How to eat when food tastes awful

No remedy aside from try different foods to see what you can stomach at that stage in your treatment (and recovery).  I ate (stubbornly) through to the end of treatment.  My advice would be to start PEG feeding now, or quite soon, and just do your swallow exercises.  Nutrition is vital during treatment and recovery. 

I would think you are close to the stage where the ulcers will appear.  We are all slightly different.  I never found any mouthwash that worked to enable me to eat.  However to keep the mouth clean water with salt and bicarb as a mouthwash worked well for me.  I also used Oral 7 mouthwash which I found effective at tackling the dry mouth.  It is not on prescription and may not work for you.  I now use Biotine gel for overnight some 2 1/2 years post CRT.

Agree with Peter

As soon as food tasted awful and my life was a struggle I was thoroughly miserable and felt there was more to my life than all this so everything went down the tube. It was a revelation. I could enjoy the world around me without fighting. it’s not for everyone though. Some people need the control. I found control in my blog and my diary. I didn’t swallow anything at all for eight weeks. I did my exercises and managed a steak at 12 weeks. 

Hello Rose

I didn’t have Peter’s stoicism.  I pretty much gave up on taking anything by mouth after 3 weeks of radiotherapy.  Apart from anything else, taking Fortisips by mouth was so disgusting they made me sick, which kind of defeated the object.  I’m not sure I see the sense in adding stress over food to everything else at this stage…but we’re all different. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Liz 

Thank you all for your replies. It seems that I will have to go down the PEG route, only had it fitted a week ago, I am still dealing with it. I will try to drink the liquid food first to see if I can cope.

Peter, I see that you feel that your struggle to eat wasn't worth it, thank you for your advice, and Dani and Liz. As you said, I have to stop fighting it.

Hoping to be able to cope and finish the treatment, I see you all did it what gives hope.

Rose you are at the worst time when all the effects kick in and you still have weeks to go. It’s very demoralising. Prioritise what you need most, be kind to yourself and the days will pass. 

I gave up on eating after week 3...far too painful...totally reliant on my PEG...it took about 16 weeks to get back onto solid food, I had totally lost interest in eating, had to be coaxed by my wife and oncology teams, small portions of mash, minced meat and gravy... gradually building up...challenged myself with different foods and drinks...it took about a year before I was happy with my taste and appetite.

Hi Rose. Start to use you PEG that's what it's there for when eating becomes difficult. I looked at mine as a part of the treatment to get better, so I started using it as soon as I needed to. It's no good struggling on when there's no need to.

Ray.

Hi Rose,as a fellow wife I can feel for you. I had to watch my hubby to go through this. After 3weeks he wasn't able to swallow anything even drinking became impossible,everything went down his PEG, at that point it didn't matter much about taste. It got frustrating once he was able to swallow again. Flavours and textures just didn't add up. It took a few weeks for some taste buds/textures to even appear to be normal. Now,17ish mths post treatment, he is still finding that somethings don't taste as they used to. Curries are still a NoNo. As to the dry mouth, he still has that too. He's got to get up once or twice at night for a sip of water,and out and about there is always a bottle of water close by. So what can I say, persevere, don't give up. You still have some way to go. It's a "one step forward,two steps back kind of journey".Stay positive,you will get there. Hugs, fellow wife Mel x

Thank you all, it's all so frightening