Help! Water tastes just awful!

My 26-year-old niece has recently completed 3 cycles of chemo and is having a difficult time drinking water. I, along with the rest of my family, am very concerned as she takes in just mouthsful throughuot the day. My niece explains that water tastes very sweet and that it is an awful task for her to drink.

Can anyone explain why water tastes so be during chemo, and also, what are some of the things we can do to help her consume water. Is there something in particular we can add to it. Please let me know. Thanks.

bfree welcome to the forum

Perhaps it are the chemical particles that become free that change the taste-buds when having undergone that treatment.

I think you can perhaps advise her to either drink juice or change the taste of water by adding pure lemon juice to it, so she will at least consume enough liquids.

Hamsa, What about puttting tang in it too with the lemon. Orange flavor and vitamins too. bfree my prays are with your family Take care Debbie

Bfree will you let us know if you found something that have helped making the water taste better for your niece?

Normal (conventional) chemotherapy kills both cancer cells and healthy normal cells (mainly rapidly-dividing cells). Oncologists try to minimize damage to normal cells and to enhance the cell-killing effect on cancer cells. Too often, this delicate balance is not achieved.

Conventional Chemo is a sledgehammer, killing all rapidly dividing cells whether they are out-of-control cancerous ones or healthy ones that naturally grow quickly, like the mucous lining the lips, tongue and mouth, Candida (thrush) and stomach. That's why chemo causes hair loss, by producing a weakened hair shaft that breaks off at the scalp. Hair may take years to return to normal.

Nausea and vomiting are common. Many patients get sick just pulling into the hospital parking lot. Such nausea can lead to weakness, weight loss, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Abdominal colic, constipation, diarrhea are all common. It all comes with the territory.

Targeted therapy drugs interfere with specific molecules (receptors and enzymes inside and outside a cancer cell). By focusing on these molecular and cellular changes, targeted cancer drugs go after the "target" in these cells, rather than just all cells. Because of this, "targeted" drugs may be more effective than current treatments, and may be less harmful to normal cells.

So, gpawelski are you saying that no matter what is added to the water bfree's niece won't be helped by it because of her tastebuds being impaired?

Whatever suggestions bfree can gather from wherever to enhance her niece's tastebuds may help. The tastebuds took a whipping. There are solutions to help rid the thrush on the tongue. It's a constant battle. The more she rids the thrush the better the tastebuds may become again.

I would try to spice my wife's food as much as I could. Fortunately, she was one that always liked spicy food. Her spice rack had its own closet. I always supplement her meals with Ensure-like protein drinks and vitamin and mineral supplements.

Even resorted to giving her Megace. When my wife was brought home from the hospital, she was an eighty-five pound weakling. I did some research about Megace and the concept that it could bring back the weight loss of cancer patients. Our local pharmacist said there would be a 50-50 chance that Megace could work at gaining her weight back. The only way to find out if it would work was to try it (although it is enormously expensive). Within three months, she gain back 2/3rds of her normal weight. Actually, she gain back all the desired weight she lost. She made an extremely good comback! Although, in the end, her PE would have been most attributed to the advanced stages of her chemo-radiation necrosis and not from the small increased risk of blood clots in advanced cancer patients who take Megace.

Years later, I received an email from the lead investigator of a study on Megace for weight gain at Wake Forest University Medical Center. I had related the experience my wife had with Megace. My wife's experience was very informative for him and heightened his encouragement of his studies. His research study showed that Megace (megestrol acetate) may help combat the severe weight loss that can plague patients undergoing radiation treatment. He was then going to do a study to see if it improves survival in patients who have lost weight and then gain it back on the Megace. He was also looking at a new form of Megace called Megace ES, which may actually be a better formulation of Megace.

Wow, that is all very informative, Gpawelski. It hurts me to think you had to go through so much pain in order to become so knowledgeable. But, I bet your wife would have been very proud in you, and also for the effort you put into sharing this knowledge so others may benefit from it.