Part 20.Cancer treatment Effects on the Tongue

 

The most debilitating side effect encountered during throat cancer recovery.

In your journey to cancer recovery, you have a myriad of problems as your body "reboots" your immune system from near-fatal to the new normal. Your body is truly a magnificent organism to be able to fight back from the attack and suppressants encountered during the treatment. Not understating the magnificent skill shown by my WHOLE TEAM to monitor my progress.

My "reboot" after 42 "hits" of radiotherapy and 7 chemotherapy treatments which was the Scope of the original joint specialist meeting conducted 8 weeks prior. Starting weight was 112 kg (247 pounds) today's weight 59kgs (130 pounds). This chapter is not about the problems dealt with during treatment it is about the road to remission.

The most debilitating symptom in MY Cancer recovery was not physical but the physiological effect of the total loss of taste.

I had never taken much notice of how important this Sense was to our daily life up until now. The luxury of expectation of the Taste of your favorite item - resulting in ......Nothing -complete taste loss!

After nine months of being fed through my Nasogastric tube,(Episode 11), I was introducing fluids back into my stomach via my mouth. A moment that is burned into my memory was my first Christmas ( ironically and joyous occasion I had made the 6 months to live from my original diagnosis).

Sitting with my family smelling all the delicious aromas of Roast cooking, I accepted the fact that the only thing I could attempt was the beautiful gravy (I wasn't salivating as my saliva glands were also damaged during the radiotherapy) . When I mentioned "smell" I had lost my sense of smell after treatment as well but it was recovering slowly, it had to be an "intense" smell for me to detect its presence.

I digress.

Try this Smell related to the Taste Experiment.

• Close your eyes and picture yourself at the Christmas table smelling the roast gravy aroma about to be served up.
• You can visualize the gravy the color, the aroma 
• You can "visually" taste the gravy!
• Your tongue starts to salivate!
• You picture placing the gravy in your mouth and the uplifting joy of the taste.
• 
  
• Me......Nothing....Nothing....just the warmth of the gravy!

This one time hurt the most, still, I felt "excluded and punished for having cancer" it took quite a lot to lift my spirits up as this felt like hitting a brick wall!

Moving on. My next taste sensation was my sour-(not sweet and sour taste)- just sour!

The worst manipulation of taste was tomato! Tomato Paste is the Absolute worst!

From a person who grew up in a tomato farming area and ate tomatoes regularly to the tartiness of lemon every time I ate a tomato. Tomato paste in spaghetti or Italian cuisine was the most sour both which I loved now also ruined.

One taste that has not recovered after 9 years is CHILLI! I also loved the taste of chili. I had it on sandwiches, in soups, in tabasco sauce, the drink "Bloody Mary", and Chinese food.

now unfortunately the taste of chilli is accentuated 10 fold and the burn caused me to grimace in pain.

Yes this one for me is enduring!  -answer adjust and move on. It is a small price to pay to be a survivor.

HELPFUL HINT THAT WORKS IS THIS

I stumbled onto this when I took up vegetable growing for my therapy.

This is a photo of my own Miracle fruit tree. I have proven from my own usage that if you chew the red fruit for a minute or so and moving it around your tongue it WILL change your taste sensors on your tongue from sour to sweet.

Try it -you can eat a lemon like it was an apple.

It will wear off after a short while and return to your normal state.

For me as mentioned above at one stage all I could taste was sour and it was extremely helpful in my being able to eat some foods.

I did experience a "metallic tang" to food during my recovery time but I did not have a chance to experiment with the miracle fruit on this taste sensation.

This is a photo of an actual miracle fruit it is red and approximately 1 inch (25cm long) this one is getting a bit old on the plant and is showing signs of dehydration , when they are red and look good to eat try them.

In conclusion to this episode. I have now got back my sense of smell. My taste sensations but the tastes can still "fade" out and return at different times and my saliva glands are near normal again.

The Chilli still has the same effect.

In closing. Be Strong You Will get through it!

This is a link to Rubyberry Farm a retailer of miracle fruit and supplements if you would like to try .

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