What to eat post radiotherapy

Hi helef and well done. You’ve cracked it now it’s slowly slowly 

Poached eggs are a great standby.Try them on toast buttered with avocado  Porridge is good and you can add lots of cream or even butter to it. Melted cheese goes down easily too either on toast or on its own. Add grated cheese or Philadelphia to scrambled egg. Long slow cooked lamb with lots of gravy is the easiest meat to eat. Forget potatoes as they are grainy even mashed but sweet potatoes are easier. I’m sure others will come up with more 

Well done again 

Thanks Dani, I’m definitely going to take it one day at a time and see food as an extra that I can add into my diet bit by bit whilst still getting the calories from the fortisips. If I eat a few spoon fulls I’m happy.

Some great ideas, am I right in thinking tomatoes are something quite difficult too? Before I had difficulty with swallowing I was living on tomatoes on toast as it was soft enough for me to get down but I’m not sure whether tomatoes may be too difficult to try now. 

Hi. I’m also ten days post treatment. Don’t think I’m feeling quite as well as you and I tried soup yesterday which was a no. However, it was good to read your post as I was wondering if I might get worse yet and I can see from reading how you are that is not necessarily the case x 

Hi Helef, well done on completing your treatment. In my early days of post treatment, my wife used to make me porridge with lots of cream and honey, it goes down quite easy, and is high in calories. All the best.

Regards Ray.

Well done for completing treatment Claire, I think we are all different, up until Saturday I was really struggling and wouldn’t have thought  about trying any food but Saturday seemed to be my turning point and I was able to try I’m not saying I’ve eaten masses a couple of spoons at a time but it’s progress and I’m sure you will get there too. As everyone keeps saying it’s baby steps and I do have to make sure I’ve taken all my pain killers and mouthwash to numb the mouth before eating. 

Thanks Ray, porridge was the last thing I managed to eat before going on liquid only diet and the first thing I tried this week so far I’ve used syrup in it for the calories.

Helef said:

Before I had difficulty with swallowing I was living on tomatoes on toast as it was soft enough for me to get down but I’m not sure whether tomatoes may be too difficult

Tomatoes are high in acid so may be uncomfortable to eat. I’d steer clear of them for a while. 
I found tinned macaroni cheese and tinned rice good in the early days and those little pots of semolina are good too. Ready brek went down much easier than oats to start with. 

 Hi Helef

Well done for getting through your radiotherapy. I am on a soft diet at the mo but my treatment was years ago. I have plenty of saliva, but I have to be careful what I swallow and chew. 

These couple of things to share suit me in my own circumstance. For savoury I have shop bought quiche  with the smallest of food bits in it. I heat it up with extra cheese then mash down, add some extra butter,  let it cool a bit and it goes down well for me.  Edit ( sorry forgot to add to post I heat quiche in microwave).The pastry gets quite moist and soft this way and I am okay safely eating this. I buy tinned chicken soup as this is my favorite and  also easy and kind on my mouth.  I add chopped veg like carrot, parsnip or swede, anything I can then mash later when cooked.  I add some frozen veg too - whatever  there  is at home. I heat it up and let it all simmer till all veg is soft.  I am able to tolerate seasonings so I might add these too. Then I mash the veg with my masher. No big bits, add butter and all is good for me to eat.  When I was having my radiotherapy I used to grate bread in with the soup whilst cooking as it goes all soft for extra calories and fibre as this was okay for me. We are all different and what suits one may not suit another.

Best wishes for your recovery 

Nicky

Hi Helef well done on getting through treatment .Steer clear of tomatoes and anything acidic for a while. Porridge ,ready break soggy weetabix . Well buttered crumpets but forget the beans too harsh for now Poached eggs on top of crumpet or toast minus crusts with smashed avocado .fruit tea cakes toasted with cheese in topI found you could easily get 400;calories from that alone. Mis rive a mini pork pie aboitb20;seconds I coukd do the j side from about week 3. As Nicky has said quiche you can get crust less ones. I used Luke warn herbal tea to help food go down. Lamb slow cooked lots of gravy keep away from potatoes as dani says  far too grainy. 
thus cook book might help. Just remember sometimes yiuncan eat something  one  week to fail the week after it happened to many if us. Just forget about it and try a few weeks later. 

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/66263025/cookbook-by-andrew-gaylor-head-and-neck-cancer-survivor-2022

Hazel 

Thanks Dani, I will steer clear of tomatoes for a while don’t want to make my throat uncomfortable. I tried a little bit of orange juice in my water last week and the pain was intense from the acid with the slightest drop so definitely don’t want that again.