lost sense of taste

   I have only started chemo in the past 5 weeks, although I have been under treatment for Stage lV breast cancer since 1998.  The treatments I get now are Abraxane every week, Avastin every two weeks and an injection of faslodex monthly and zometa monthly.   I noticed I was not tasting salt after a week or two, but did not realize what was happening and just kept adding salt to things.....then my sense of flavors began to diminish.....meat, vegetables, etc, just tasted sort of blah....I could taste spicy, hot things, ....could get taste out of an Italian sub only if it had banana peppers on it.  We went to a Chinese restaurant and I had to ask my husband if the mustard was hot.....only way I could tell the dish itself was spicy was the fact my lips burned after eating.  I did find was able to still taste sweets and went on a kick of eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner....also was eating all sorts of cookies and coffee cakes and things they sell in the checkout line because I knew I could taste them and I was hungry. Then about three days ago, I noticed that I wasn't getting much taste out of my cereal and that I would take one bite of a cookie or doughnut and toss it because it had no taste.  Chocolate was the last thing I was still able to taste and now that is gone also.  I do get hungry, but do not get any real pleasure out of eating since I am not getting any taste out of whatever it is I put in my mouth.  My tongue actually feels like I scalded it with really hot coffee, but think this is due to the fact my mouth is so dry.  I was told this would happen along with possible mouth sores of which I do have a few, but they did not tell me I was going to lose all sense of taste..

     So my question is this......has anyone else completely lost their sense of taste?  Can anyone recommend something that I might be able to get a little flavor out of ?  If you lost your sense of taste while doing chemo, did it return after treatments were finished?  I am sure this is due to the abraxane since this only happened since I started on it.  I suppose when you look at the big picture, not being able to taste is no big deal, but I happen to be a person who really enjoyed food.....love to cook and bake, read every cooking magazine there is, give baked goods as gifts, and actually did catering for awhile.  Now I have to ask people if something tastes good.

I realize this was originally posted a few months ago...but I just came across this site and could relate to so much of what you were saying. I'm in the midst of BEP chemo for a rare ovarian cancer...and I actually still haven't completely regained my sense of taste at the moment, after losing it gradually after my second cycle May 13th. It's been very frustrating for me...at first unable to taste sweet things (sounds like the opposite of what happened to you, at first) and then getting to the point where all i could discern was the textures of foods. No ability to taste whatsoever.

   I too felt like my tongue had been burned...like when you try to drink tea or coffee that's too hot. I lost interest in eating because I couldn't taste anything...but I made sure to eat a little anyway because I knew I needed to.

   I hope by now you've gotten your sense of taste back...I guess alot of people dealing with chemo have trouble with that, or with distorted taste so know you're definitely not alone.