Great news, Brian! I bet it felt wonderful to finally eat some real food again.

Here is a list of Easy to Eat Foods . These foods are smoother in texture and more bland than most normal foods. They are great to sample when trying to relearn to eat. Take your time with eating and take smaller bites. Have a glass of water or milk (chocolate milk works too) handy when sampling new foods. When you come across some foods you think you always loved, they may not taste like they used to. The foods can be too spicy, might even feel like your mouth is on fire. the milk will help with this. I almost fell over one time when I tried some Chinese noodles in a buffet only to have my mouth on fire. I gulped the chocolate milk down to soothe the burning sensation. This is why I am telling you to take small bites and eat slowly. You just never know how something will taste now. Keep trying things, what may taste awful today might be the best thing you ever ate in 2 weeks from now.

Best wishes with everything!

Outstanding Brian, I know how you feel. I was in your shoes just a week or two ago. If things go for you like they did for me the next couple of weeks you will see dramatic improvement to your eating and quality of life.

It's getting to be pretty nice now, can eat most anything, and enjoy it.

Tony

A couple of things - I find that having my water in a bottle makes eating much easier as opposed to a glass. A water bottle seems to deliver the water to the right spot. Item 2 is that you could out your family and friends on alert when out and trying new food. Once they know your tolerance level, they can warn you. That is an awesome help I have enjoyed. Good luck.

Donna

Its been a couple of weeks and I thought I would give an update. I am almost 4 weeks out and I feel the worst is over at this point but I did have a couple of real speed bumps in the last two weeks.

The pain I think peaked for me 1.5-two weeks ago and lasted about 4 days. I was still taking the Dilauded(Hydromorphone) and it was doing its job. I felt no need to increase dose or anything. I had a couple of rough nights but I made it thru.

Now last week was real trip. Sunday or Monday, I had tapered my Ativan to 1 pill instead of 2 at bedtime for maybe (which I thought was plenty of taper). I had one pill left on Weds.

I was also feeling much better and was considering going to work Friday since I was able to eat a little oral food, cream of wheat and chicken noodle soup. Tues I started getting sweats without temperature, not too terribly bad but it was concerning, I had my Onc doc followup on Weds so I waited to ask anything about it. By Weds AM the sweats were considerably worse. I asked the Doc not thinking to mention the Ativan and she had blood drawn to test thyroid and testosterone levels. She asked about my pain, I said considerably better, she suggested tapering off the Hydromorphone, but she did not give me a specific regimen or if she did it was on deaf ears. So I went home and immeaditaly started tapering from 3mg every 3hrs to something like 1.5 every 4-5hrs.

By friday I was in the fetal position on my bed, having extreme hot-flashes and vomiting like it was a second job due to an increase ropey saliva issue, it was building up in the back of throat to the point it was causing gagging. I figured that this was the portion of my throat that was healing/hurting at the time and it was what I had to deal with. I was also thinking that my glands (thyroid due to rads or testes due to chemo) had crapped the bed and causing the hot flashes. The doc had not called to give me my results of the blood test, and by the time I had my whits about me it was too late to call.

So all weekend I fought the sweats and the vomiting until Sunday am I started feeling a lil better. I did my best to stay hydrated, and was successful(kept my pee clear or light yellow<--Hydration science right there folks!).

Monday I call the Doc, got a nurse practitioner, and asked the blood results and she said every thing is fine. At this point I was flummoxed and asked why the hell am I getting the vomiting and the sweats out of nowhere then. She asked had I changed my meds? I said well yes and explain my 4-5 day taper on my Ativan, and my Dilauded reduction. She was quite surprised at what I thought was tapering, and quickly figured out that I had gone thru opiate/benz withdrawal concurrently inside of 72hrs.

Not fun. she said I will likely have some symptoms of withdrawal as I continue to taper off the hydromorphone for the next couple of days to a couple weeks. She said since I had halved to quartered the dose I was on and made it thru the shakes, the worst is over. Holy hell what a trip.

Today I feel great, some medium-level(3-4 out of 10) throat pain but nothing like I've had in the past. I actually decided to work a half day at the office.

So fair warning to all the folks on opiates and other addictive drugs, ask your doctor for a taper schedule and make sure you have enough to make it all the way thru the taper. Going Cold turkey or even semi-cold turkey on one is no joke. Doing it with two different addictive drugs at once is pure holy hell.

I'm about 4 months out. Lingering sore throat issues, and persistent dry mouth are about my only complaints. Some gum recession has occurred as well. Likely opening me up to a host of future dental issues. Can't complain too much to be honest considering what some are going through.

5 months out.

Crud in throat during sleep. Extreme cotton mouth when I wake up. I can build a small amount of saliva in my mouth in the day if I work at it, but it's thicker than it used to be. But not enough to work outdoors without a water bottle, It gets so dry I practically choke if I'm not paying Attn.

Under my neck is rather tight when I look up or to the sides. Feel like the space between my teeth is larger, and collecting more food than it ever has. So I use the water pick after meals or floss if I'm on the road.

Gag reflex has doubled in sensitivity compared to before treatment. It's hard to brush my to tongue clean. I really long for the feeling of a clean mouth.

Sore throat is gone when I eat. I can eat everything I want except for spicy food, dry white chicken and overdone pork chops. Chocolate has lost it's awful flavor, but it's still lagging the goodness I remember.


All in a all can't complain too much