Part 28. How and What to Eat after Cancer Treatment

 

Throat Cancer - Your Food Recovery Plan.

Firstly, I am not a dietitian or speech therapist, and I am not giving advice on your recovery. This is how I made it through My Recovery.

After the removal of my nasal tube, it was quite apparent that it was going to be a long road back to my "old" normal. The inability to swallow, the total loss of taste, and the lack of saliva being produced all adding to the complexity.

I hadn't gone through everything to now stall at the beginning of recovery; it wasn't going to be easy, in fact, stronger anxiety than happiness. How do I pick myself up?

I could not swallow, so my first element I had to tackle was getting food down my throat without choking; Because my umbilical cord to survival was removed (nasal gastric Feed line). Episode 11, it was a get anything that I could down. Fluids were my key to surviving this ordeal. 1. It didn't require chewing to a manageable size, and 2. it naturally flowed down my throat, eliminating the painful swallowing motion. IN MY CASE, I also suffered from the valve in the esophagus between the stomach and lungs being weak, and sometimes small amounts of fluid would go down into my lungs, causing a fit of coughing until it cleared.

Fluid supplements, milkshakes, and soups were the main sources of nourishment. Ice cream and jelly would slide easily, as would fruit juices and all variations of foods that could be put in a blender to reduce them to a food that could flow down into the stomach. I had my failures as well, most notably the thickener placed in fluids to stop them from rushing down my throat; for me, I just couldn't adapt to it. In your case, it may be your only option, so you have to battle through it.

Mashed potatoes and vegetables were my next step up, vitamised and with large amounts of gravy. My Taste buds were still damaged, so the stronger the taste, the better, as I was trying to retrain my taste. I Cannot remember when my taste started to come back but it wasn't "none today tomorrow i have taste", It is a slow journey with A slight taste becoming noticable then nothing again. you would happily have some taste and joyfully continue to again "Fading  Out" during the meal; i got to a stage when i had taste i would eat, then stop for a period then recommence when i could taste again/ this left me with finishing my meal a long time after others at the table.

Reinventing Food to suit a mouth/throat cancer diet.

As spoken about in the previous Episode. Texture is your best friend of Mouth Cancer. It all began with not being able to eat a pork roast, but being able to eat the crackle on the pork. It was then I realised it was all in the texture of the food you're eating. If your food were going to compress into a ball shape, you would have trouble getting it down, no matter how much it was chewed . The crackle however would splinter and disintegrate into smaller pieces, and with a small amount of fat attached, would allow your swallowing action. If you wanted to eat the pork meat, it was eaten in small pieces, helped each mouthful with fluid, which would allow this to happen, but you will stop eating because of bloat more than having a full appetite.

 The difference between Beef, Pork, Lamb, and Chicken In a Mouth, Throat cancer diet.

 Texture-Yes Texture is your companion in this diet. Beef, I found, is still, years after recovery, my nemesis in eating. I loved to eat my steak and roasts, but now I very rarely have them. I tried the Heavy gravy addition, the "medium Rare steak," the tender, most cuts of beef, and it came back to beef fat with a slight trimming of beef . (worth a footnote here because animal fats are basically out of my diet, I sometimes think a very occasional meal with the animal fats may be good for my body, as if anything my diet lacks, this addition .) Changing the texture from natural to mince is the only form of Beef and Pork with liberal amounts of gravy and Fluid flush. I have chosen these ingredients, and definitely not in the beginning, not until you have experienced eating again and gained your level of swallowing.

Corned silverside (corned Meat) remains "stringy" after being cooked, and if served with white sauce is probably the best texture for my diet.

Lamb and chicken are my go-to meats as far as meats are concerned; if your lamb is not overcooked and sliced thinly with gravy, it makes for a pleasant meal. 

Chicken thighs, legs, wings, and stuffing, I find, make for a nice meal, whereas breast meat is dry and hard to swallow.

Fish is my main source of food, with some fish fillets being hard to digest. Try fishcakes if the texture is hard to swallow.

Vegetables now make up a majority of food on the plate, as I haven't found a vegetable that is hard to swallow now.

In closing. In the beginning, start with fluids and get your throat muscles working before attempting solids. A gradual improvement is a winning path to recovery.

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