Cancer Treatment Options Forum - September 7th, 2010 - 5 Comments
I have no taste because of head and neck cancer radiation?
does anyone have any ideas on what foods to try to at least taste something? eating has become a nightmare and am lossing alot of weight any ideas or help would be wonderful.
I could only taste sweet, salty, sour, and spicey. Everything else tastes like paper. Hard mints help get the poopy taste out of your mouth..
Try eating regular very small meal of anything with calories. Have a snack, even a couple of spoonfuls between meals. I find ice cream goes down well because of the cold and easy texture and because you expect ice cream to be soft.
Have you had your endocrine levels checked? Head radiation can damage your pituitary and sometimes you need supplements.
First of all I am so sorry that you had to go through something like that, and I hope that you overcome this soon
Our tongue can only pick up on five flavors, bitter, sour, ect. Which doesn’t account for the variety of flavors in food. The variety actually comes from our sense of smell, which accounts for a majority of what we experience while eating. You might find very aromatic foods more pleasing. Examples I can think of at the moment are curries which incorporate a variety of spices such as mace and cumin, or desserts with aromatics such as mint or vanilla.
I hope this helps a little
I had 35 secessions of radiation on the neck. It killed my taste buds. It all tasted like using Listerine and eating 30 seconds later. Some people say using plastic utensils helps to negotiate the metallic taste. I found that nothing tasted good. You can try Ensure to help keep the weight up. It was about 60 days after the final treatment I got my taste back. Eat the unpleasant food to keep your weight up.
Wishing you well and hoping you get your taste back quickly.
Edit: if you feel nausea while eating get some anti-nausea meds from the oncologist
I had cancer in my neck, on both sides. Had a radical neck dissection to remove tumor on right side. I had 35 rad treatments and 2 chemo. Nothing tasted good during that time. Nothing.
My treatments ended in Feb 2010. Swallowing was hard due to all the swelling from radiation. Eating with plastic utensils does help. So stick with plastic. I forced myself to eat a lot of apple sauce, puddings, yogarts, mashed potatoes, Wendys Frostys, soups. Becareful with anything hot as your mouth is real sensitive, as you probably already found out. Drank a lot of Boost and Ensure, whole milk, both chocolate and white. Carnation VHC Vanilla drink has 650 calories a can which is good to maintain weight. 4 cans a day and your at 2600 calories.
I’m surprised your RO didn’t talk to you about a PEG tube. If you lose to much weight, he might push for this.
I know what you’re going through as a person who went down that road and is still going down that road. I know it’s a nightmare. But it does get better with time. Remember that progress is measured in months for us. It WILL pass, hang in there. If you have nausea, then ask your RO for Zofran, Ativan, or Phenergan. They will help with the nausea.