New to this network...having a hard time eating after chemo

sushi22
sushi22 Member Posts: 9
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
Help everything tastes nasty. Eating and drinking is difficult.

Comments

  • pinkkari09
    pinkkari09 Member Posts: 877
    #2
    Hi Sushi22 and welcome to
    Hi Sushi22 and welcome to the boards. I'm going to have to say I don't recommend sushi with chemo :) I know exactly what you mean, everything tasted so weird and dull to me, EXCEPT ice cream or ice cream cake from Dairy Queen :) Try different things and see what works best, I'm sure your about to get a bunch of ideas here shortly from a world of wonderful people who are, or have been, in your shoes. Just want to say welcome and keep coming back :)
    ~Kari
  • 24242
    24242 Member Posts: 1,398
    #3
    pinkkari09 said:

    Hi Sushi22 and welcome to
    Hi Sushi22 and welcome to the boards. I'm going to have to say I don't recommend sushi with chemo :) I know exactly what you mean, everything tasted so weird and dull to me, EXCEPT ice cream or ice cream cake from Dairy Queen :) Try different things and see what works best, I'm sure your about to get a bunch of ideas here shortly from a world of wonderful people who are, or have been, in your shoes. Just want to say welcome and keep coming back :)
    ~Kari

    Hello to you Sushi
    Glad you found this place because there are definely years of experience to learn from.
    I didn't do well with eating but drinking took a lot less effort and seemed to sustain me well. I suffered years of nausea migrains and vomiting so eating was a chore most of the last 14 years. I still do not have an appitite but know eating is just something we all have to so. I have a friend right now who is drinking 2.5 boost a day to keep him going since he cannot EAT NORMALLY. He has been on this diet for the last 4 years and I did it for longer. I actually gained weight if you can imagine.
    Quite frankly I was a health nut for eating and body building most of my adult life and dieted the other half so giving that up wasn't that hard, lololo.
    I drank allot of fruit with yogurt and fruit juice mostly cranberry juice. Anything that went throug a straw was a friend but that was fruit and veggy drinks too at times. Juicing was a good way to get vitamines since I am a natural eater not manufactured pills or processed foods. Now I eat because I have to and mostly don't care what it is and actually have eaten the worst diet in the past few years and irritable bowel and small intestine have stopped hurting and being problems. HOW CAN THAT BE?
    Hang in there and know that things can get better and not wasting the time on it can be a good thing I have found.

    Tara
  • tommaseena
    tommaseena Member Posts: 1,769
    #4
    24242 said:

    Hello to you Sushi
    Glad you found this place because there are definely years of experience to learn from.
    I didn't do well with eating but drinking took a lot less effort and seemed to sustain me well. I suffered years of nausea migrains and vomiting so eating was a chore most of the last 14 years. I still do not have an appitite but know eating is just something we all have to so. I have a friend right now who is drinking 2.5 boost a day to keep him going since he cannot EAT NORMALLY. He has been on this diet for the last 4 years and I did it for longer. I actually gained weight if you can imagine.
    Quite frankly I was a health nut for eating and body building most of my adult life and dieted the other half so giving that up wasn't that hard, lololo.
    I drank allot of fruit with yogurt and fruit juice mostly cranberry juice. Anything that went throug a straw was a friend but that was fruit and veggy drinks too at times. Juicing was a good way to get vitamines since I am a natural eater not manufactured pills or processed foods. Now I eat because I have to and mostly don't care what it is and actually have eaten the worst diet in the past few years and irritable bowel and small intestine have stopped hurting and being problems. HOW CAN THAT BE?
    Hang in there and know that things can get better and not wasting the time on it can be a good thing I have found.

    Tara

    tip
    One tip that I found that helped is to use plastic ware when eating on chemo it keeps the metallic taste somewhat at bay, I always carried a baggie in my purse just in case I went to a restaurant that did not have plastic ware.

    I tried not to cook in metal pans and tried to cook in glassware as well or as much as possible.

    Margo
  • Chickadee1955
    Chickadee1955 Member Posts: 356 Member
    #5
    tommaseena said:

    tip
    One tip that I found that helped is to use plastic ware when eating on chemo it keeps the metallic taste somewhat at bay, I always carried a baggie in my purse just in case I went to a restaurant that did not have plastic ware.

    I tried not to cook in metal pans and tried to cook in glassware as well or as much as possible.

    Margo

    Drinking lots and lots of
    Drinking lots and lots of water helps, as does rinsing your mouth with Biotene. When you find something that tastes okay, or semi-normal, just enjoy it. I, too, found that when even water tasted bad....ice cream always tasted great!

    Best Wishes,

    Chickadee
  • cindycflynn
    cindycflynn Member Posts: 1,132 Member
    #6
    Ah yes,
    I remember it well...

    To me, that was the most annoying side effect from chemo (I was blessed to have a fairly easy time of it compared to some).

    Keep trying different things. I found that I would crave certain foods, but then when I would taste them, it just tasted awful. I couldn't stand anything with cheese, anything spicy or sour, and water just tasted nasty! The only things that tasted normal to me were meats and vegetables (for me, sushi was great - just no wasabi), but I kept trying different things to figure it out.

    Others have said that they could only taste things if they were really spicy, and many have said they had a metallic taste, which I didn't have.

    Just keep getting liquids in however you can (maybe try some water flavorings).

    Welcome to this board - you'll find a wealth of information and support here.

