Everything tastes funny/bad. Is this temporary?

Hi Allyme --

So sorry you're experiencing this terrible side effect -- you may have some interest in checking out the main Breastcancer.org site's pages for tips on Taste and Smell Changes and also Eating When You Have Changes in Your Sense of Taste and Smell.

We're sure others will be by shortly to share their advice, too!

We hope this helps!

--The Mods

Hi Allyme,

When I was doing AC chemo everything had a metallic taste, sometimes adding lemon or maple syrup would help the flavor and sometimes not. I pretty much only found a few foods that didn't taste weird so I stuck with those. I think chemo does cause tastebud changes though, not sure if it's lasting or not though.

Sarah

Hopefully when you get off the taxol your tastebuds will recover. I don't think using plastic silverware was mentioned.  I was always told that will help stop some of the bad taste, it is worth a try.  I can tell you that Herceptin on its own should not affect your taste buds.  I have been on Herceptin for about 7 or more years now with no taste changes except when on some chemos.  Hopefully you will hit a point that you can look at Herceptin and something milder for maintence.  I hope things get better soon for you

Allyme, I used zinc supplements when my taste changed (someone on the boards got that suggestion from an onco nurse). It took 3-4 weeks but my taste very slowly returned to about 85% normal. This was when I was on Afinitor. Taste went back to 100% normal when I went off the drug, and I didn't need zinc after that.

Leah

I've been on Abraxane twice. The first time, my taste buds changed. Just about everything tasted like cardboard. After I stopped chemo, my taste buds came back. The second time, my taste buds didn't change at all. Go figure.

I was on Taxotere evey three weeks and had the same problem. It would start to improve right before the next infusion. I found lemon was the best (lemon piccata chicken, lemon flavored gum, lemon in my water...). As treatment went on things tasted bland and I started craving spicy food, so we ate a lot of Indian and Thai. For about a month I became overly sensitive to black pepper. I could smell it when someone used it at another table when we went out to eat. The good news is everything went back to normal after dropping the Taxotere.