Taste and texture

Hi Delilah

i am 6 months or so ahead of you.  My taste is pretty ok now.  One or 2 things taste weird, snd some flavours are just not as strong, but it’s ok. My dry mouth is a little better than it was but still not very good yet.  I hope it will improve.  I can eat most things but I do need water to help it down.  I couldn’t really eat anything at your stage except weetabix with cream and protein powder.  I could eat custard creams dunked in coffee (hazels suggestion on this forum) and also Gu chocolate mousse with double cream. My eating really really improved around the 4 month mark.  It is early days for you and also for me I suppose.  Sending you best wishes snd well done finishing treatment 

lizzie

Hi Delilah sadly Lizzie is right 0 days inwas still n g tube fed,I started swallowing ensures at week 3 orally 6 a day which have me 1800 calories,that left me free to experiment. By 6 weeks I coukd do poached egg on well buttered toast and dunk custard creams and Jaffa cakes into coffee couldn’t drink i the coffee for a good while. 
12 weeks can bring about a big change we are all different. 
good luck 

Hazel

Hi Delilah

It was about 4 months before I could actually identify the taste of a cooked carrot I was eating.  Things gradually improved bit by bit after that although it was very much a case of trial and error.  Some days were better than others.

At your stage everything either tasted vile or of nothing.  I had great difficulty swallowing textures too so I existed on the things that tasted of nothing and I could get down - Ready Brek, semolina and custard.  After a few weeks I was able to progress to porridge and rice pudding - all full fat.

It's important to keep experimenting with little tasters.  Something can be unpleasant one day and fine another.

It really depends on the individual though Delilah as far as timescales go.  A lot of people find improvements much sooner than this.  Fingers crossed you're one of them!

Linda x

Thanks Lizzie it’s good to know things improve at the moment my mouth can’t cope with anything that isn’t liquid so I was getting a bit impatient! I know it’s going to take time like you say xx

Hi Delilah, 

I'm 8 months post treatment and I can understand totally what you're feeling right now. I was still using my feeding tube for 4 or 5 weeks following the end of my treatment. I started with teaspoons of yoghurt or custard. Moved on to chicken soup which was the first food that actually tasted like it should! Scrambled eggs and poached eggs came next. I seemed to have a week where I tried new foods and found three or four that I could manage then I would go through the next 5 or 6 weeks without any improvements then suddenly I'd try something that I couldn't manage to eat the week before and find that I could. I've had a few breakthroughs this week in that I ate my first Chinese takeaway and drank a glass of red wine! I still find meat impossible to swallow although I can manage chicken thighs cooked in the slow cooker. My mouth is still very dry and anything really sweet like meringue tastes of nothing.

You're at the very start of your recovery and I can remember feeling like I'd never be able to eat again at that stage. It will take time and patience  but just keep trying something every day and you will get there. X

Hi just try little bits of want you fancy and at some point you'll find something that taste good stick to slightly soft and moist food though wishing you all the best x