Hi..My husband is in his 5th week now and basically drinks milk and takes Nutren by his feed tube. He saids everything tastes likes metal including water. Any suggestions as to what anyone has found tastes normal as this point??

He's exactly where I think everyone else is/was at, nothing tastes normal.

For me nothing tasted like anything. Water, nuclear waste...woudn't have mattered. I couldn't have told the difference for weeks. When things started to taste like something again, everything tasted like rusty metal for a long time. It does come back, it just takes time
Wayne

The only thing I enjoyed was my morning Starbuck Frappachino (the bottled vanilla). Someone on this forum mentioned it and I had one a day up until yesterday when I found chia ice tea tastes okay (4 weeks out from treatment). No food tasted normal, but I ate scrambled eggs almost every day, so they weren't gross.

The only thing that Jack could taste during treatments was cream cheese. He added that scrambled eggs to give them some taste and that seemed okay. Nothing tastes normal it's more like which is the least offensive. It all came back though. Regards JoAnne

I agree with Wayne about everything tasting terrible. I didn't have a PEG, so whatever I ate went past my taste buds, which were in bad shape most of the time. While I normally enjoy food, I got used to the fact that for several months I would hate mealtime -- it was simply the key to survival.

One of the things that motivated me was the fact that early on I told my RO I did not intend to lose any weight. (I had no idea how hard it was going to be to try to follow through on this, and as it turned out I lost a little over 10% of my pre-cancer weight.) I experimented with a great variety of soft and semi-liquid things and didn't really like any of them -- the metallic taste seemed to be everywhere. The important thing right now is for him to get his daily nutrition quota however he can -- the taste buds can't be allowed to interfere with that.

Cathy

I didn't have the Peg and I lost 30% of my body weight and went to the ER 3 times during my ordeal with the last ER visit coming in week 2 Post Tx.

Like everyone else I hated to "eat" because nothing tasted the same. Some things tasted horrible. I was never a sweets eater before Tx but for some reason I never lost my taste for things that were really sweet. To this day, 8 months post Tx, sweets are my strongest taste but strangley enough that doesn't include fruits. I used to eat fruits all the time and now they still taste yuckey. Go figure.

Wow David. You are exactly the opposite from me. I am 2 and 1/2 months post treatment and the only taste that has not come back is sweets. That's probably a good thing concerning my radiated teeth. Actually, I have switched from sweets to fruit.

Someone suggested eating with plastic utensils to help get rid of the metallic taste. Give it a try.

I don't remember a metallic taste, but I do remember cardboard. Like Gary, I didn't have a peg so had to eat or drink it regardless of what it tasted like. I lived mostly on Ensure Plus, coffee or butter becan flavored, for about 6 weeks, mostly during radiation (no chemo). A couple of weeks after radiation I was eating things like cream soups or scrambled, soft boiled or poached eggs, cream of wheat cereal, etc and supplemented it with the Ensure Plus to get the maximum number of calories and protein per day. I needed 80 gm protein at 120lbs. Sweet was the last taste to come back and seemed to take forever, about 6 months, although I do remember eating French Toast with lots of butter and syrup fairly early. You just have to keep experimenting and not give up. It's might frustrating, but most of us get it all back, so sooner than others.

Take care,
Eileen

I found that food that was salty, or that you would add salt to tasted less gross. I ate cottage cheese, ricotta, some scrambled eggs, etc. I found that I needed to add some grape, or apple juice to water to make it palpable. About 4-5 weeks post, I started eating very small bites of meat, and salmon. I found sweets the worst and the longest to get used to again.(I now seem to be making up for that). I also went without a peg and lost about 20-20% of body weight. Good luck.
Rob

Just an update, my husband is home for the weekend and wondered if we had baby carrots and yellow beans. I immediately went to the store and bought 5 cans of each. Whatever it takes to get through this thing. He is now eating oatmeal, milk, baby carrots and yellow beans of course almost pureed.