appitite

debbiejeanne
debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member

sharon,

does ur husband have an appitite?  does food taste right to him?  does food sometimes get stuck in his throat?  can he eat anything he wants?  i still have no appitite and food doesnt' taste right.  it still gets stuck in my throat too.  does any of this get back to normal?  thank u 4 ur help w/my questions.

God bless,

dj

Comments

  • CivilMatt
    CivilMatt Member Posts: 4,722 Member
    food good

    debbiejeanne,

     

    I don’t know who Sharon is but I am sure she would be happy to answer you.

     

    For me, I (happily) lived on smoothies for 7 months.  I would constantly try all foods, but my taste no taste and my disliked for texture and feel of 99% of all foods put me at a disadvantage.  Once when trying to explain my condition to my parents I placed a can of Crisco Shortening on the dining table and said “this is what food feels and tastes like to me”.  Needless to say, ONLY H&N members get it, outsiders only relate it to having a cold.

     

    At 7 months post I was away from home and had to order some lunch, I had a Turkey sandwich and low and behold things had changed and I was back in the food eating game.

     

    I now eat anything I want and always wash it down with 2, 3 or even 4 glass of water, ice-tea, pop or milk.  I am aware that things will get stuck in my throat, so pace myself accordingly.

     

    My taster is at about 20% on average with some things much better and ice-cream at the bottom (poor ice-cream).  I am having a barbequed steak tonight with baked potato.  By the way steak hits the Matt taste scale at an 8 or 9, that is darn good.

     

    Funny thing about appetite, the whole time I lived on smoothies I was never hungry.

     

    Finally, I am at 13 months post and I hope Sharon checks in.

     

    Matt

  • debbiejeanne
    debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member
    CivilMatt said:

    food good

    debbiejeanne,

     

    I don’t know who Sharon is but I am sure she would be happy to answer you.

     

    For me, I (happily) lived on smoothies for 7 months.  I would constantly try all foods, but my taste no taste and my disliked for texture and feel of 99% of all foods put me at a disadvantage.  Once when trying to explain my condition to my parents I placed a can of Crisco Shortening on the dining table and said “this is what food feels and tastes like to me”.  Needless to say, ONLY H&N members get it, outsiders only relate it to having a cold.

     

    At 7 months post I was away from home and had to order some lunch, I had a Turkey sandwich and low and behold things had changed and I was back in the food eating game.

     

    I now eat anything I want and always wash it down with 2, 3 or even 4 glass of water, ice-tea, pop or milk.  I am aware that things will get stuck in my throat, so pace myself accordingly.

     

    My taster is at about 20% on average with some things much better and ice-cream at the bottom (poor ice-cream).  I am having a barbequed steak tonight with baked potato.  By the way steak hits the Matt taste scale at an 8 or 9, that is darn good.

     

    Funny thing about appetite, the whole time I lived on smoothies I was never hungry.

     

    Finally, I am at 13 months post and I hope Sharon checks in.

     

    Matt

    matt, thank u 4 sharing.  i

    matt, thank u 4 sharing.  i greatly appreciate the info.  ur dinner sounds great, i want some.  i am 14 months post and only able to eat a few things.  nothing tastes right.  plus, on top of that my mouth is very sore and it burns when i eat.  plus i bite my tounge EVERYTIME i eat.  that also keeps me from wanting to eat. i'm still losing weight and can't really afford to.  i've lost 105 lbs since tx.  i was overwight to start with so that was ok but now i need to stop.  i'm down to 125 lbs.  ur dinner sounds wonderful and i want some.  i look forward to when i can eat a steak.  that will be a while tho.  take care and keep on eating.  enjoy your dinner and thanks again for replying.

    God bless,

    dj 

  • Ladylacy
    Ladylacy Member Posts: 773 Member
    DJ

    After my husband's largynectomy he was able to eat and did so slowly with plenty of water.  He had a feeding tube the first time from August 2010 until May of 2011.  About 6 weeks after his surgery, they allowed him to start eating soft foods and to work his way up.  Yes he did have problems with food getting stuck and he said food didn't really have a taste.  As time progressed he was able to eat whatever he wanted too and this took time.  He had trouble with ground beef and steak.  Just took a long time for him to eat and plenty of water to wash it down.  But since his second round of radiation which ended in July 2012 he really hasn't had an appetite and now it has gotten worse.  He is able to swallow liquids and soft foods but has no appetite for anything else.  Guess this is due to the spread of his cancer.  He does have a feeding tube and relies on it and without it, I don't know where he would be.  

