ANA Discussion Forum

Post-Treatment => Post-Treatment => Topic started by: MSchmit on May 19, 2016, 01:26:14 pm

Title: Cannot Taste Sweets
Post by: MSchmit on May 19, 2016, 01:26:14 pm
Am just over a week out from surgery to remove left side AN (retrosigmoid approach). As expected, I lost the hearing on my left side. One thing I wasn't expecting was the changes to my sense of taste. I cannot taste anything sweet. Soda, tomato sauce, licorice, have absolutely no flavor. I can however taste every grain of salt in anything I eat. Does anyone else have experience with this?  Did your taste eventually return to normal?  How long did it take?
Title: Re: Cannot Taste Sweets
Post by: Greece Lover on May 19, 2016, 02:31:13 pm
My doc said this can happen and it usually resolves in a few months. Mine was 10 days ago and I've got it a little bit.
Title: Re: Cannot Taste Sweets
Post by: Tod on May 19, 2016, 08:03:52 pm
It happened to me as a long-term phenomenon. Six years later I still only about 60% ability to taste sugars. I'm also an extreme case with a 32-hour surgery, so you might want to take my experience with a grain or two of salt.

Title: Re: Cannot Taste Sweets
Post by: Rhcdad on May 21, 2016, 06:07:10 am
I am 7 months post surgery and my sense of taste if far from good, It was worse earlier and seems at times to get a little better but then I will have taste issues. I am guessing mine will always be messed up. I am accepting it as the the new normal and knowing that there are far greater problems associated with recovery. Stay Strong!
Title: Re: Cannot Taste Sweets
Post by: rupert on May 21, 2016, 08:18:33 pm
My taste was skewed 3-4 years before I was diagnosed.  It would come and go and of course I had no idea that I had an AN at that time.    Sometimes there was  a burning feeling on the tip of my tongue and some foods would taste completely normal and others would taste awful.   A lot of food tasted  like wet cardboard,  and certain soft drinks would taste so bad you couldn't drink them.  Then it would go away for a while.  I had the dreaded metallic taste only once or twice.   Thankfully, I have not had these issues since the GK procedure 6 years ago.  Once in a great while I will get a very mild burning sensation on my tongue but the taste issues have resolved.  So, you can develop taste issues both before and after treatment.
Title: Re: Cannot Taste Sweets
Post by: DizzyMamaIL on May 22, 2016, 10:53:42 am
I had a strange taste issue where everything tasted like cheap chemicals - the only way I can think to describe it that only happened twice so far during the first and second weeks of my IMRT and only for a few hours when I was sleep-deprived and my baby had woken me in the middle of the night for a feeding. Hopefully that wasn't a sign of things to come.