I've had oral squamous cell cancer twice, radiation & chemo first time, surgery the last time(I hope).

The first time, after chemo, I had no problems eating.

After surgery, I had a peg, hated it, squirt it in, barf it up.
Relearned to swallow a little, probably not get much better at it, lifetime of slurpies & puree's.
Ah well, at least I'm cancer free.

Reason I posted, all the things I've tried, 3/4 of tongue is leg muscle, so taste is no longer much of a sense, can taste salt, sugar & sour, spice is no longer a good thing, imagine some of you have already found this to be true.
Just started boxed soups like organic roasted red pepper and tomato, to puree packaged green salads!
It's really great, and healthy too.
Also stumbled on strange combo's, like canned pears & carrot salad w/rasins, have fun just make small batches, so if the worst happens, you don't have guilt about throwing out large portions.

on that subject, a good small blender is $20 Hamilton Beach 51101B Blender.

It's your life, enjoy living it.

Agree totally, there's also a website founded by another tub feeder who is a member it's called drink your meals it's free to cancer patients and tube feeders- might be of interest to you - there are others here go are on tubes for the rest of their lives- as well - but congrats on being able to do it without the tube! and getting through it twice!!!

pureed salads already made? who makes them? where do you get them from?
Ron is acutally able to eat more textures than he was with his first surgery but I never tried a pureed salad or "chopped" salad can't say the word puree to him he thinks of baby food, hates that word, so I showed him the other day how to use my food processor, he's only used it once...he is wanting to try pizza and a double cheeseburger from McDonalds, and now I'm going to make him a salad tonight with French Dressing that was his favorite! Thanks for the ideas for new foods to try!

I get ready-made salads from Safeway or QFC (Kroger), they are simply various vegies packaged, you have to add them to soup base or whatever you are blending.
They are fairly common, cheaper than DELI's, partly because there is seldom dressing included, that you may not be able to consume anyway (but try it, Ron may have more taste buds left then I do).

I've always wanted to puree a pizza or cheeseburger, but knowing what an osterizer does to other foods, puts a damper on actually trying it.
I am really quite fortunate, 3/4 of my tongue is a leg muscle, so very few taste buds left, pretty much everything I eat tastes the same, so I occasionally over-salt, or over-bouillon whatever.
It is kind of nice to try to put enough cinnamon & brown sugar to actually taste them, in my hot cereal.
Remember tomatoes are cancer-inhibiter, if Ron can handle the acid, add them to everything.
Hard to realize, but eating blended foods shorts your body on oils, so get Ron on fish oil & olive oil & nuts of all kinds.

I'm lazy, hate to clean up the big osterizer after each snack, so finally found a good small blender from hamilton-beach, $19, so don't care if it has a crappy lid, a new lid is $7, plus shipping, costs more than a new blender!
One for home, one for work, one on the shelf in case!

Let Ron make his own meals, talk to him about his sense of taste, how blending changes the taste, how he thinks he can overcome that, empower him, take him shopping, talk about what might taste good together, some things surprise you.



good luck, good health

Oh ya know that taste is smell. Ron had almost a full glossectomy it was about 3/4 of his tounge and his is also his thigh muscle. He has no teeth at all. But he is able to eat pretty much anything. I made stuffed shells with ground italian mild sauage with homemade sauce and he takes a knife, even though I got the damn processor still sitting on the sink and he cuts it all up with a knife and he eats that like crazy, he is able to eat homemade chicken soup and "flat" noodles are the easiest but he can eat any kind if he has to cut it up, he eats cottage cheese small curd like crazy, he loves ham salad if it is chopped finely and he adds more Miracle Whip to make it creamier he can eat Tuna fish too. If the meat is soft enough he can eat it if he can chop it up with a knife. He's eating more actually than he did after the initial surgery and he can feel the heat of the acid he couldn't do salt and pepper before but now he uses it if he needs too. Becasue of the dead bone issue food will burn him but he don't care anymore he just eats and yes I make alot with tomatoes and he loves to eat stewed tomatoes from the can. And spinach with red wine vinegar! He does really well, how long has it been since your surgery?

SUEZ;
My surgery was 1/4 tongue in 2006, 3/4 tongue Dec. 2010.
I don't so much have taste buds, I have a sense of salt, or sense of sugar, nothing overpowering except strong spice, and that simply hurts.
I don't drink hot foods/coffee, etc. because I can't tell if it's hot until it hits my throat.
Surgery cut a mass of nerves in chin/lip/cheek, so can't tell if food is on my face, so finally figured how to get out of dinner invitations, although the wife still attends, with my blessings.
I work Engineering, about 15 years ago had chemical spill, lost a lot of my sense of smell, so the only thing I still have taste related, is my mind.
At least I no longer drool over Big Macks or Pizza commercials, just the thought of putting one in a blender & adding some liquid so I could swallow it pretty much takes the pleasure out of it.
Now, I just watch the commercial like I'm looking at a beloved boat that has sunk in miles of water, it was nice while it lasted, but oh well.

I actually look at my cancer as a kind of gift, I now have empathy for those I am amoung all day, and now have time to inquire of their well-being.
Doing so, also makes my life richer, more satisfying, more meaningful.

It's not what your life is like, it's what you think about it.

Found another new food Ron can get down. Corned Beef and Cabbage with Red potatoes and carrots slow cooked in the crockpot. So soft it melts in your mouth, he was a happy puppy big time yesterday after he got a full plate of that down, I had to cut it up of course but he ate the whole plate, except for one piece of potato skin I missed taking off.