Back to the Feeding Tube

I guess the word setback should be familiar by now. At least the time between setbacks is increasing.

I'm back to getting my food out of a can and through a tube until the docs figure out why my digestive system is freaking out. Step 1 is to go back to what was last known to work, which is the feeding tube. The digestive problems began within days of starting to eat solid food.

Everything else is going pretty well. Sleep is still a major issue, and waking up 4 to 6 times a night because of digestive problems doesn't help any.

Eating was progressing nicely. Swallowing was getting more accurate and stronger. I was to the point where I would have eaten salad in public. No meat other than cocktail shrimp on the salad and not much cheese, but I can go that route.

Taste was another matter. At first it was so great just to be able to eat that I ignored what things tasted like. When it comes to repeating foods and trying to figure out a week's worth of food, taste becomes a factor.

Pretty much everything tastes awful and maybe half the things I used to like are just downright nasty tasting. Some are so bad I can't tolerate them in my mouth. I have to have Robby sample my food, because I'm convinced a lot of it is rotten based on my taste. It's not. The big surprise is pasta, which tastes like rancid vegetable oil.

It's pretty tough to enjoy eating when the taste is nasty, chewing everything to a fine pulp is required and tiring to those muscles, and swallowing presents a risk of some unpleasant throat work to clear food out of my air ways. There are some foods I am avoiding because I really like them and don't want to have any memories of how they would taste now. It's too late for shrimp. They lead the way for tasting spoiled. Gotta love the taste of spoiled seafood. Yummy, yummy.

I'm reminded of the description of a smell I was producing at the worst of the chemo and radiation. Stuff was dying all over inside me and there was something I was producing that I described as smelling like two skunks fighting over a dead fish.

Refried Beans and Fried Eggs

Well, that's the best things on my diet right now.

I can swallow stuff, but what I can realistically eat is pretty limited. Meat is really tough. Wienies just barely make it. Burger works if there's lots of gravy or other sauce. Pork chops cooked in the top of a crock pot (really tender and moist) work - barely.

Then it gets into taste. Fortunately, I've never been picky on taste. Swallowing is hard work for me, and it seems even harder for things that taste bad. I was hoping that my brand new taste buds would give me great taste, but that's not the way it's working. Right now, fried eggs are the best tasting thing I eat. I pretty much can't taste sweet, and that really messes things up. Here's a bit of a rundown on things I've tried and what I've found from a taste aspect:

Bananas - Disgusting. Knock out the sweet part and they're nasty, but I eat them.
Chocolate - Disappointing. I have to enjoy the bitter aspects.
Shrimp - Great. Plus, my mouth rinse brings out the flavor for extended time.
Budweiser - Tastes like a good import with not great hops.
Tea - The bitter flavors are great and very pronounced.
Coffee - Very strong flavor. Good for enjoying the bitter.
Wienies - Way too spicy. They almost burn my mouth.
Salsa - Yikes! Pace medium is hot, hot, hot! I miss hot sauces.
Berries - Almost inedible. take out the sweet and they're nasty.
Rice - Bland. Just like rice tastes normally.
Long grain and wild rice - Tastes exactly like I would expect dirt to taste.
Cashews - Unbelievable. I can taste the nut butter (like peanut butter) and salt tastes and They're awesome together.
Yogurt - Unpleasant. The worst parts of the "yogurt" taste are turned up to the max and the sweet and fruits added don't have a good taste, but yogurt is still a major part of my diet.
Pork chops - Almost tasteless.
Grilled hamburger - Almost tasteless.
Sausage gravy - Intensely spicy, but tasty.

Most food is unpleasant to taste. That's an improvement over August when I was eating before the pneumonia. Back then I had two taste sensations: 1) Nothing and 2) My mouth is on fire.

I can eat a max of maybe 12 ounces at a time. That will generally require about 16 ounces of water to get everything swallowed. My swallowing mechanism gets tired during that much. Once that happens, I may as well quit trying to eat because I'm swallowing too weakly to get anything down.

Fortunately, my swallowing mechanism gets tired about the wsame time as my stomach gets filled. I'm eating more smaller meals than I used to.