SWEET

Jennfer39
Jennfer39 Member Posts: 23 Member
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Just a general question regarding taste.......

I have no sense of sweet three weeks after radiation and a month since last chemo.

Did anyone else share this same experience? And when did sweet return, if at all, following treatment.

I bought a dozen donuts today just because......but cant eat them because I am sure they would taste like lard and nothing.
I know that once sweet turns back on, I will gain my weight back...and probably be chocolate covered.

Jen

Comments

  • Hal61
    Hal61 Member Posts: 655
    #2
    lard y nada
    Hi Jen, the question of when the sweetness will return comes up often, and if you did a content search you could come up with lots of threads.

    I can say, unfortunately, that you're still early in the process of tasting stuff, in my experience anyway. I'm about 18 mos from dissection, and closing on two years post rads and chemo. Sweet came back for me about 6 months after chemo and rads.

    I think I could taste before that, but the taste would evaporate soon after first bites, taste "fatigue" they call it. For some it comes back considerable earlier. Try different "sweets", then retry them a week or so later. Strawberry syrup with the rabbit on the front of it mixed in milk was--and still is--the most constant sweet I taste. I try to eat chocolate or the fake orange slices around 1 or 2 am, then go to sleep watching a Netflix movie. It's a regimen.

    One tongue-n-taste article I read said that sour and bitter are the first to return, as they were more important in evolution in terms of survival. I don't know about that.

    best of luck for an early return,
    Hal
  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #3
    Hal61 said:

    lard y nada
    Hi Jen, the question of when the sweetness will return comes up often, and if you did a content search you could come up with lots of threads.

    I can say, unfortunately, that you're still early in the process of tasting stuff, in my experience anyway. I'm about 18 mos from dissection, and closing on two years post rads and chemo. Sweet came back for me about 6 months after chemo and rads.

    I think I could taste before that, but the taste would evaporate soon after first bites, taste "fatigue" they call it. For some it comes back considerable earlier. Try different "sweets", then retry them a week or so later. Strawberry syrup with the rabbit on the front of it mixed in milk was--and still is--the most constant sweet I taste. I try to eat chocolate or the fake orange slices around 1 or 2 am, then go to sleep watching a Netflix movie. It's a regimen.

    One tongue-n-taste article I read said that sour and bitter are the first to return, as they were more important in evolution in terms of survival. I don't know about that.

    best of luck for an early return,
    Hal

    You know, I read that too...
    "When prehistoric man was exposed to radiation, he needed FIRST to recover his snse of sour and bitter so that he could tell when he was eating poison fruit." Oh, and he had to recover his sense of seeing red too.

    Sorry, I just got tickled at this:)
  • jtl
    jtl Member Posts: 456
    #4
    Three weeks is pretty early.
    Three weeks is pretty early. I am 3 months next week and it has only been recently that I can taste a little sweetness. Funny thing is that the artifical sweetners are better. Strawberry seems to be the best, probably because I lived on strawberry Ensure for two months.
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #5
    Over Two Years
    For me, it took nearly two years to completely get sweet entirely back.

    I have had varying degrees much sooner...like the Ensure for instance... I could tell Strawberry through treatment.

    I also ate sliced peaches to keep the muscles working. Usually always eating the sweetned with light syrup. Once I figured since I couldn't taste well anyways, I'd get the unsweet...wrong....LOL.

    I could definitely tell the difference, and they were pretty yuck comparatively.

    The biggest challenge was ice cream... I'd take one or two bites and the flavor would be gone..not sure if it was the cold or what.

    But I just started getting the full and lasting flavor around the two year post treatment mark.

    Most all of the other tastes came back nearly completely within the first year or so. Some of that might have been saliva related too. It took nearly two years to get back 95% or so of my saliva.

    JG
  • Pam M
    Pam M Member Posts: 2,196
    #6
    Another Strawberry Fan
    Strawberry was one of my most successful sweet flavors, too (it was also one of the ones that lasted the longest when I was losing my sense of taste). Sadly, I now recall a day when I bought the most wonderful smelling strawberries, and couldn't taste them. Sigh. now I can't recall - I heard about a fruit that doesn't taste like much, but if you eat it, everything you eat for like an hour afterward tastes sweet - would love for one of "our" folks with taste issues to try the fruit. Just googled - it's called "Miracle Fruit" - sources say it makes things taste sweet (some say for 15 to 30 minutes, some say up to two hours).
  • tommyodavey
    tommyodavey Member Posts: 728 Member
    #7
    Pam M said:

    Another Strawberry Fan
    Strawberry was one of my most successful sweet flavors, too (it was also one of the ones that lasted the longest when I was losing my sense of taste). Sadly, I now recall a day when I bought the most wonderful smelling strawberries, and couldn't taste them. Sigh. now I can't recall - I heard about a fruit that doesn't taste like much, but if you eat it, everything you eat for like an hour afterward tastes sweet - would love for one of "our" folks with taste issues to try the fruit. Just googled - it's called "Miracle Fruit" - sources say it makes things taste sweet (some say for 15 to 30 minutes, some say up to two hours).

    Loss of Taste
    Jen,

    I just met again with my RT Oncologist and I asked about side effects. He said one of the first things to go is your taste buds. It only takes a little radiation to mess it up. The good news is that I usually comes back. No one knows how long it will take you to return to normal but keep your eye on the finish line, not the getting there. You will get your taste back but it may take awhile.

    FYI, I start my low dose RT in a few weeks. We'll see how that goes.


    Tommy
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #8
    tommyodavey said:

    Loss of Taste
    Jen,

    I just met again with my RT Oncologist and I asked about side effects. He said one of the first things to go is your taste buds. It only takes a little radiation to mess it up. The good news is that I usually comes back. No one knows how long it will take you to return to normal but keep your eye on the finish line, not the getting there. You will get your taste back but it may take awhile.

    FYI, I start my low dose RT in a few weeks. We'll see how that goes.


    Tommy

    Another Fishing Dude...
    Is that a Bass, Trout or Salmon your are holding there.....?

    I'd presume from the waders, lawn chair and muddy looking bank Salmon.

    JG
  • tommyodavey
    tommyodavey Member Posts: 728 Member
    #9
    Skiffin16 said:

    Another Fishing Dude...
    Is that a Bass, Trout or Salmon your are holding there.....?

    I'd presume from the waders, lawn chair and muddy looking bank Salmon.

    JG

    Close but no Cigar
    JG,

    It is a nice large Rainbow Trout from Lake Crowley up in the Eastern Sierra's of Ca. There is a small species of shrimp in the lake that turns the meat a nice salmon color and the taste sublime.

    The lake is a pain to fish because of wind, cold temps, and mud. But once you catch fish, none of that matters. (as you well know)

    Tommy
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #10
    tommyodavey said:

    Close but no Cigar
    JG,

    It is a nice large Rainbow Trout from Lake Crowley up in the Eastern Sierra's of Ca. There is a small species of shrimp in the lake that turns the meat a nice salmon color and the taste sublime.

    The lake is a pain to fish because of wind, cold temps, and mud. But once you catch fish, none of that matters. (as you well know)

    Tommy

    Trout...
    Well, it was my second guess above, LOL....

    But, that is a big azz rainbow for sure....nice catch, love rainbow trout.

    As for the cigar, I'll pass, LOL...I've hear that smoking can give you throat cancer...:)

    Best,
    John

    .....))(....
    ....(ړײ)...
    ...«▓»....
    J..╝╚..G

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