Every day, I have radiation treatments. As these treatments have progressed I have found it more and more difficult to actually taste anything. The other day, I finally reached the point of tastlessness. Nothing I eat or drink has a taste any more.
I suppose that can be a good thing. My youngest son told me that it’s a perfect time to start eating healthy because I can’t taste how bad the “good food” tastes. I suppose he’s right. heh.
The only issue is that the morbidity, or negative side effects of radiation, are getting worse. Not only can I not taste anything – I can barely swallow. Swallowing a pill almost does me in. Every swallow is a lesson in pain. My throat is so irritated that even breathing is a chore as the air moves across my traumatized flesh.
I’ve reached that point where the pain in my throat is as bad, if not worse, than the pain I experienced after the tonsillectomy. Don’t even ask me how painful a sneeze is. And I’m only halfway done with my treatments. ugh.
Because of the pain and disruption to my life from radiation, and the agony of my upcoming chemotherapy treatments, I have decided to take short term disability. I don’t like taking the 40% cut in paywhile on disability, but I really wasn’t helping my team as much as I would have liked. My team needs me to be a consistent and reliable resource – which I can’t be while I am enduring these treatments.
Still – now I have to find ways to keep myself occupied. My general fatigue, along with my pain from radiation, make it difficult to do anything physical. So I imagine I’ll do some writing and reading while on disability – as much as possible.
If you have any good reading suggestions, send em my way!
Two rounds into my chemo I could have eaten cardboard as eagerly as I ate my wife’s delicious pasta, which is to say, without any eagerness at all. The body is a marvel, in all ways. And, to personally evince that the taste bud is composed of rapidly dividing cells, making them victim to chemo drugs, is a conclusion I could have happily gone to my reward without.Nonetheless, ice-cream still tasted good. Almost every flavor was a pleasure. It’s not like I had to watch my weight. Or rather, I had to watch it didn’t go down. It did, but maybe the ice-cream helped.Stay strong. There is no permanence.
^^^^This “Ross” guy is a ton more qualified to comment on this topic. The best I can say is… “Hang in there, brother.”
And what I failed to say was my taste is completely back to normal. Even my desire to eat spicy food is once again annoying my sweet wife.
I think you will enjoy George RR Martin’s series, A Song of Ice and Fire. His website is GeorgeRRMartin.com. This is pure fantasy written with incredible skill, just the think to take you out of yourself for a few minutes/hours.
Well, if you still have half of the treatments ahead of you, then at least you have half of them behind you now.If you’re in the mood for a novel, I suggest Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins or We The Living by Ayn Rand. 🙂
[…] and I had to eat like everyone else again. But my taste buds hadn’t recovered and everything was ash in my mouth. So I ate listlessly, struggling to […]