    If you are having a problem with food getting stuck you might need to have a dilation done.  He has had several since his surgery and in fact had one in February when the specialist did an endoscopy.  Have you had a swallow test?  This enables them to see any problems with swallowing.  

    Sharon

  • debbiejeanne
    debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member
    Ladylacy said:

    DJ

    After my husband's largynectomy he was able to eat and did so slowly with plenty of water.  He had a feeding tube the first time from August 2010 until May of 2011.  About 6 weeks after his surgery, they allowed him to start eating soft foods and to work his way up.  Yes he did have problems with food getting stuck and he said food didn't really have a taste.  As time progressed he was able to eat whatever he wanted too and this took time.  He had trouble with ground beef and steak.  Just took a long time for him to eat and plenty of water to wash it down.  But since his second round of radiation which ended in July 2012 he really hasn't had an appetite and now it has gotten worse.  He is able to swallow liquids and soft foods but has no appetite for anything else.  Guess this is due to the spread of his cancer.  He does have a feeding tube and relies on it and without it, I don't know where he would be.  

    If you are having a problem with food getting stuck you might need to have a dilation done.  He has had several since his surgery and in fact had one in February when the specialist did an endoscopy.  Have you had a swallow test?  This enables them to see any problems with swallowing.  

    Sharon

    sharon, thank u again 4

    sharon, thank u again 4 replying.  i'm sorry ur husband doesn't have an appetite or interest in food.  i was praying he'd be better off than that.  cancer sure is cruel.  thank goodness he has a feeding tube.  i'm very sorry u are both going thru this.  it breaks my heart to know someone is having more than his/her share of problems.  i'll be keeping you both in my prayers.  take care and hang in there.

    God bless,

    dj

  • Duggie88
    Duggie88 Member Posts: 760 Member
    Hi DJ

    I am three years out and food is always getting stuck. But, because the Doc took my uvula out it doesn't gag me I can just tell it didn't make the slide so I give it a hack and a sip of liquid and am ready for another bite. Matt pretty much hit the nail on the head with the Crisco reference. I was addicted to smoothies and and was proud of alot of the concoctions I came up with. Problem was I never wrote them down so everyone was different. Like Sharon stated meat or beef was a tough chew and still is today. At first the taste was just terrible but once my taste for beef came back swallowing it became the tough part and still is today. I just recently got my taste back for breakfast sausage. Also, everthing seemed to be salty which also pushed me towards smoothies as long as I didn't put to much ice cream in them because ice cream always tasted salty. Like always stated here, we all make our comeback differently and never as quickly as we want. But one thing I do know is..................it was all worth it.

    Now I'm gonna go out on the front porch and watch the wife smoke another cigarette. I told her you were the one to take notice in my picture.

     

    Take care

          Jeff

  • yensid683
    yensid683 Member Posts: 349
    appetite

    I'm 9 months post treatments and I have to say that I do have an appetite, most things are tasting normal, but anything that has a tart component to its normal taste is pretty difficult.  Any sour, any bitter is not the greatest taste in the world, but a great many things work now that didn't just a few weeks ago.

    I feel a little guilty saying it, but my sense of taste started to recover in about 5 weeks post rads, the first thing I could detect was salt, but sweet, sour and bitter all came back.  Sour is tough at times, your body's normal response to sour is to flood the mouth with saliva, but since it doesn't happen all that well, sour is a very tough experience. 

    I am surprised to find that I can eat just about anything, I will need to have sips of water to supplement the meager saliva that I'm actually producing, and I find that softer, more tender meats work, fries, burgers, a good steak, baked potatoes, sausage, pizza etc work.  Some have to be well chewed with small bites, but they do work. Fresh raw veggies like celery, carrots, cucumbe and lettuce work, onions dont' though, and surrprisingly. ice cream doesn't work well (very disappointing), mashed potatoes are like glue, and breakfast cereal is still like chewing sand and glass. 

    I don't get much stuck, but I can tell when something will, I try to swallow something when it is a little too dry.

    I hope things improve for you very soon

  • hwt
    hwt Member Posts: 2,328 Member
    yensid683 said:

    appetite

    I'm 9 months post treatments and I have to say that I do have an appetite, most things are tasting normal, but anything that has a tart component to its normal taste is pretty difficult.  Any sour, any bitter is not the greatest taste in the world, but a great many things work now that didn't just a few weeks ago.

