Struggling with taste of foods

Hi it is early days for your mum. I took the mantra food was fuel its forget about taste and appetite. I was ng tube fed for first 3 weeks if treatm ent tgen my diet was 6-8 ensure drink supplemented by whatever  food I coujd tolerate. Porridge eith honey snd full fat milk breakfast every day poached eggs trifles custard. Think nursery tyoe food to start with. I had 7 weeks radiotherapy. 
blog beliw might help my cancer was tonsil and lymph nodes in neck  your mum should have a dietician assigned to her? 

Hugs to you n mum Hazel 

Thanks for your reply and to see that treatment worked for you. 
she has got a dietician but she wants to know from others like yourself with what foods she might be able to taste as it’s getting her down. She’s started having the nutrient shake through RIG tube. 

she's fed up and not optimistic. 
so we need to hear of lots of happy outcomes with the cancer she’s got too. 

thanks x 

Hi Lucia04 

It’s a little difficult to suggest tasty foods. Most of us here have radiotherapy to the throat which severely affects our saliva and taste. Oropharyngeal cancer is a little different from cancer in the oesophagus. There is an oesophageal cancer group you could join. There may be better answers there.  Oesophageal cancer forum

Best wishes. 

Hi Lucia

T2N1M0 tonsil cancer HPV+  finished Chemoradio treatment June 2023....

It takes a while for food to start to become enjoyable again....different timescales for all.... tea and Choccy biscuits were my first real success.

Interesting reading   Taste Changes - Advice for head & neck cancer patients A4 (cht.nhs.uk)

Take care

Peter

Thanks, I will. 

she has a lump in neck also 

Thanks, she doesn’t usually like sweet things but maybe this will change. 

*I will screen shot all these replies and send to my mum, she needs a boost of support and like it’s already been said it’s early days so I hope she doesn’t give up if hers too bad! 

Lucia04 said:

she has a lump in neck also 

Do you know what it is ? 

Lucia04 said:

beginning to struggle eating. 

Is this because if the radiotherapy? 
It might be that she’s best served getting highly nutritious food down no matter what it tastes like. You can make a really nutritious smoothie with banana avocado ice cream or full fat milk and peanut butter. 

I’m not sure I know what you mean by what has she got. 
She had lump in neck first, maybe started at back of tongue they said. Scan showed same cancer weeks after in ostophagus, stage 3 we think they said. 
She has started shakes through her Rig tube this week to keep nutrition. 

thanks

Ah. Ok. You are in the right group then. 
The radiotherapy is changing the way her mouth and throat feels so she likely won’t be able to eat anything soon. Keep going with the shakes. Try her those little supermarket trifles and mousses. She might like those. 
Hugs to your mum. 

Nothing tastes as it should. She’s tried loads of foods now and all going in the bin which is awful. She’s 4 weeks in now and still can manage an orange but won’t as it doesn’t taste like one.