My husband is 5 months out of his radiation treatment. He is recovering ok. But he no longer likes sweet things. He thinks Ensure is too sweet. He does not even like ice cream any more. He has swallowing problem. As he does not like sweet stuff, the choice of food, for nutritions in particular, is quite limited. He feels hungry all the time. Does anyone have similar happenings? I'd like him to continue Ensure but he hates its sweet taste. As for his swallowing problem, it is very uncertain what food he can eat at a meal. Now he does not even like mashed potatoes and chicken noodle soup. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

Yan

Yan,
For me the "sweet" taste buds were the last to return (a year or so as I recall). I craved salads as soon as I could tolerate the dressing (it burned early on). Salt is usuually the first taste sensation to return - maybe he's just burned out on chicken noodle soup.

I couldn't stand Boost or Insure. I used Carnation Instant Breakfast instead - I guess you can substitute soy milk if you are lactose intolerate. The best flavor I found was the "Espresso" unfortunately you can only get it in the multi flavor packages so you'll be stuck with vanilla and stawberry as well. I always used a straw for drinking liquids, by the way, to direct where they went into the back of the throat. I would add some hagen Daz coffee flavored ice cream to pump up the calories.

By 5 months I was eating solid food. You really have to experiement a lot with different foods, tastes and textures (and keep repeating the experiments, it is a very dynamic and changing thing). My dogs got VERY fat during my early post Tx phase.

Maybe he should see a swallowing therapist.

Yan,

Try pasta dishes, or other soups or stews. Run them thoguh a food processor. Any type of pasta dish can be run in the old food processor, just add a little more sauce to thin it out. Cream of Potato soup was a staple of my diet. any cream soup hit the spot. You have to be a little creative sometimes.

My taste as far as sweet things went was the last to return. I'm right at 14 months post treatment and I still don't have all my taste back. Bitter or salty things I can taste, just not a lot of sweet things. It was odd when I was going through the chemo and radiation, I craved anything strawberry. I would only drink strawberry ensure, or eat strawberries and cream cream of wheat. Didn't really taste it going down, but I could very faintly taste the after taste of it.

Like Gary, I drank a lot of Carnation instant breakfast drink as well. I also added ice cream to pump up the calories.

As stated, I'm at 14 months out and I still can't eat solid food. If I never can again it's not the end of the world.

Good luck and keep us posted on the progress,

John