Anyone Have A Persistant Salty Taste In Their Mouth?

[Crazycat]

Hi,

  Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. Not that it's a big deal; just that is seems to be another problem endemic to those with our condition. Please refer to the attached link:  http://www.anarchive.org/salty.htm   

         Take care, Paul

[britbert]

Paul,

Thanks for the link you posted.  I just read it.  I have a metalic taste in my mouth and it was one of the first things I noticed right after my surgery.  From your article, it looks like I will just have to learn to live with it.  Thanks again for the info.

Brittany

[Gennysmom]

Paul...you know it's funny....but salty is the one taste that I have lost.  I'd love to have a little of it back!!  No metallic taste yet, but that comes from disturbing the trigeminal nerve, and my doc said he didn't have to mess with it too much since my tumor bent down from the trigem and got tangled in 10, 11, &12. 

[Crazycat]

Kat,

  I didn't even start to sense this salty taste until maybe just a month ago and my surgery was last September! Yet my sense of taste is entirely intact. I've noticed that the source of this saltiness seems to be emanating from the upper left side of my mouth - my AN side.

                    Paul

 

[nannettesea]

Paul,
I don't recall all the details of your surgery, except for the MASSIVE tumor...but salty can be an indicator of CSF leak.  If you're sure you don't have it, then, yeah, tastebuds can get messed up.  Foods didn't start tasting funny to me till about 5 months post op.  Now almost back to normal.  But still don't cry in AN eye EXCEPT when I eat, don't know if that will ever come back.

Of course, I could care less about any of this if d**** dizziness would go away....whining again.
Nan

[matti]

I am over 8 years post op and still have the metallic taste. I can't figure out what triggers it, but in reading the link I saw the mention of ice cream a few times.

Since my surgery I am highly sensitive to salt, everything tastes extremely salty. (Everything except Chocolate thank goodness)

[HeadCase2]

  I had a metallic taste in my mouth for a while post-op.  It has been slowly receding.  Certain foods seemed to make it worse, like lemon juice.  And some foods don't taste the same as they used to. Bing cherries seem to have lost some of their "cherryness".  Cherries were one of my favorite summertime treats.  I guess I'll just have to eat more chocolate.
Regards,
 Rob

[Crazycat]

I'm beginning to think that I may have a small csf leak. That's what i initially thought it was. It's really starting to get to me. It's like having gargled with with warm salt water. It never goes away. I'm in the process of calling my doctors now. It's beginning to overide all other taste sensations.

                          Paul

[Obita]

Paul:

Can leaks still happen this far out from surgery?  Another thing to worry about?  I am anxious to hear what your doctors say.  Twice in the past month or so I thought I tasted something not normal and salty but dismissed it thinking maybe I touched my sweaty upper lip with my tongue??

Kathy

[Crazycat]

Just got word back from Dr. McKenna ( ENT) from Mass Eye & Ear.

He said that it most likely is not a csf leak because of the shunt that I had put in, taking all the pressure off of my cranium in the fluid dept.
He attributes the taste sensations more to an alteration of the "chorda tympani nerve" that can create that salty or metallic taste that we experience. The symptoms may come and go with this. I think that this can be the nature of surgery we've had: problems can arise months or even years after having the procedure done. I had my surgery last September and I didn't begin have this salty taste until two weeks ago.
  CFS leaks are typically more catastrophic than just having a weird taste in your mouth: usually there is a considerable discharge through the nostril or wound accompanied with serious headaches and fever.
  Still waiting for another call back.

Paul

     

[Crazycat]

Appointment with Dr. McKenna, week after next.....

  Paul

[Battyp]

yep ice cream taste bad....too bad sugary foods don't taste bad!  Everything taste salty to me whether it has salt or not. 

[Gennysmom]

I haven't gotten any cherries, but I got some cinnamon raisin bread, and it tastes like cardboard, and it's a great brand.  I can't taste raisins...they don't have a flavor to me.  Other fruits do....including berries.  It's weird. 

Paul...they're right about the CSF leak...if it's not out the wound, it'll be flying out your nose....I walked downstairs and each hard step down the fluid flew out my nose.  It would drip out if I even barely tipped my head forward.  It was salty, but not very much so...not enough to change the flavor of things. 

[Crazycat]

Thanks for the reassurance Kat! Now I'm not so worried. It's probably just a nerve / taste situation - like the doctor said at first.

    Paul

[Sue]

I've had taste problems on the left side of my mouth since I saw my ENT a year ago last April. I mentioned it to him and he said "Well, I don't know." Stupid ENT.  Anyway, I've had that salty kind of taste and sometimes a  metallic taste, and I haven't even had surgery.  So apparently my AN is messing with the nerve responsible for that.

Sue in Vancouver