I know this is trivial, but...

Christmas 2011, I sat at our family Christmas, the smells of the potluck drifting into the room, all around family eating, laughing, having a good time...below me, on the floor sat my large glass of watered down lemonade, it was a little over 1 month since my surgery to remove my cancerous epiglottis. Now, flash to Christmas 2012, I had my first bite of real food, a pork roast my daughter had fixed, it was glorious~~~ you will eat again, it just takes time. Merry Christmas, you are alive, and I promise the New Year will be better.

Amazing how for granted we take eating to be.  Like you, when I lost my taste buds, nothing was good anymore.  I also realized just how many food commercials there are on the TV.  When I couldn't even swallow water and was starving, all I saw was pizza and other tasty food commercials.  It took many months, almost a year to get back to tasting food the way it should taste.  Even now, with new taste buds, I cannot eat certain foods anymore.  It's like my mouth is raw with sensation.  Used to love eating jalepeno peppers with food but now it hurts so bad I just can't tolerate it.

Be patient like Phrannie said.  Mine came back fairly fast compared to others here.  My late father in law had SCC of the mouth and it took a minimun of 2 years to get his back.  He always complained that his beer tasted like salt water.  But it didn't stop him from drinking it!

Once you're back to normal you'll appreciate the food all that much more.

Merry Christmas!

Tom

Last Christmas I don't even remember except puking from Chemo.  I would not eat anything. 1 year later, I am truly enjoying each and every moment.  You wil lbe back my friend.  You will be back and it will be all that much more enjoyable.

I had stage IV-a base of tongue with involvement of the left cervical lymph nodes, induction chemo, 33 rads and months of recovery.  My sense of taste came back slowly, at times I dispaired of ever eating 'real' food again but I kept at it, trying the foods I had previously enjoyed and found that in the earlier (first 6 months) some things were impossible to tolerate.  Ice cream, crusty bread, dense meats like steak, chops, roast beef, anything with a sour component, anything with a strong taste.

My wife observed that it was if I had brand new, baby taste buds so I started with blander and easier to chew and swallow foods and it worked (after a fashion).  It was a very long and slow process as I taught myself to eat, trying old favorites, new items and methods of actually swallowing.

Saliva loss is my biggest issue though I've learned how to sip just the right amount of liquid (water, milk, hot cocoa etc.) while having something.  I've been able to eat things that amaze me at times, popcorn at the movies (almost a full bottle of water to finish the medium bucket) and there are some that disappoint.  Before I was diagnosed my favorite candies were sour, Lemon Heads, Sweetarts, Smarties etc., and sadly they all are just too intense to even attempt, but on the whole, I did get back to being able to eat just about anything.

I do so miss being able to simply pop something into my mouth without having a water bottle handy, but I am still here, some 4-1/2 years since the end of treatments.

Thanksgiving last year I had no top teeth.  This year, I had dentures top and bottom and got to eat a tuna fish sandwich, as is our tradition.  It sounds weird, but it was actually very exciting to me.  I could even put pickles in it--first time in over a year I ate pickles in anything. 

I’m at 21 months past treatment and food will still taste fine one day and horrible the next.  I just save the food for another day and try something else, then go back to first food.  Since I still have not mastered dentures, I’m looking forward to the time I can eat pizza again.  I miss some of the food tastes, but if you just keep plodding away, the tastes do seem to come back at least part of the time. 

Being diabetic, I often had to skip holiday treats, but there was a bright side—I had no choice but to eat four times a day whether the food tasted good or not.  That’s how I learned that things can change day to day and not to give up.  

Thanksgiving last year I no top teeth.  This year, I had dentures top and bottom and got to eat a tuna fish sandwich, as is our tradition.  It sounds weird, but it was actually very exciting to me. 

I’m at 21 months and food will still taste fine one day and horrible the next.  I just save the food for another day and try something else, then go back to first food.  Since I still have not mastered dentures, I’m looking forward to the time I can eat pizza again.  I miss some of the foods, but if you just keep plodding away, the tastes do seem to come back at least part of the time. 

Being diabetic, I often had to skip holiday treats, but there was a bright side—I had no choice but to eat whether the food tasted good or not.  That’s how I learned that things can change day to day and not to give up. 

My husband just had his 20th radiation treatment out of 35. He is also getting chemo every 3 weeks. This week he had his second round of chemo and it has been really rough. He can't taste much of anything anymore. And now with this round of chemo he has a hard time keeping anything down. Sounds like you will be finished nearly the same time as my husband. I hate to wish time away but in this case I cannot help it!