Tuesday, July 2, 2013

A Person of Low Taste

By far the worst side effect of the chemotherapy is the loss of taste.

Mine is almost completely gone. I get hints of flavor around the edges of things, but it is subdued and altered and "not right". Some things actually taste bad. Or some things, like white chocolate, have no taste and their consistency is disgusting without the flavor.

And loss of taste from chemo is combined with extremely dry mouth from radiation - a excellent combination.

On Saturday I tried to eat pancakes. Even drenched in syrup I had the sensation that the pancakes had been covered with powdered chalk before being put in my mouth.

For the most part the taste change is neutral - it's either gone or turned way down. But some things actually taste horrible. Like mango Snapple.

This is the challenge of a mouth cancer patient. One must keep fed, but one has no appetite because everything tastes like crap. Eating becomes a chore with no enjoyment whatsoever and even some disgust.

Given that, I am very happy to get my feeding tube today. This is probably not what the nutritionist we meet with tomorrow will advise, but I figure I can use the tube to get the bulk of my calories and only use my mouth for foods that taste good.

I did make a great discovery last night: vanilla ice cream still tastes good. Hopefully at least that one thing can continue to be enjoyable.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Man, Just catching up on these again. When I requested your address and said that I wanted to send you something from Seattle, I stupidly thought of food items. Reading these posts it's obvious that food is appalling :( I've been thinking of you and Wonderful Wife and progeny and in coming family for support and sending "recovered catholic" prayers your way!More soon.

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