Don,

I am so glad to hear your getting your !@#$% PEG tube removed! That is just great, great news. I haven't used mine for about 10 days now and will get it taken out on Nov. 20, provided my scans come back clean.

Like you, my taste buds are pretty dead so I'm finding that texture is more important than taste. Foods that are wet, like cucumbers with dip, are working well for me and once I really started eating, and thinking about food as energy and not fixating on what I've lost, the whole process got much easier. Today for lunch I had a chopped salad - very healthy, not unpleasant but basically no taste. Its a struggle to let go of the "pleasure" part of eating, but I figure it should be all uphill from here and I'm learning to be OK with that.

Stage IV SCC lt lateral tongue, surgery 5/19/08 (partial gloss/upper neck dissection left side/radial free flap reconstruction) IMRT w/weekly Cisplatin & Erbitux 6/30/08, PEG 1 6/12/08 - out 7/14 (in abdominal wall, not stomach), PEG 2 7/23/08 - out 11/20/08, Tx done 8/18/08
Second SCC tumor, Stage 1, rt mobile tongue, removed 10/18/2016, right neck dissection 12/9/2016
Third SCC tumor, diagnosed, 4/19/2108, rt submandibular mass, HPV-, IMRT w/ weekly Cisplatin, 5/9 - 6/25/2018, PEG 3 5/31/2018