Stoma Care

 

 

 

 

after care - mucus problems

 

MUCUS - MUCUS - MUCUS



We not only have a problem with thickened mucus in the stoma but often in the oral cavity. We have hints under Post Laryngectomy for humidification and irrigation and under Stoma Care for thinning mucus and what to do about dried mucus in the stoma. However, this surgery or radiation can create very thick saliva and mucus in the mouth and throat.  This can make talking, eating, and swallowing difficult.  Early after surgery, almost all of us carry water with us everywhere we go.  This section will be for suggestions to help us with that continuing situation.



CLUB SODA USE



Use The Bubbly Kind

My doctor recommended sipping club soda for cutting loose the mucus from the throat and making the mouth and throat feel less dry. He suggested you buy it in small bottles so it doesn't go flat because the carbonation is part of what works so well.

Freshening Mouth After Brushing

Way back when...I knew about club soda to help with mucus problems.  I do not have a TEP so I can't gargle.  When I brush my teeth, I never really feel fresh, always feeling a residual toothpaste, bubbles, etc., in the back of my mouth and throat.  The other day, I remembered the club soda and decided to try rinsing with it after brushing my teeth.  Wow!  Feel much better.  Thought this might be a good tip to add to our list.
Rita in NJ



ARTICLES



Mucus – Mucous

While my spelling is fairly decent and I have a pretty good eye for words, I did make the mistake early on of spelling mucus, that stuff we are all familiar with,  as mucous, which is an adjective, as in, Mucous Membrane (a mucus-secreting membrane lining body cavities and canals connecting with the external air).  Mucus, a noun, is the viscid watery secretion of the mucous membranes, that moistens and protects them.

I stumbled across the difference several years ago when I was looking for an exact meaning of mucus for an article I was writing, and did not change it in my usage because mucous seemed to be the more common spelling in use by everyone and, besides, it 'looked' right.  Not to everyone, it seems, because I received a teasing note from a doctor friend on the Larynx-C email list.  Seems he was a spelling champion in school and it has stuck with him.  I answered his email that I love words and I know better than to mistreat them so I would immediately start spelling this correctly.

Thought I'd better explain my loss of the "o", because the next time I write about mucus, that "o" will be long gone!         PWS

     

Thinning Mucus and Saliva

by Pat Wertz Sanders (From HeadLines 2000)



You are unlikely to be around a laryngectomee for 5 minutes without hearing the word mucus and if you get two or more of us together,  we talk more about mucus than we do about our new voices. 

Excess or thickened mucus is a problem for most of us.  It is secreted by the mucus membranes for protection of the esophagus and the trachea.  Too little and we are all dried up; too much and we cough it out from the stoma, cough it up from the throat, have trouble swallowing and have trouble talking through it with TEP or ES speech.  The thicker it is, the worse our problems become but we can't be without it, so what do we do?  We THIN it.

Saliva, another problem of - too much, too little, or too thick,  is a clear, viscous, alkaline secretion from the salivary glands.  It will normally decrease as we age and, as it lessens, the sense of taste is affected, speech can be more difficult, food is not digested as well, and overall dental health deteriorates.  Saliva contains an enzyme that helps digest food, keeps the mouth moist, and eases swallowing, and  it contains antimicrobial and antifungal agents.  It is easy to see why we need saliva to stay healthy. In addition, we all know that having a dry mouth is a miserable feeling.

We who have had either chemotherapy and/or radiation, may precipitate these natural "old age" symptoms and our salivary glands might not work as well as they used to, if at all.  The amount of damage depends on the type and quantity of chemotherapy or radiation and the fields included in radiation.  Some medications, such as antihistamines, will reduce the flow of saliva so we should be careful how many and how often we take these.

We all know about humidifiers, dampened stoma covers, and irrigation, so, what else can we do to help the situation?

If someone told you about a product that is calorie-free, would keep your skin in a healthy condition, lower your risk of urinary cancers and perhaps colon cancer, hydrate your tissues, prevent kidney stones and, very important to laryngectomees, thin mucus and saliva, you would say, "I want some of that medicine.  I don't care what it costs!"  That medicine comes right out of your water tap and the cost, even if you prefer to buy bottled water, is  one of the cheapest "medicines" around.  Feeling tired?  You may be dehydrated.  Have a few glasses of water!  If you wait for thirst, you may have already started to dehydrate.

The problem here is that hardly any of us drink enough water and the only way we can know for sure is to measure.  Take a favorite glass and a measuring cup.  Don't cheat.  Fill the glass 'appropriately' and, pour it into the measuring cup to note how much it takes to fill it to that level. Then it will be easy to calculate how much you are drinking daily.  Juice glasses are usually 4 to 6 oz.  Tea and water glasses are probably 10oz or 12oz. How many of these do you need?  For years we have heard that we should drink 8 glasses of water a day and they are talking about 8 oz glasses.  That's 64 ounces or 1/2 gallon and doesn't sound so bad if you get to count coffee, tea, and colas, but you can't count that way.  These other drinks are dehydrating so you have to drink more to come out even. Count these drink as about 2/3's of actual liquid content.  A 6oz cup of tea would count as 4oz. Any noncaffeinated beverage counts as water.  Foods have water content, but not enough to add much to your list.  To make it even worse, Mayo Health says to divide your body weight by half and that's how many ounces you really need each day.  That means the 1/2 gallon would only be enough if you weighed 128 pounds!  So, if you weigh 200 pounds, drink 100oz of water a day. Think how important it is to a laryngectomee that water carries oxygen to your cells and helps to thin mucus.

Keep a jug in the refrigerator, carry a bottle around with you, and keep a glass at the kitchen sink.  Drink a glass as soon as you get up in the morning and drink water with your meals.  Swig a little extra when you take your medicines, especially vitamins, which need water to dissolve and be accessible to your body. Flavor it with lemon or lime or make a juice spritzer with carbonated water.  Substitute some Gatorade but no more than a glass or two a day.  It was meant for drinking after heavy exercise.

Any moisture that you can put "in", "on", or "around" your body will help to moisturize.  Use your humidifier, dampen your stoma bib, hold your hot drink up so you are breathing in some of the rising steam, carry the water glass or bottle around with you and sip often.  Water is an excellent expectorant and it may be that water alone is the medicine you need for thinning mucus.

There is a medication, an expectorant called guaifenesin, for thinning mucus.  It has been approved by the FDA for almost 50 years and is sold both over the counter and by prescription for stronger dosages. It  reduces the thickness and stickiness of mucus but must be taken with a full glass of water for it to be most effective.

You will have to read labels of cough syrups, but the one that has just guaifenesin is called Tussin or Robitussin Plain and is 100 mg per teaspoonful.   Your doctor might have prescribed this for you, when you were having respiratory problems, under the name Humibid (600mg sustained release tablets usually prescribed 2 tablets in the morning and two at night) or under the generic name G-Bid.  If you have trouble swallowing tablets, you might talk with your doctor about Humibid capsules (300mg) that are often called Sprinkles, because you can open the capsules and sprinkle these on your food or in liquid.

Unless your doctor has you on a water restricted diet, you will need to drink a lot of water with or without the medication.  Talk with your pharmacist or physician about these suggestions.

 

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