A woman battling cancer has revealed she is unable to swallow her own saliva –needing a machine to assist her.
This brave cancer warrior showcases the machine that helps her swallow her saliva as well as other liquids.
Alyssa Burks, from Houston, Texas, was diagnosed with stage four gastric cancer, which affects her ability to drink and swallow her saliva.
Alyssa has relied on IV fluids and a suction machine that helps her consume the nutrients and liquids she needs.
She said: “I’m not really supposed to swallow saliva, and I do try my best not to.
“If I do swallow my saliva, there’s a blockage so it has nowhere else to go but back up, so then I regurgitate it.
“It’s really nasty.”
Sleeping has become much more difficult for the content creator who revealed that she constantly wakes up being sick after swallowing saliva in her sleep.
Alyssa was diagnosed with gastric cancer after doctors found a tumour that had taken up half of her stomach and spread into her oesophagus.
Due to her cancer spreading, doctors decided to remove her ovaries and over 50 of her lymph nodes – with more than half coming back as cancerous.
Alyssa explained how the doctors were unable to remove all the cancer out of her oesophagus and that the chemotherapy she was continuing with, could not target that area.
She explained how her stage four cancer has resulted in her not being able to consume liquids and a blockage affects her ability to swallow.
She said: “I still swallow my saliva while I’m asleep, so I do wake up throwing up a lot.
“To help with all of that during the day, I have this handy dandy machine that I received while I spent a week in the hospital.”
Alyssa admitted that the machine is noisy and not cute but it is what is out there to help people who are not able to swallow.
She said: “This is another thing that I have to pay for now that I have this blockage, so I pay monthly to be able to use this.
“I turn it on again, it’s going to be pretty loud, and then it’ll suctions, kind of like when you’re at the dentist.
“I don’t know if it’s exactly like it, but that’s what it reminds me of. So let me show you.
“I’m supposed to do that every time that I feel saliva build up.
“Honestly I prefer to swish around a drink and spit it out that way if I can.”