Hello, ALK. I know how you feel. Losing the ability to eat or enjoy food separates us from other people.

I didn't have a tube but before I got my taste back I existed on Fortisip (it's like Ensure). It has a bland taste - it doesn't taste foul like normal foods do when the taste buds are damaged. I blended the powdered Fortisip with ice cream and tinned peaches. I remembered that I was meant to have so much Fortisip a day and tried to keep to that. I went through a few cheap blenders in those early days.

Eventually, my taste came back. It was quite sudden with no warning.

The sadness is classic after treatment ends. This is when your mind starts to process what has happened to you. You need help! A health psychologist can help you develop strategies to make you feel better. Writing down how you feel or telling your story can help. Any sort of peer support you can find is useful - like this site. There should be other young oral cancer patients like you out there as well.

This site has a blog function. Over the years I've found it useful to write about my feelings. I think quite a lot of us do.

So, if you can force down some tasteless Ensure, maybe you won't need to use the tube?

Best wishes.