Hi Nick,

A very warm welcome to our forum.

I am sorry to hear of your symptoms following your treatment. I am not a doctor, but I understand that radiotherapy can cause changes in your salivary glands, leading to dry mouth and changes in the way food tastes. The changes to the salivary glands can improve with time. Have you asked your care team for advice on how to combat this? I have just had a look at the advice given on the Cancer Research Website and have quoted this below.

Tips for eating and drinking:

Drink about 3 litres of water a day while having treatment.

Eat soft foods.

Eat slowly and avoid eating late in the day.

Drink plenty during and after meals to soften your food.

Eat small amounts often rather than big meals.

Try different foods to find out which are easiest to swallow.

You can have high calorie drinks to boost your calorie intake if you need them.

You might need to have liquid food into your vein or through a tube into your nose or stomach if you can’t eat enough.

Dry mouth

Your mouth might get very dry, which can be uncomfortable. Radiotherapy can damage the glands that produce saliva. Saliva is important for taste, swallowing, and speech. 

Various things can help:

Try to drink at least 3 pints (one and a half litres) of fluid a day. 

Choose meals that are moist.

Use gravies and sauces to make swallowing easier.

Take regular sips of water with your meal to help you chew and swallow your food.

Suck small amounts of ice chips to refresh your mouth.

Chew sugar free chewing gum.

Ask your doctor about products that can stimulate saliva such as mouthwashes, gum, pastilles, and toothpaste.

Your doctor might prescribe artificial saliva and medicine to stimulate your salivary glands. 

It is very important to have regular check ups with your dentist.

Taste changes

Your food may taste different. Some people often describe having a metallic taste, but others may lose their taste completely. This usually gets better a few weeks after your treatment has finished.  

Tips:

Choose foods that have strong flavours, such as herbs, spices, marinades and sauces if all your food tastes the same.

Season your food with spices or herbs, such as rosemary, basil and mint.

Garnish cold meat or cheese with pickle or chutney.

Sharp tasting fizzy drinks such as lemonade or ginger beer are refreshing.

Some people find that cold foods taste better than hot foods.

I had 2 bouts of breast cancer 14 years ago and suffer with a very dry mouth and nose, as a result of the cocktail of drugs that I have to take. I have used an artificial saliva spray called Glandosane, to help stimulate saliva, but find that this only works for a short while. I also take Salivix Pastilles but again, they only help short term. Chewing sugar free gum is probably the more effective solution. Have a word with your care team before you try any of these.

I sincerely hope that things will improve for you soon and you can start to enjoy your meals again. In the meantime, if you feel that you are not getting enough nutrition, you could supplement your meals with high calorie build up drinks or puddings, which can be prescribed for you.

Please keep in touch and let us know how you get on. We are always here for you.

Kind regards,

Jolamine 

Thanks Jolamine - sorry to hear you’re having issues also. I’ve tried most of the things suggested but like you find the only help briefly!

again I am having the high calorie drinks which help eating. I didn’t realise that trying to eat with no taste would be so difficult.

I have a couple of appointments with private nutritionist’s to discuss and see if they can help!

Hi Nick well done in completing treatment I’m Hazel aka radioactiveraz I’m just iver 5 years for treatment for tonsil cancer with lots of affected lymph nodes. Best advise I can give you y may nor like  it but take  the  attitude food is fuel and eat to live not live to eat . It’s what  got me through. Forget about any pleasure in food it will return honest. Big it takes time  think of what you’ve gone through our treatment is brutal. We’re coming up to Christmas what everyone doing they eaten and drinking and wash the two things that you can’t do. You can’t eat or drink successfully enough experience as my treatment finished at the end of August 2018, so I was a bit further on the new Christmas I was approaching for month. My blog is www.radioactiveraz.wordpress .com give it a look it may  encourager but at the moment just continue trying to see what you’re eating wash it down with a small sip of something warm are yours warm herbal  tea it does help it to use something to help food along  

read thus as well 

Hazel x

www.workingwithcancer.co.uk/.../After-the-treatment-finishes-then-what.pdf

Re dry mouth u still use xyimelts bought online the gels didn’t work gif me sgsin if gets better but fry miuyh is my remaining bug hesd along with I csnt tolerate spicy food or alcohol it a side effect if living ehuch I accept. 

m you’ll get there it takes . Tge mouth needs to heal after it’s been poisoned n fried to sn inch of our lives. 
 Hazel 

Hi Nick. Sorry about the last post, this site does weird things when I hit reply. I had a SCC on my tongue and had radiotherapy after the surgery. That was 12 years ago and I think taste had recovered almost completely after a couple of years. I still have a level of issue with saliva and I find that having a glass of water to hand and after chewing to just before the point at which I want to swallow, I take a tiny sip of water to finish chewing and then swallow. That approach means I don't water down the taste of the food until the point of swallowing. I would also like to say that looking after your teeth and gums is a very good idea. My teeth definitely suffered from the RT and recently I´ve been getting some implants to replace a number of teeth. 

Regarding sleeping and the dry mouth I´m afraid I don't have any magic to offer. Initially, I had the problem of lots of gooey saliva making a mess on my pillow but that stopped and I think I have less dry mouth problems now. Sorry, but I don´t remember how long it took to improve. Try not to be impatient. 

I hope all goes well with you.

Thanks - that some read!

Thanks Hazel have been working my way through a few threads 

Thanks Martin, good to know taste does come back even if it takes some time- luckily my swallow is not bad but need water if dry