Taste Issues

[toddnelson]

I’ve lost my sense of taste. Almost completely. I’m in a wait and see mode now. Has anyone else experienced this and does taste return after either a radiation or surgical
Intervention, or just after a period of time?  This tumor is hard enough on me. Losing my sense of taste just makes it so much worse. My doc says in most cases taste returns but I wanted to hear from some of our own community. Thanks.

[Director]

Hi toddnelson,

Thanks for your question, I hope others will share their experiences here.

In the meantime, the ANA published an article on taste changes in the March 2020 issue of our newsletter, NOTES, that you may find helpful.  It's archived in the Member Section of the ANA website. 

Thanks again -
The ANA Team

[Greece Lover]

Hi,
After my surgery my taste was all messed up.  things tasted metallic, especially things that were salty and acidic.  I think I survived for about two weeks just on banana bread!
But it came back, no issues now.  It was probably 4- 6 months of weird taste before it came back to normal. 

You're pre-treatment, right?  Don't take this wrong way, but one thing I struggled with (and I've talked to others on here about this, too), is what I called "ghost" symptoms.  Because you know there's a tumor in your head, I got super sensitive and focused so intensely on various things in my face/head, that I think I convinced myself a few times that I was having symptoms that maybe really weren't there.  I"m not suggesting that this is the case for you necessarily, but it was part of the journey for me. 

Anyway, best of luck!

[UkulelesAreAwesome]

Hi toddnelson. I had gamma knife in August 2022. Prior to that I had a burning tongue. After gamma knife I've experienced some odd changes in taste. Some things taste like metal. I haven't found a way to solve the problem, but drinking a lot of non carbonated beverages like water or Kool aid seems to help a little for me.