Dry mouth

[anderkling]

I have just been diagnosed, but I was told I have fast progression. My question is about an unusually dry mouth. It's like my saliva has disappeared! Is this phenomenon related to ALS? I was just diagnosed last week with symptoms only starting in November. Should I already be exploring Modeltalker? Has anyone else had this experience?
- Charlene

 

[gooseberry]

My husband is using an oral rinse that promotes saliva. It is the Walmart version of Biotene. It works well. It is important to get saliva going. Several people here have suggested fruit candies, eating papaya, drinking juice. Fruit based items seem to help but others have said cough drops do also. I think it is never too early to do something like Modeltalker. The earlier the better. Your voice will sound more like you the earlier you start and it takes a while to complete. Plus with this disease, sometimes it plateaus but sometimes things change quickly. We always try to do whatever we can as soon as we can.

 

[anderkling]

Thank you very much for this excellent advice. Much appreciated.

 

[Diane H]

Cough drops scare the heck out of me! One little misstep in the swallowing process and it is Heimlich Time!

 

[gooseberry]

I know Diane, me too. Several people here though without swallowing issues have suggested them.

 

[MaxEidswick]

IIWII ("It Is What It Is!") ...