Why a bad taste in the mouth after Oral Radiotherapy?

I have recently completed 7 weeks radiotherapy for mouth cancer ( growth on soft Palate ) The taste of eating food is so awful I am sick when I attempt to eat. I am now on a feed drip into the stomach at home. How long will this taste and not being able to eat last? When will I get my taste back and to what degree. When will I be able to eat normaly again?

I had cancer in my nasal sinuses and had 6 weeks of radiotherapy to my face and neck in 2001 following surgery which killed my taste buds which took away my sense of taste and has left me with a permanently dry mouth,for which I use oral mouth spays to relieve this problem. After 5 years I have regained a slight improvement with my sense of taste which has at least given me back some of the pleasure of eating,as like you I couldn't stand the taste of any food of drink.I lost an awfull lot of weight and ended up on a food supplement liquid diet. My taste buds will never recover to normal,(I was informed of this by the radiotherapist) so I have learnt to make the best of what I've got as there is nothing I can do to change things. I would suggest you speak to your GP or hospital consultant for advice.

Those are really ALL questions for your doctor, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense for your "sense of taste" to be all screwed up for a while after oral radiotherapy; your mouth has recently received sufficient levels of targeted radiation to kill the cancer cells. To ensure the tumor was all killed, you almost certainly received some "injury" to healthy cells bordering the cancer cells, so they will need time to recover. Only your doctor can tell you how long this might take in your specific case....ask!

A bad taste in your mouth beats the daylights out of being dead though, don't you think? Congratulations, and best wishes!