Food ideas please

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Hey all,

I'm 7 weeks post treatment for tonsil cancer. No surgery, managed 5 out of 7 chemos and had 35 RT.

I feel so much better than a month ago and I'm impatient to have my RIG removed. I have taste aversion due to vomiting of the shakes that I put through it so I'm unable to manage them orally. My dietitian has sent me some different shakes which I am managing. They're not the best but I'm treating them as medicine and they don't make me sick. They've told that if I can avoid using the RIG for a week it can come out so I need to add to my calories. 

I am managing soups, poached eggs and porridge fairly well although eating takes forever. I'm wondering what foods you all managed early on in your recoveries so I can try and boost my calories orally. My throat is still pretty sore on one side particularly when swallowing but I no longer have that horrible 'lump' sensation. I'm trying to avoid anything scratchy. I definitely have one functioning salivary gland remaining but still need a lot of water when eating drier foods.

Many thanks Blush 

  • Hi add double cream to scrambled eggs, soup try making or buying a hollandaise sauce to put on top of poached egg. Smashed avocado with poached egg. Make a coffee you might not be able to  drink it but you can dunk custard cream Jaffa cake etc ti get calories. In supermarkets look for high protein yoghurts Arla is a good brand 

    trifles  try cheese on toast you msy surprise yourself  lots off butter leave the crusts sip like warm tea if you can herbal is best. 
    crumpets lots of butter again. I used to do a fruit tea cake toasted with grilled cheese 500 calories make smoothies with peanut butter. Well done for getting to week 4 
    Hazel xx 

    Hazel aka RadioactiveRaz 

    My blog is www.radioactiveraz.wordpress.com  HPV 16+ tonsil cancer Now  6 years  post treatment. 35 radiotherapy 2 chemo T2N2NM.Happily getting on with living always happy to help

    2 videos I’ve been involved with raising awareness of HNC and HPV cancers 

    https://www.instagram.com/merckhealthcare/reel/DBs8Y0niJ8N/

  • Hazel beat me to it. Joy

    Add Philadelphia to scrambled egg. It makes it softer

    The internet is bristling with build-you-up smoothies. Lots of them use nut butters which give you masses of calories. If you make them add the butter slowly or you’ll end up with a big plug of the stuff no blender will touch. Tinned rice pudding and tinned macaroni cheese go down well and the best fruit at this stage is bananas though you can put most anything bar citrus in a blender. 
    Keep going. It gets better 

    Dani 

    Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019

    I BLOGGED MY TREATMENT 

    Macmillan Support Line -  0808 808 00 00 7 days a week between 8am-8pm

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  • Now I do love a crumpet! I'll pop that on the shopping list. And custard creams in coffee sound amazing. But most things do right now! Unfortunately I can't have peanut butter as I'm horribly allergic and as a result I avoid most nuts, but I wonder whether adding chocolate spread or biscoff spread to a fruit smoothie might be worth a try?!

  • Avocado banana ice cream and coconut oil whizz that up. 

    Dani 

    Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019

    I BLOGGED MY TREATMENT 

    Macmillan Support Line -  0808 808 00 00 7 days a week between 8am-8pm

    Community Champion badge
  • Just be careful with chocolate spread a s too much sugar isn’t good for our teeth. I have a share of dark chocolate every night it’s my treat but its  always 70%  .You can get protein powders from  health shops  to add to smoothies as well.

    the crumpets I used to cut into quarters and nibble towards the crusts always left crusts too hard 

    Hazelx

    Hazel aka RadioactiveRaz 

    My blog is www.radioactiveraz.wordpress.com  HPV 16+ tonsil cancer Now  6 years  post treatment. 35 radiotherapy 2 chemo T2N2NM.Happily getting on with living always happy to help

    2 videos I’ve been involved with raising awareness of HNC and HPV cancers 

    https://www.instagram.com/merckhealthcare/reel/DBs8Y0niJ8N/

  • I loved sliced peaches in syrup, I could taste them a tiny bit and the slipped down a treat! 

  • Sounds like you're doing really well.

    To add to your list I found full fat tinned custard was great as well as tinned semolina (at your stage rice pudding was too difficult for me although I did move on to it eventually), Ready Brek (easier in the early days than porridge) and double cream added to everything. 

    Linda x

  • I bought some double cream today that I'm going to add to things. It seems that I've developed an intolerance to lactose during treatment. The shakes through the RIG were lactose free so I've been fine with those. I bought some lactose free milk to try with the new shakes. Apparently double cream on low in lactose so fingers crossed that's ok for me.