Yes, I think that's the key is to use those first couple of weeks before the sense of taste bites the dust to eat as much and as much high calorie food as he can. David is right about flavor really becoming and issue that can't be understood unless it's you once radiation does its thing to your tastebuds. This seems to be especialy true for what tastes salty. Many of us found our taste buds really sensitive to salt as we began to recover. I liked things with a little bit of salt because the salty taste was better than nothing BUT some things that didn't taste salty before tasted overwhelmingly salty to me.

You just have to be prepared to experiment but espeially to recognize that the main issue after a while becomes calories, and, if he doesn't have a tube and needs to get those calories orally, finding something that is easy to swallow and doesn't burn the mouth (and Margaret, like your husband, I found that very sugary things did feel like they burned and actually still do to a lesser extent, though my experience with it remaining that way is rare--apparently radiation threw my nerves enough off kilter that my mouth has remained very sensitive to some things). The list of those things may get smaller and smaller as radiation goes on. But he will recover eventually. Just keep pushing nutrition even when it gets hard for him.

Nelie