That's a good idea about the distilled water! My son could even taste the salt in the low sodium soups and even accused me of putting salt in his chicken noodle soup after he had expressly told me to get the low sodium soup. The taste bud for salt must be very active. It's coming up on 7 years for my son since he completed treatment but I remember how he said that certain areas of his tongue had certain tastes of their own and it seemed to him that each of the taste buds had their own reaction to taste. It really does get better, though and soon you will see small improvements and each one will be a celebration! Paul would try everything on specific parts of his tongue to see what reaction he would have and the day that he could taste the sweet taste of one M & M, it was a celebration - he was so happy, you would have thought he had invented sliced bread!