Taste after radiation

Hi, welcome to the group, and well done finishing your treatment. You are still in very early days of your recovery, also the RT is still working for 2 to 3 weeks after finishing. It's really impossible to say how long it will be before your taste comes back, as we all heal at different times. In my case I was tube feeding from 3 weeks into my treatment, I started to eat small amounts of very soft food about six weeks post treatment, although I had no appetite and it tasted like cardboard, it was probably 6 months before food started to taste anything like it should have. Try very soft foods such as porridge with lots of cream and honey, scrambled eggs, milk puddings, soup etc. If you can eat don't worry about how it tastes, it's the nourishment you need to aid your recovery. Your body has to have the time to heal itself, you will get there. Stick with us, ask any more questions you have, someone will answer if they can.

Ray.   

Hello and welcome here. I had the same as you, except a week less. I could eat soft food pretty well by 12 weeks but it tasted of nothing. It was six months  before I was happy with the way things were coming along as I was warned here that taste can disappear for a long time for some people. It was a year before I really enjoyed food. My oncologist told me that my cancer would take a year out of my life and he was spot on. 

Like Ray says above, the radiation has a residual effect and builds to a peak two to three weeks after treatment end. Just take it day by day. Try different foods and if something doesn't work give it a break and try a couple of weeks later.

Hi and welcome to the group.

As Biker Ray points out, being able to eat solids and taste foods again does vary for each of us.

 At the begining of this year, I was unable to taste food during the later stages of my 6 weeks of CRT,  and then unable to eat at all for around 4 weeks post treatmentment, having to use my PEG tube to get calories in.

But once I started to eat solids regularly again,  around 5 weeks post treatment, it was painful, it tasted awful, but I persevered as I knew it was good for me, I was getting better, and I knew I had to get my throat muscles working again.

And in my case, my taste started returning about 2-3 weeks following that, AND IT WAS THE BEST FEELING EVER!

i remember vividly messaging my wife at work just to let her know the cheese and ham omelette had made for breakfast (that I thought would be just another painful chore to eat)  tasted like an omelette with plenty of salt. And from there it kept improving, slowly but surely, as did the pain of eating.

I thought the loss of taste thing was one of the hardest symptoms I had to cope with through all of my treatments and recovery, but it does get better. So during your rollercoaster recovery phase of highs and lows, celebrate every sign of improvement as a Win!

Best wishes for your continued recovery and do stay in touch with us, as the community here have years and years of shared experience, that we use to help others get through this.

MickyC

Hi, I have been stalking this site on behalf of my best friend who was diagnosed with tonsil cancer in May. T2n2b cancer spread extensively in nodes and surrounding issues so required x35 radiotherapy at highest dose on cancer side and less so on other with 7 chemotherapy sessions of cisplatin. Hes 4 weeks out and taste has strongly come back eating 3 meals a day, he ate a pie the other day albeit slowly and a glass of water nearby but was overjoyed. The consultant believes its been his alternative therapies that has gone alongside his formal treatment that have kept him so well. Accupuncture x2 per week during treatment and after. Just switched to one per week. He had a red light that he purchased himself and has used that x2 per day on both sides of his throat. He said after 3 weeks his taste started coming back. Its nowhere near what it was but its getting there. Sweet things arent appealing but the unami taste of savoury is. 

The accupuncture if local is with Jonathan Hill derbyshire/nottinghamshire based. He has been incredible listening to symptoms every week and changing treatments accordingly. 

I know its not me directly that is going through this but I very much wanted to share his journey with you. I am sending you all the positive thoughts I have.

I was eating small portions of solid foods 10-12 weeks after finishing chemoradio, little or no taste, just trying to get calories in, it took about a year before I was really happy with my taste and appetite, I challenged myself with different food and drink, sometimes it worked very well, other times not so well, now enjoying most foods 2 years after finishing treatment, some things are still tasteless.

Hello and welcome. 

I had RT on one side of my neck last year. I lost almost all of my taste, the only thing that could slightly taste was chocolate, as bizarre as that seems. My taste buds came back a good bit approximately 4-5 weeks after RT finished and, like others have said, it took months before I became happy with them again. 

They’ll get there in time

Ya to be honest my radiation was not bad on me just a little tired I also had no feeding tube . Through it all I had a little sore at back of mouth for about a week . Looking through a lot of these makes me a little nervous about my treatment being right . The node I did have is completely gone I must add so something definitely got that . Also I’m in Canada the machines we use I’m guessing are newer as it was a cancer hospital . The only way I found out I had it was swollen lymph node hpv virus . As you said too my biggest thing right now is taste and it’s hard hard I’m hoping and praying for some kind of return my saliva is also a little thicker right now but glad to see your doing great on your recovery . 

Dtwin23bb22d said:

. Looking through a lot of these makes me a little nervous about my treatment being right .

We all react differently. Some of us get away with very few acute side effects. There is a worldwide “standard” for treatment of HPV driven oropharyngeal cancer. I think you can relax 

Dtwin23bb22d said:

Also I’m in Canada the machines we use I’m guessing are newer as it was a cancer hospital .

I think we in the U.K. can boast the same up to date technology. 

What kind of machine did you have for radiation I’m wondering why a lot of threads on here have feeding tubes . In Canada he said no to me at the beginning . My treatment I didn’t feel that bad but it was still bad but I had 1 small mouth sore and tired and a little nauseous at times . I know everyone different but that’s why I’m wondering do you guys use different radiation machines there TY in advance 

We have two types of machines in the U.K.  some deliver photon radiotherapy and some proton