Hi Sandy - Everything tasting bad is in my opinion way worse than having zero taste. Neutral I can handle, taste bad and I didn't want to eat anything. I could easily go the whole day with no food as there was no appetite either. But, we know we gotta eat. I didn't have a feeding tube, a big difference for me, I had to intake everything by mouth.

One thing I could always get down was Ensure Plus, even the Walmart version of it was okay, it didn't taste bad. It was smooth, it was creamy and I knew it had the nutrition I needed.

Though it was suggested to me by others I didn't use the triple mix, I just used oral lidocaine. My RO wasn't a fan of the triple mix; he liked oral lidocaine and consumable aloe vera juice ($7 a gallon at Walmart). And if those weren't enough he would give prescriptions for the stronger pain meds though I never needed them. He said on several occasions that the medical trials results of aloe vera are well documented and therefore it is a valuable tool in fighting inflammation. It tastes neutral even when the taste buds work.

My throat seldom hurt, for me it was the mouth that hurt. So, I just diluted it 2 parts lidocaine to 1 part water, a little thinner, easier to swish, gargle and spit. I didn't swallow it even though the doc said I could. When symptoms were the worst I used lidocaine every hour, or so it seems, and always before a meal (and a couple of times also during the meal). It seems eating just washed it away and eating without it was too painful. Since I always spit it out I felt I was never overdosed. It didn't take much, a teaspoon size dose or less was always sufficient. My prescription was always for 300 ml sized bottles and I went through two of them during my rads.

I'm sorry your symptoms are so bad this early in treatment. It won't help you feel any better, but if memory serves my RO said you symptoms are about average. It will be uncomfortable, but you will get through it, one day or even one hour at a time if need be. Soon enough this will be just a faint memory. I'm seven weeks post treatment right now and I had to think some to be able to write this response to your thread.

take care, keep fighting, just around the next turn you will start to see a small light at the end of the tunnel.

Tony

Tony, 69, non-smoker, aerobatics pilot, bridge player/teacher, avid dancer (ballroom, latin, swing, country)

09/13 SCC, HPV 16, tonsillectomy, T2N0.
11/13 start rads, no chemo
12/13 taste gone, dry mouth,
02/14 hair slowly returning
05/14 taste the same, dry sinuses, irrigation helps.
01/15 food taste about 60% returned, dry sinuses are worse in winter.
12/20 no more sinus problems, taste pretty good