    Take care,
    Cindy
  • ladybug22
    ladybug22 Member Posts: 646
    #7
    sus
    nice to meet you. sushi 22. hand in there take it one day at a time.there is lots of great people in here. hugs and love comming your way
  • ladybug22
    ladybug22 Member Posts: 646
    #8
    sus
    nice to meet you. sushi 22. hand in there take it one day at a time.there is lots of great people in here. hugs and love comming your way
  • ladybug22
    ladybug22 Member Posts: 646
    #9
    sus
    nice to meet you. sushi 22. hand in there take it one day at a time.there is lots of great people in here. hugs and love comming your way
  • missrenee
    missrenee Member Posts: 2,136 Member
    #10
    ladybug22 said:

    sus
    nice to meet you. sushi 22. hand in there take it one day at a time.there is lots of great people in here. hugs and love comming your way

    I totally agree with Cindy
    To me, the worst part of chemo was that eating was disgusting--and I LOVE to eat! For me, I had to just keep trying different things until I found what I could tolerate. Just when I thought something sounded good and I could handle it--YUK. Funny things were tolerable--which I never ate before--white bread and plain peanut butter, canned tomato soup, Cheerios with milk. Everything tasted metallic.

    Everyone is totally different--keep trying things--some things will click. My onc. would not let me eat anything raw--so salads, fresh fruits/veggies were out. (she was concerned about food-born illnesses such as E. Coli and Salmonella). Those were the things I craved the most.
    I never had vomiting or even bad nausea--just an extreme aversion to most foods because of the taste.

    You'll get through it, it's not fun, but it does pass.

    Good luck. Let us know what foods you do well with.

    Hugs, Renee
  • Megan M
    Megan M Member Posts: 3,000
    #11
    24242 said:

    Hello to you Sushi
    Glad you found this place because there are definely years of experience to learn from.
    I didn't do well with eating but drinking took a lot less effort and seemed to sustain me well. I suffered years of nausea migrains and vomiting so eating was a chore most of the last 14 years. I still do not have an appitite but know eating is just something we all have to so. I have a friend right now who is drinking 2.5 boost a day to keep him going since he cannot EAT NORMALLY. He has been on this diet for the last 4 years and I did it for longer. I actually gained weight if you can imagine.
    Quite frankly I was a health nut for eating and body building most of my adult life and dieted the other half so giving that up wasn't that hard, lololo.
    I drank allot of fruit with yogurt and fruit juice mostly cranberry juice. Anything that went throug a straw was a friend but that was fruit and veggy drinks too at times. Juicing was a good way to get vitamines since I am a natural eater not manufactured pills or processed foods. Now I eat because I have to and mostly don't care what it is and actually have eaten the worst diet in the past few years and irritable bowel and small intestine have stopped hurting and being problems. HOW CAN THAT BE?
    Hang in there and know that things can get better and not wasting the time on it can be a good thing I have found.

    Tara

    I didn't have chemo, so, I
    I didn't have chemo, so, I am not much help. I am sure the other pink sisters will be able to give you lots of suggestions.

    Good luck with the rest of your chemo.


    Hugs, Megan
  • ladyg
    ladyg Member Posts: 1,577
    #12
    Sushi22
    I just wanted to say welcome. I am sorry you had to find us but glad you did. I can not help with your current problem since I did not do chemo but there are many others who can.

    Hugs,
    Georgia
  • ShirleyCurls
    ShirleyCurls Member Posts: 51
    #13
    I think I was lucky,
    I ate well during chemo. I had some problems with the metallic taste but had more problems wth texture, could not eat bread, too dry. Creamy food appealed to me. A good friend bought me a lot of guacolmole (sp?), another bought banana pudding.

    I craved waffles! My family sill laughs about that.

    One of my books recommends sweetener like maple surup or agave nectar, with lemon. Adding fat, such as butter might help.

    Do you like tea? I drank a lot of green tea and peach tea. Also, the Fuze brand of drinks are yummy!
  • sausageroll
    sausageroll Member Posts: 415
    #14
    ShirleyCurls said:

    I think I was lucky,
    I ate well during chemo. I had some problems with the metallic taste but had more problems wth texture, could not eat bread, too dry. Creamy food appealed to me. A good friend bought me a lot of guacolmole (sp?), another bought banana pudding.

    I craved waffles! My family sill laughs about that.

    One of my books recommends sweetener like maple surup or agave nectar, with lemon. Adding fat, such as butter might help.

    Do you like tea? I drank a lot of green tea and peach tea. Also, the Fuze brand of drinks are yummy!

    Welcome.
    Glad you found us!!
    I lost 35lbs while on chemo and hated to eat. I did find after a few weeks that I craved things that I hated before. Drank lots of orange juice and ice,root beer(I never drink soda at all), ice cream. One thing I did find were smoothies and they were good because I could add all sorts of things without changing the taste. Good luck. Take care. Pat
  • sushi22
    sushi22 Member Posts: 9
    #15
    Thanks for all your
    Thanks for all your suggestions and warm welcome. It's nice to hear from people who have been there. Just to clear up the sushi bit, I do like it but it does not sound good at all since I started chemo. It's a nickname my kids and husband gave me. My name is Suzi. Thanks again everyone!
  • Double Whammy
    Double Whammy Member Posts: 2,832 Member
    #16
    sushi22 said:

    Thanks for all your
    Thanks for all your suggestions and warm welcome. It's nice to hear from people who have been there. Just to clear up the sushi bit, I do like it but it does not sound good at all since I started chemo. It's a nickname my kids and husband gave me. My name is Suzi. Thanks again everyone!

    Ice Cream!
    There seems to be a recurrent theme about ice cream here. It tasted really good to me, too, and I ate it often. I had a smoothie everyday, usually for breakfast, but ice cream was the winner for me especially the last couple of cycles when the lack of appetite and bad taste really bothered me and I could care less about eating anything. I also ate scrambled eggs and rice (not together).

    I hope you find something that works for you. Eating is important during chemo, so do your best. I did lose weight during chemo, but I really think I did a good job of getting enough protein and calories.

    Suzanne

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