The Cancer Survivors Network (CSN) is a peer support community for cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, families, and friends! CSN is a safe place to connect with others who share your interests and experiences.

Trouble Eating

FamilyLove
FamilyLove CSN Member Posts: 22 Member
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

It's been  over a year and a half since my treatments and my taste still is not back to normal.  A lot of food I try to eat taste very hot or spicy to the point I just can't eat it.  Like, ketchup, salad dressing, pepper, red sauces and more.  If it even has the smallest trace of one of these I can't eat it.  Has anyone else experienced this and did it ever go away?  I still have trouble swallowing and go to get my throat stretched every so often.  

Like Care

Comments

  • bebo12249
    bebo12249 CSN Member Posts: 181 Member
    #2
    I’m 2 years post treatment

    I’m 2 years post treatment and still experience foods/spices that are too hot, some that i used to eat. And some non-spicey foods still don’t taste the same. The texture of foods also presents a problem. White chicken meat unless very moist cannot be tolerated along with most beef. But the good news is that many foods work fine, and i’ve adapted my diet accordingly. Hoping for more progress with foods but just proud to be sunny-side-up...

    Like Care
  • FamilyLove
    FamilyLove CSN Member Posts: 22 Member
    #3
    Thanks bebo12249

    Thanks for your response.  I totally agree with you. I too am just thankful to be sunny-side-up.  I am thankful for every day I have with my family and friends.  

    Like Care
  • Mikemetz
    Mikemetz CSN Member Posts: 465 Member
    edited November 2017 #4
    The abi-normal

    I was treated in 2009 with rads and chemo.  When i could eat solid foods after that ketchup was way too spicy!  Eventually I could tolerate that but even 8 years later can't get back to eating the same level of spicey foods I could tolerate before treatments--and I cook chili competitively and make excellent salsa (both of which I can't eat). I hope you can recover your taste buds better than me, but get ready for a new kind of 'normal' with eating from here on out. Depending on the type and severity of short and long term side effects from radiation and chemo, life will never be the same as before you were diagnosed and treated.  The best I can offer is to figure out what you can tolerate and to accept that--I've left too many meals uneaten and wasted, thinking I can get back to life before treatments.  That ain't happening.

    You have entered the abi-normal--figure it out and enjoy the options it has left you.  It sure beats the alternative!

    Mike

     

    Like Care

Discussion Boards