Has anybody else suffered from a loss of taste? I have just had my 2nd epi (am on Tact 2 arm 3) and it has got to the point where it doesn’t matter what I eat everything tastes either the same or bitter. For someone who loves food this is becoming very annoying…I have lost about 5lbs in 5 weeks not because of loss of appetite but because I cannot taste anything my snacks in between meals
have become pointless! I have also gone of most alcohol and the only drink I have enjoyed in the last 5 weeks is guinness.
Looks like I will lose the stone I was looking to lose beforebeing diagnosed but not
sure how my moods will bear up now I have lost my favourite social passtime!
The thing is I know I have to eat healthily to build up my bloodcounts but its no fun anymore.
Hi Holly. Horrid isn’t it. My Granny was 100 and used to say meals were no pleasure at all as she couldn’t taste a thing - undergoing chemo I really understood what she meant. My OH suggested we go towards to Chinese way of getting pleasure from eating - appreciating the texture instead! Sorry - no easy answers here, spicy food did it for me, and strong cheese! If it’s any comfort at all I am now four weeks post chemo, taste entirely normal again, and enjoying a cold glass of wine! It will be the same for you eventually. Good luck. Sarah
Hi Holly56
I’m with you on this one. My taste buds are way off key& I also have a heightenend sense of smell which means I wrinkle my nose at most things now. I love food but I don’t have an appetite at all and everything tastes bland. I eat just to keep myself fed and nourished. I’m on my third cycle of TCH and suffered with dreadful nausea for the first two and hardly ate, so I dropped lots of weight too (can now fit into fave pair of jeans - yay!). This cycle I have maintained my weight as I haven’t had nausea (and I can’t afford to lose that much weight over six cycles), but it’s a real chore. I can’t decide what to eat because I don’t seem to get hungry, probably because I can’t taste anything. It’s horrid to open the fridge and just stare at the contents blankly without any inclination. However, I seem to be able to register sweet stuff better than savoury. Wine is absolutely foul, but vodka and gin seem ok with tonic water.
I’m glad to hear Seabird say that it comes back and look forward to enjoying my food, but in the meantime we just need to keep eating for energy and nourishment.
x
Hi All,
This is awful isn’t it. Everything tastes like cardboard its sh1t. I can smell the food but can’t taste the damn thing. Even tea is cr@p. I’m on my 5th dose of chemo as no improvement just worse but as seabird says it does get better.
Sukes
thanks for the comments, might try a gin or vodka and tonic when I go for out for tea tonight - thats the other thing - because i am off work my friends keep inviting me out for meals(knowing my liking for food) and are most confused at me eating small amounts - never been known! The good news is that my mouth ulcers have gone overnight (now 12 days since my last chemo) and
I could slightly taste my museli this morning so there is hope. Really shouldn’t moan because I havent had any sickness so far and there are so many people who are suffering a lot more than me. x
Hi Holly
You moan all you want !. I was like you all through my epi , couldnt taste anything. Even water seemed to be milky. I love food ( a bit too much) and was a real tea belly. Even now on capcitabine I cant really say I enjoy a cuppa ,one a day is my limit. I found that salty things worked for me , minestrone cuppa soup seemed to be able to cut through to my taste buds.
I tended to find that after about 2 weeks from the epi I could taste more - hang in there you may get a week in 3 that you can eat real food
Lol Tips
Oh Holly I know what you mean, that happened after my first two ECs, everything tasted of saccharine, apart from wine, which tasted like cough medicine, YUK. However, I was fine after numbers three and four so take heart it might not be all your chemos. Salty foods helped me, and hot curries…and just think how fab it will be when you’ve done all your chemos, to rediscover all those lovely tastes…
Take care
Louise x
Hi Holly
Yes I recognise everything you are saying. I found everything tasted disgusting during three FEC and then three taxotere. Could barely east at all. Even water tasted as if it had been standing for years. I ended up eating very little and supplementing with those Ensure drinks. The good thing was losing a stone and a half, as Ripley says, but t isn’t a diet I would recommend to anyone!
But it does come back again very quickly after chemo ends, so just hang in there my love
Dilys x
hi everyone
i am also finding my tastes are up the wall
have gone off tea completely now on TAX - could only enjoy decaf tea on FEC
can just about manage coffee
pineapple tastes wonderful - thank goodness they are cheap here
water has a lot of taste to it - not sure of what though!
things taste very peppery - not sure whether this is just a confused brain as my tongue has now joined in the tingling with my lips - and my teeth nerves are tingling a bit and while watching TV yesterday they did a 20 second chatter all by themselves! … it was quite disquietening … I am glad I was on my own !!! …imagine if i had been out!!! … how embarrassing would that have been ??? …“oh excuse me - my teeth are just doing their exercises!”… thank goodness I don’t sit there hanging my tongue out - I would have lost it!
crisps don’t taste too bad - probably the salt
whilst I am not suffereing in the mouth department it sort of has a sandpapery feel to it - rough
and although I don’t feel the need to eat I suddenly realise that I am very very hungry and get a very urgent need to eat and feel very very unwell if i don’t eat within minutes …
apart from that it’s all going swimmingly … you’ve got to laugh haven’t you? … when OH asks me how I am I’m just saying “fine” … this is all too surreal to explain …
lots of love
FizBx xxxx