwash that would numb my mouth for a few minutes while I tried to get down as much soft food or drink that I could manage. Would your husband's team consider a naso gastric tube as it only becomes more difficult after week 4. I was not offered this but would have had one like a shot if I had been. 

Lyn

Hi there Mandalu, my husband was due to have a tube fitted (PEG) prior to starting treatment but due to complications he was experiencing they decided it was just too risky. By week 3 of RT he just couldn’t swallow enough to maintain his weight and they fitted him with an NG tube after 1 of the RT treatments. It’s relatively simple, a bit unpleasant but it was an absolute lifeline. He ended up losing 20KG but most of that was due to hospitalisation and the nurses either forgetting to feed him or losing his food .

The NG rig can be supplied with a pump, once again very simple to use and takes very little training.

Stick to your guns and request a tube, I don’t wish to scare you but honestly it gets worse before it gets better. A friend of mine I made on the forum didn’t have a tube then had complications post treatment. He lost so much weight it got quite scary. Eventually a tube was fitted and he has started to regain some weight.

Good luck, and keep in touch. There’s always somebody here happy to help in any we can.

Hugs from Wales xxx

Mandalu16fc94 said:

They won’t give him a feeding tube, say he has got this far without one and they don’t have the support to help us.

Hi. I can see how they are coming to this conclusion. He is three weeks out from finishing RT, he can swallow fortisips albeit not enough and he has lost only 5kg through the whole of treatment. So take a deep breath, try to get more fortisips down him and try the smoothie I suggested. He can try proper food too. Try dunking biscuits in tea or even ready break which is finer than porridge. A store bought custard or trifle might go down easily too. I'm afraid food can taste awful for a while but if he can get it down he should. Tell him from me that this passes, it's just a question of ploughing through it.

Mandalu16fc94 said:

They won’t give him a feeding tube, say he has got this far without one and they don’t have the support to help us. If they did, he would have to be hospitalised, which he really doesn’t want.

Where on earth are you that a hospital says it does not have the support for a standard procedure of an NG tube??  It is not just H&N cancer patients that have NG tubes lots of people in and out of hospital use them. 

I completely understand that a PEG or RIG is off the agenda at this stage but I am incredulous that they won't even consider an NG tube.  They have dietitians in the hospital and, I would imagine, in the community to support people who need it. 

I would fight the battle now before this becomes a crisis and he is hospitalised through lack of food and hydration...

I think they mean support at home. He has already been hospitalised for pneumonia and dehydration since he began treatment and is adamant that he doesn’t want to go back in. He is just about surviving on what he is taking in now, but it’s very much his choice to stay at home and struggle on. I am trying to support him in this as well as I can. 

Thanks for the Welsh hugs, my husband is Welsh too. See my reply below. It’s his choice to stay at home with no tube, but it’s not an easy option and quite scary. He is nearly 3 weeks post radiotherapy now, so I think we may soon be past the very worst, or so they tell us! He is beginning to notice changes in taste, his neck burns have healed beautifully, so some stuff is going well!