Pam ... I have the same problem. Mouth droop and consequent mouth breathing makes it even worse. And the BiPap? Unless I put the humidifer a couple notches above recommended, that burns too. Sometimes my throat feels like it's on fire.
What I discovered from my pulmo (when I complained about how much the BiPap burns my throat), he examined my mouth and said I had thrush. He gave me a week's prescription that cleared it up and made me much more comfortable. I've had to renew it three times. I don't know if it's the unnatural situation of the mouth or if I am reinfecting myself from the BiPap.
In any case, if this is possibly affecting Andy, the signs are usually white specks, but in my case, my mouth gets firey red and sometimes bleeds ... not around the teeth, but the palate and cheeks.
I also have my secret chocolate solution. I can't swallow any foods or liquids except yogurt (and 90% of the time not that), but if something "accidently" dissolves into my saliva on the right side of my mouth (like Hershey kisses), it will go down as saliva, thus much less likely to trigger choking. Obviously you have to be careful with this.
This only works if I am lying on my right side and can keep the chocolate on that side of my throat. You have no idea how much scientific experimentation it took to discover this. The side effect is that the dissolved chocolate is very soothing to the throat, and unlike hard candies, it doesn't trigger more saliva. In fact, it makes your saliva a little thicker, so sometimes is soothing plus helps swallowing. (Also 9 Hershey kisses = 200 calories, a little bonus nutrition.)
If Andy has any part of his throat that is less affected than others, and can aim a bit of chocolate there and just let it melt, this might help. But with bulbar, you have to be very cautious.