    I feel a little guilty saying it, but my sense of taste started to recover in about 5 weeks post rads, the first thing I could detect was salt, but sweet, sour and bitter all came back.  Sour is tough at times, your body's normal response to sour is to flood the mouth with saliva, but since it doesn't happen all that well, sour is a very tough experience. 

    I am surprised to find that I can eat just about anything, I will need to have sips of water to supplement the meager saliva that I'm actually producing, and I find that softer, more tender meats work, fries, burgers, a good steak, baked potatoes, sausage, pizza etc work.  Some have to be well chewed with small bites, but they do work. Fresh raw veggies like celery, carrots, cucumbe and lettuce work, onions dont' though, and surrprisingly. ice cream doesn't work well (very disappointing), mashed potatoes are like glue, and breakfast cereal is still like chewing sand and glass. 

    I don't get much stuck, but I can tell when something will, I try to swallow something when it is a little too dry.

    I hope things improve for you very soon

    burgers

    I am a couple of weeks shy of 1 year post tx. Just wanted to say when you are ready to try hamburgers, I suggest the less expensive cuts with more fat. For me, the less fat, the drier and harder to get down.

  • mikeev
    mikeev Member Posts: 19
    Hy DJ
    I am about 7 months out

    Hy DJ

    I am about 7 months out of TX and can now eat almost anything as long as it has some form of liquid gravy etc, but am still not able to eat white bread except with soup, I used to eat steak as medium but now find that medium rare is easier to swallow, i occassionally find that food gets stuck in my throat but this is because my tongue cannot always manipulate it away whilst chewing and it slides down, I find it is easier to have a beer (low alcohol content) rather than water to wash it down at meal times as this is more palatable, chinese food goes down quite well as does some indian food as long as its not to spicy, I am still getting the occasional burning on the side of my tongue which can be quite painfull if food is to acidic or spicy, I am finding that my weight is stable even though I am trying to put on weight I weigh about 135Lb which is about 28lbs less  than before treatment and would like to get this back, most food tastes ok but the taste can linger in my mouth for a long time, I am happy with my progress considering that I was only given a 50/50 chance of getting rid of the tumour and have been NED since August. The main problem I have is speech in that i cannot form certain letters or words which I find very frustrating but that seems to be getting better.

    I dont generally think about it so much now as I can feel the differences weekly, I tend to think more when it is time for my check ups every 2 months which means that I get stressed for 2/3 days prior to this, it is worse for my wife as she does not feel/see the changes that are occuring and does not understand why I am not really worrying about a re-occurence of the tumour in the future.

  • debbiejeanne
    debbiejeanne Member Posts: 3,102 Member
    mikeev said:

    Hy DJ
    I am about 7 months out

    Hy DJ

    I am about 7 months out of TX and can now eat almost anything as long as it has some form of liquid gravy etc, but am still not able to eat white bread except with soup, I used to eat steak as medium but now find that medium rare is easier to swallow, i occassionally find that food gets stuck in my throat but this is because my tongue cannot always manipulate it away whilst chewing and it slides down, I find it is easier to have a beer (low alcohol content) rather than water to wash it down at meal times as this is more palatable, chinese food goes down quite well as does some indian food as long as its not to spicy, I am still getting the occasional burning on the side of my tongue which can be quite painfull if food is to acidic or spicy, I am finding that my weight is stable even though I am trying to put on weight I weigh about 135Lb which is about 28lbs less  than before treatment and would like to get this back, most food tastes ok but the taste can linger in my mouth for a long time, I am happy with my progress considering that I was only given a 50/50 chance of getting rid of the tumour and have been NED since August. The main problem I have is speech in that i cannot form certain letters or words which I find very frustrating but that seems to be getting better.

    I dont generally think about it so much now as I can feel the differences weekly, I tend to think more when it is time for my check ups every 2 months which means that I get stressed for 2/3 days prior to this, it is worse for my wife as she does not feel/see the changes that are occuring and does not understand why I am not really worrying about a re-occurence of the tumour in the future.

    mike, thank u 4 the info. 

    mike, thank u 4 the info.  congrats on being cancer free!!  that's the words we live to hear.

    i'm just wondering if my taste will be different than most b/c mine is from surgery not rads.  i had a complete laryengectomy which also means i can't smell.  i heard taste is 90% smell.  that's why i'm wondering if i'll ever get my taste back.  i'll never b able to smell again.  i'll just keep trying new foods and hope 4 the best.  my surgery was 2/28/12.

    God bless,

    dj