Jon. ,maybe a good blender will help you with food, It will liquify them . As for the spaghetti you said you make, over cook the pasta by about 15 minutes and you can mash it like butter and it goes down so much easier. I need you here to treach you a lot of tricks with a guy that has no teeth, not much tongue and 24/7 pain in his mouth and throat. I also have xposed dead jaw bone. on both sides to put up with as it gets very sensitive.

Hi guyS.I have taken in all you have said about diets and recipies.

I find I can drink lots of pomigranite and Grape juice also flavored Soya not milk, my diet is getting better but after a month now from 5 rads and 4 chemos I have to have my MRI scan 13th march I hope it is going to be good results my lymph node was 6cm now seems to have gone and hopefully the base of the tongue tumor has also as any of you guys had any problems after your scan do you think i will b able to continue with out any surgery in the future, .

good luck with the scan in march.
we will not be able to tell u whether or not u will need surgery. only ur medical professionals will be able to tell u that.

I never had troub;e from scans, but had sca ns because of troubles. I hope you are on the main highway to recovery Jon. You sure talk much better now than before and ar sounding positive.

My main worry now is, not only the MRI coming up next Saturday, where the doctor told me quite bluntly as they do here, I will have 4 choices 1) cut out what�s left of my tumor in the base of my tongue, 2) cut out my lymph glands 3) or more chemo or 4th nothing so what a choice.

The other problem is as I thought I was eating enough, I have now actually lost 4 kgs so I need what I cant get here, to top up my calories Nestles breakfast 506 type drink, I have had a kind reader here, write to me and offer to send various supplements in a care package, but I cant see her sending 4 TIME 500CAL each, a day of this drink, its far to expensive.

So I just don�t know now what to eat here to put on weight, did any of you guys have a problem with putting it on, also as I have lost so much muscle, I just can�t get that put back on either. And I feel quite weak some times still, 8 weeks after the end of treatment.,

John , Ilost 70 lbs in 2007, got it back up to 185, then they found a reoccurence of an aneurysm in my aortic abdominal and had 1/2 of it fixed rhen and awaiting the second operatio, I went back down to 150 and eat thru the pain to regain. I am back up to close to 170 after the last year. The weight is very hard to put back on your body. If I were you, I would watch the citruses and their juice because they contain acids which burn the heck out of your mouth and throat. Even bananas contain acids. Good luck with everything.

Jon,

I'm eating much better now but have not gained back what I lost. I did not lose a lot of wieght during radiation. I went in and out at about the same wieght but lost some in the month after treatment. no matter what I eat I don't gain. I hear it takes a year before your body gets over the healing and lets you gain.

I think DavidCPA said that.

Just remember, we are eating different foods than most of us did. Oh for some solid food, even just 1 time would be great.

Jon,
The problem I had for a few months following Tx was a big loss of appetite.

I was off the PEG, but most foods still tasted poorly or lost their taste after a few bites. Also I didn't like the taste of Ensure or Nutren so I tended not to drink enough of it.

The nutritionist had me start keeping a log of what I was actually eating and drinking and found it just wasn't eating enough calories. She calculated my metabolic multiplier as 14 (rounded up), meaning I need to consume 14 calories a day per pound of body weight and wanted me at 170 pound. So, I need to consume ~2400 calories/day.

As my taste gradually improved, so did my appetite, but it took a few months. Try adding some hi calorie items like chocolate, cheese cake, ice cream (anything hi-cal that tastes tolerable) and consider keeping track of your daily caloric intake.

Jon,
Since most of us are in the US or England, we have no idea what is available to you in Thailand. You need to eat foods that are high in calories. Do you have ice cream? Can you make any of the shakes that are the board? They must have some kind of awful tasting food supplement that they give patients that are on peg tubes in Thailand. You need to ask your doctors there about them. Here's hoping for a good report on your MRI.

Take care,
Eileen