Head and Neck cancers Support Group

my staple the last 7 months has been ensure

when i had radiation 39n to my mouth. i could not eat anything. boost and insure. i did not want the feeding tube. i lost 40 lbs. but i survived that.i also had bad sores in mouth and food started to taste like metal.. it will get better after treatment but will take some time.

I am alway surprised when I here that no feeding tube was needed. I had to use the feeding tube all the while I was getting radiation. I had home health people set up a pump and they provided the liquid diet. That way it was covered by insurance. Oatmeal was the first thing I ate and with a plastic spoon because of the metal taste. It has been two years now and I now eat eggs, spagetti, taco salads, chilli, soups, and shrimp. Still no breads. I miss many foods, but I have to keep eating. If you are thin to begin with, I would not risk losing more because you need your strength to get through this. If you have anymore questions, please ask.

Paula

Hello,I'm new to this group however I do have a question for those of you who replyed to this question...I'm here to support my dad:) he has a trach in place,for those of you who are able to eat do you also have a trach?he's having a real hard time swalling anything and they just streched his esophgus,so we are praying that helps.thanks everyone for helping us out and supporting one another:)

i know it has been a while for this comment , but just wanted to add that mcdonalds shakes helped me and i would add protien mix to it. i could not stomach the thickness of ensure. the shakes had just enough of water and ice in it for it to go down smoother. when you lose your tastebuds like i did,it was all about getting the nutrition not the taste at the time. also i was fat to start out and could not get food down my throat at first for many weeks. so i did not have a choice and had to get a feeding tube. i don't regret it , it saved my life cause i was able to stay strong during the treatments still lost a lot of weight but kept most of my muscle mass because of the protien shakes i was taking and the liquid in my tube helped as well.

Hi Lease,

I'm 6 years out - surgery, chem and rads - don't know if you are aware of SPOHNC - non- profit support group that helped me a lot with eating issues.

I'm trying to raise so funds for them - see attached link - if you go to their site (link shown on my Indiegogo campaign) you can find a lot of good info along with a couple of publications that might help.

Hang in there!

http://www.indiegogo.com/head-and-n...