How long after treatment ends will my taste buds be screwed up?

I felt the same way and, to be completely honest, it took a pretty long time before anything tasted good. Even now, 15 months post-treatment, things like fruit and salad dressings taste really weird. Having said that, however, I\'d encourage you to be hopeful. Immediately after treatment and for about 6-8 months, everything continued to taste bad, with a few exceptions (like peanut butter M&Ms!) and quite a few foods actually made me nauseous (esp. creamy ones), but the taste buds DO come back, however long it takes. Hang in there and try to find at least one thing to enjoy.

Marin

beakmom,
Try tasting foods that contain vinegar. Many of my patients said it was the only kind of food that tastes good after chemo. I was an RN at Hopkins and worked in pediatric oncology. The kids were eating things their mother made for them. I noticed vinegar was a big part of that. No one made the connection between vinegar and tolerance. The kids craved it. One put vinegar on spinach, they asked for pickled eggs, vinegar on french fries, vinegar potato chips, etc. I later told a hospice patient that and when I saw her next she said, \"When can I stop eating pickles?\". Tolerating a flavor leads to tolerance of other flavors. Now, you have apprehension that nothing will help. Finding a flavor you like will boost your desire to try some things again. Be careful about eating foods you cook. The odors may keep you from eating. Cold foods are tolerated best by some patients. Those kids asked their parents for happy meals. They tasted one bite and said it tasted like cardboard. Moist foods and juices are more likely to taste okay than dry food.
Another pearl of wisdom from a patient was that the only food that tastes the same going down as it does coming up is canned peaches. He\'s right!
Carol

Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, after spicy food, the first thing I had to stop eating was things with vinegar in them. Even ketchup burns my mouth.

I’m 2 1/2 years out of treatment and my taste buds are still changing. I’ve found foods I never liked before taste fabulous now and foods I used to love taste terrible. The best advice I can give is to keep trying different foods. You may end up with a completely different diet. Little by little it gets better. Try lots of different flavors and textures.

2 days ago I tried to eat a Franz mini powdered donut. It might as well have been cardboard powdered with sand. I choked on it because it was so dry. That was my last straw. I'm no longer trying to eat anything by mouth. I am still drinking fluids, tho. Otherwise I'd be choking constantly on my dry mouth and throat. When I talk, it feels like my tongue is swollen. The GOOD news is that, after today, I only have 4 radiation treatments and one more chemo. There is an end in sight. Then I just have to wait to see if it worked and to get my taste buds back. Please don't be long.

Plain ole vanilla ice cream might be a better choice... Hang in there!

God I love peanut butter m&m's buy them in bulk at COSTCO

How's the feeding tube working? I lost 95#'s before I got mine - stabilized and know it's gone. I eat only soft foods and protein shakes, but have learned to spice them up - I'll even throw in a piece of pizza now and then. Tom

Well, it's working ok, I guess. But I have decided that it's simply not possible to eat at much as they want me to. And the more I try, the more I projectile vomit all over everything. (TMI, I know.) I was so frustrated, I didn't want to eat at all. Instead, I just took a few deep breaths and decided I know my body better than they do, and I would start listening to what it was telling me. I feed myself small amounts about every 4 hours while awake. I'm much more relaxed now. My treatment ended a week ago, and I am planning to start reintroducing soft foods by mouth next week. But I'm not going to force it. I just hope I can taste coffee again soon. Otherwise, what's the point?

I hear you - besides coffee has cancer preventive qualities.Now three years later I have to be careful or I gain weight. I did have to stop using whey protein and go to vegan protein, I use vega. Even today the whey won't digest. They told me the molecules are bigger with whey and harder to digest. (Dietitian at Cancer Center).
It use to scare my kids when I sent out a projectile.