taste buds

[janevo]

Hi, My SAH was on 14th June 2010 and I have found this site brilliant. As already stated you get very little info from the hospital. My questions on double vision, vertigo and tiredness have all been answered by the members but I cannot find anything on change in taste buds. May not sound important but it is really affecting me as I am trying to build myself back up but everything tastes disgusting - even water. I'm hoping you will all tell me that it is temporary and I'll be eating normally in a few months.

Janevo:shocked:

[Super Mario]

Hi Janevo, welcome to the site.

After my SAH most things tasted foul. I couldn't drink tea, for instance, had to drink coffee or those flavoured waters. In the food line the only things that didn't taste awful were smoked fish like haddock and salads. I lived on these for a few months but gradually my normal taste came back. Sorry I can't give you a more specific time scale because I remember so little of those times.

Please be aware that everyone's recovery is a very individual thing.

[janevo]

thanks penny, it's a relief to know that it does get better.

[Karen]

Hi Janevo,

One of our members, Anne Fleming has posted a thread in the past on this subject and it may be of help to you - Click on the following link: http://www.behindthegray.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?4678-sense-of-taste-affected-by-SAH

My sense of taste altered after the SAH and anything sweet, seemed to taste overly sweet and quite disgusting.... even some toothpaste. I'm still the same really and even though I used to love my cakes, biscuits and chocolate, I barely touch them now, unless I crave a sugar fix due to tiredness! I used to love my puds and desserts if we went out for a meal, but now, I'm more likely to choose the cheeseboard or not have a dessert at all. xx

[maggie]

hi Janevo, You sound just as frustrated and fed up about the taste buds as I was.It took me at least 3 months to start eating properly but by then I had gradually introduced some foods and started to enjoyed them. Chocolate was one of the first things I enjoyed:shock: . But for the first three months I was a nightmare to feed,all meals had to be plain without seasoning , herbs etc. I pulled my face at most things because they tasted discusting. I slowly introduced different foods in my diet and by ten months I was enjoying most foods again;-). Am now back to my normal likes and dislikes apart from the food I had eaten emmediately prior to my SAH.That I will never eat again,thank goodness it wasn't fish and chips! Maggiex

[Liz D]

Hi Janevo

Gosh I had forgotten about my tast buds! Most things tasted bland for me post SAH. My poor husband would slave away in the kitchen trying to make something that would tast nice for me, but to no avail! At first I tried adding salt but that didn't help! I think it lasted for about 3 months maybe 4. Before my SAH I was a bit of a chocoholic but not now. I'm like Karen, I'd rather have a cheeseboard than a pud, something that surprises a lot of people! My appetite is smaller and I find that if I have a pud I can feel a bick sickly.

My sense of smell has been affected quite a lot and this has had an affect on my sense of taste. Before my SAH I enjoyed a nice hot curry but post SAH all I taste is the chilli and no other flavour, so I now have very mild curries so that I can at least taste something. But this is down to my sense of smell.

Isn't so surprising just how many things are affected by a SAH but thank goodness for BTG!

[Anne Fleming]

Hi Janevo

Yes I can sympathise on the taste bud problem. I had a very distorted sense of taste and smell post my SAH and could only eat bland food such as porridge, mashed potato and ice-cream plus a special drink my GP gave me. I was very distressed about the whole situation as most things tasted and smelled like sewage. My GP had never had a patient with this particular problem before and my neurologists had heard of it but had not encountered it in such an extreme form as mine. They couldn't tell me whether it would get better or not.

It's now more than 2 and a half years since my SAH. I can now eat most things. The improvement has been very gradual. I remember being with family for Xmas 13 months after my SAH and everything tasted horrid and I was so upset but when I went back to visit them 12 months later I could eat and even enjoy the food.

I would be hopeful that you will be able to enjoy food again but it could take time and maybe between 2 and 3 years, as it has done in my case. Any progress may well be very slow.

I saw a neurpsychologist who gave me a few sessions of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which helped me to accept the problem as I was very depressed with it and thought that I would never be able to eat food again or even be able to endure going into a restaurant as the smell was so awful.

I think in my case my taste buds were distorted and my sense of taste and smell both heightened. In my case I think 2 things happened - my taste buds improved and also I came to accept mentally that my taste wouldn't be 100% and I have accepted it as it now is which is fine. I think you should perhaps not focus on it too much just now (I tortured myself by trying foods every week to see if they tasted less horrid and they never seemed too!)

I hope this helpful. But do PM or write again if I can be of any further help to you.

With best wishes

Anne

[janevo]

Anne, you are the 1st person to mention the taste and smell of sewage. They all think I'm crazy here cause every time I go outdoors I can smell sewage. I even had my hubby digging up the lawn cause I thought something was decomposing underneath it. (He only dug up a bit - just to humour me). I've introduced new foods and although I haven't found anything tasty, I'm taking your advice and just eating the most palatable things to keep me going as I have lost so much weight. I'm now down to a size 8 - never thought I would see that again. I've started to drink coffee instead of tea and am having an aloe based milk shake every morning to give me the nutrition I need.

[rod123]

Hi and welcome,my wife had her sah in march 2009 and has had no sense of smell or taste eversince, hope it improves for you Best wishes Rod

[Anne Fleming]

Hi Janevo

I think one of the reasons I found it all so upsetting with my taste buds was that when I came round in hospital, I was determined to look after myself, eat really well and cook from scratch etc (I have never been a fan of cooking!) once I got home. That didn't happen because of the bad taste/smell problem. Instead I was sitting down to bowls of vanilla ice-cream, porridge, mashed potato and not much else. It seemed a very unbalanced diet but my GP told me not to worry and gave me a drink with vitamins and minerals in it.

Yes people used to look a bit alarmed when I described smells and taste like sewage.

I would also notice the smell of people's hair on the bus and once someone took off their shoes and it nearly knocked me out. Also I did notice very bad smells in the garden too but I am not certain whether they were real or phantom.

A lot of my distress came from it being a very odd problem which I couldn't have in any way imagined before I had it. But you're definitely not alone in this as I'm sure that while it's not that common after SAH it must happen to a fair few people.

Best wishes

Anne x

[Bluemoose]

I also had small and taste changes, but it started to settle down after 3-4 months.

In contract to previous posts, I actually became partial to highly spiced foods; in the past I liked a good curry, but it didn;t excite me. I could eat rogan josh every night now:lol:

Alcohol was strange; before I was a big drinker but 6months later I am still on a much lower intake. I now fancy a beer or glass of wine most nights; but I only want one or two. I have no desire for a whole bottle.

I hope your taste settles down; don't forget having different tastes now is not necessarily a bad thing. If you find a new secret pleasure, embrace it and enjoy.

[janevo]

Hi, thanks for your input. I didn't drink a lot but enjoyed the occasional brandy. I was gutted last week as I tried one but it was disgusting. However, although my taste is not right I have found a few things that are not tasting as bad. you are right about the curry - had one the other night which I would never have tried pre SAH. Going to Turkey end of this month so am hoping to find something to eat and drinik while I'm away.

[Gill C]

Janevo enjoy Turkey, my fave holiday destination in the world & the food is generally very good.

I haven't a problem with taste buds but when in hosptial they were giving me sodium tablets & everything tasted sslty including weetabix!