My fried taste buds think that water tastes like pond scum...from some really vile saltwater pond.

My friends have been dropping off every different brand of water they can find in the hope that one will have a taste profile I can stand. Six-packs and cases of water are stacked on our kitchen counter and floor, each with one bottle missing.

It's making it impossible to get 64 oz of fluid a day, since the taste triggers nausea and retching.

Any suggestions for doctoring it up or alternate beverages that work during the late phase of chemorads?

Thanks for any and all ideas!

Never had any direct experience with this kind of issue, but I have some ideas.

MiO water flavoring is ok. It comes in all sorts of flavors-- even a tea flavor (as the caffeine in real tea can dehydrate you.) Crystal light packets, too.

Do you *have* to drink just water? I would guess that you'd hate boost and ensure by now - but of course those are always good options. Juices of any flavor. Grape juice bottles are always given out when my husband gets his treatments. He doesn't want to eat or drink very many things, but he sure does like his welches grape juice now.

Radiation is going to alter the taste of almost everything for at least the next several weeks. Hang in there and force yourself to hold your nose and drink even with it tasting bad.

Fruit juices can be very acidic and burn your mouth while going thru rads. You probably wouldnt to want to irritate your mouth with them right now.

Best wishes!

[quote=ChristineB]Radiation is going to alter the taste of almost everything for at least the next several weeks. Hang in there and force yourself to hold your nose and drink even with it tasting bad.
[/quote]

Christine, I wish that I could! I can't keep it down. That's why I'm asking for other ideas.

Auditie, I haven't tried grape juice and will give that a shot. They hand it out at my radiation dept. and I'll look for it. I'll also look for MiO -- I'm not familiar with that, is it a mix-in?

Thank you Christine and Auditie for your ideas!

It could be from chemo just as well, and reason we have a metallic taste in the mouth is the body recognizing chemo is a poison, and one of the functions of the tongue, bitterness, is to detect poisons. Maybe try using a water filter to take out most metals, chemicals. Scapegoating by drinking, eating, sucking strong candy, before chemo and radiation, may help prevent learned smell and taste aversions, like with taste, nasuea, vomiting, with treatment. Stick to the familiar, not unfamiliar . Maybe overshadowing the water with something strong added, as mentioned, flavor enhancement by smelling calming oils like orange, citris, lavender, to evoke calm, pleasant memories, before drinking water may help with taste.

Good luck.

Try some of those new water additives I've seen advertised but for me when the radiation started to affect my taste it seemed that every new day brought changes. Today I could tolerate something and I would tell my wife to go but a case and tomorrow I couldn't stand the stuff! Just keep on trying and don't get discouraged because it's normal.

Have you tried squeezing some lemon into it?

Unfortunately your body needs lots of water to get thru this. Drinking juice is NOT the same as drinking water. I would have to say 99% of OC patients will experience some mouth sores making drinking juice impossible.

The mix-ins like Mio or grocery store brands would probably be the best solution to covering up the taste. With those flavor additives (hey are sold near the water bottles), you control how much to put in a little or alot which will change the taste to something you hopefully can tolerate.

David is right your sense of taste can change by the day. To me everything tasted like burnt charcoal and over salty, even water. I was lucky to have to peg tube so would put alot of extra water thru there so I didnt have to drink so much.

Please monitor your water intake very closely. OC patients can quickly become dehydrated which is a horrible experience to go thru. I spent several hospitalizations due to dehydration and malnutrition (and that was with a peg tube). I dont want to see anyone go down that same path as it can quickly get out of hand and you can become very ill.

Ask your doc for a prescription to get hydrated a few times per week in the chemo lab so you wont have to stress so much over your water intake. Its a good idea to have this as a standing order so its there if you need it down the line.

Good luck!!!

Thank you very much for the post mamacita---you read my mind. We must be drinking from the same salty pond scum, sigh. I feel your pain.
xo

When the chemo/rads kicked in I couldn't tolerate tap water any longer and many bottled waters left a lot to be desired. "Pond Scum" is a good description. We bought a Brita filter and that did the trick.

"T"

When I went trough my treat the only water I could do was Fuji Water and Voss water. For a bit there was a local artisan well bottle water here in Springville, but they went out of business. I found if you can get bottle water that is from artisan springs is the best. Brands like Aquafine are regular tap water that has been run through salt filters. Then those type of water you pick up a strong salt flavor. That was my problem, the taste of salt.

Awww fishmanpa....I wish. I just bite the bullet, but it's not easy! Very cold ice water helps. I use the filter or bottled water. And the ChristineB encouragement. "After you take a sip, say I can do two more!"
In this together mama! xo

Alex had nearly the identical problem. He never mentioned salt but definitely described it as "like drinking out of a stagnant fish pond".

The good news is that it didn't last very long (a month maybe??) and he got by with apple juice. It was the one that didn't burn his mouth to my great surprise (I thought it would for sure) and on chemo days, my first job while Alex was checking in, was a race to the fridge to purloin 6 packs of apple juice for the day.

I think that you might need to move on to flavoured things. Alex couldn't do milk (thick and choked him), orange (burned) tomato (burned), pineapple (burned AND tasted foul). We tried flat soft drinks but I don't recall the outcome. The fact that I can't, suggests that it wasn't terribly successful.

He used flat soda water for swilling/teeth cleaning and I don't think he had a problem with the taste of that but he didn't drink it either.

Just keep trying, I hope you find something sooner rather than later

For the longest time, everything tasted like salt. It was awful! Even when I wasn't eating/drinking anything, there was the taste of salt in my mouth. I always drink bottled water and it tasted like sea water.

It's not nearly as bad now, but some things still taste extra salty. Ice cream (most of the time) still tastes gross, salad dressing...I had to use plain olive oil for a while, now I opt for sweet dressing like strawberry vinaigrette. Almost all fruit tastes too sour to eat, which really stunk this summer with all of the good fruits out.

We got some great apples from apple picking a couple of weeks ago and they were too sour for me to eat, so I made some homemade applesauce. It's especially good for the apples that end up with some bruises on them. I got the Ziplock microwave steam bags,used an apple slicer/corer and peeled the apples (you need a lot of apples for just about one cup of applesauce, though). I steamed the apples until they were very soft and ground them up in a mini food processor. Since they tasted too sour, I added a bit a brown sugar. If it was just for me, I would have added Equal or Stevia, but I added some brown sugar for the kids. It came out a bit thick, but you could just add some water to it to thin it out a bit. I suppose you could do the same thing with pears. I love those microwave steam bags. I've been using them for quite some time. Most of the time when you buy one package, there is a coupon inside in order to buy some more.

If you really like chocolate and it tastes too salty or just gross, try some dark chocolate. I like Dove brand the best. It's just strange what our taste buds go through, but for those of us on this forum who can still eat, we really shouldn't complain. Sorry to get a bit off topic here, but I just thought I would share some of my "masking" tips that have worked for me.

But when water tastes funky and makes you sick, that really stinks and I hope it passes soon!