Hi,
I am nine weeks post-surgery (Aug 21 - it's now Oct 21) and still having terrible taste issues. I was taking self-prescribed zinc and alpha lipoic acid for a few weeks and things started to very slightly improve, in that some bland foods such as chips and bananas tasted almost normal. Devastatingly, though, over the past seven days or so, the metallic taste is back and all food tastes terrible. I don't know why this has happened - perhaps because I cut down on the zinc (from 50mg to 25mg) and stopped taking the Alpha lipoic acid due to reflux issues. If anyone out there has experienced a similar set back and later recovered please post. I'm desperate for a positive story. Thanks
I am nine weeks post-surgery (Aug 21 - it's now Oct 21) and still having terrible taste issues. I was taking self-prescribed zinc and alpha lipoic acid for a few weeks and things started to very slightly improve, in that some bland foods such as chips and bananas tasted almost normal. Devastatingly, though, over the past seven days or so, the metallic taste is back and all food tastes terrible. I don't know why this has happened - perhaps because I cut down on the zinc (from 50mg to 25mg) and stopped taking the Alpha lipoic acid due to reflux issues. If anyone out there has experienced a similar set back and later recovered please post. I'm desperate for a positive story. Thanks
I’m only 13 and one month in. I’m able to eat semi-normally but nothing seems to taste good. And it only seems to be on the sides of my tongue. So I can’t really chew with my back teeth because it tastes so bad and I’ve lost way too much weight and it’s quite terrible.
Please tell me it got better
I had my surgery 4 weeks ago and I still can’t eat nothing everything taste like c**p I drink tea and ensures and that’s it I am 43 I have lost 30 pounds and still loosing I haven’t found anything that I can eat that taste good my health is going down hill bad cause I can’t eat I don’t know what to do
I’ve gotten mine done about 5 days ago ..everything I eat and drink taste disgusting so I haven’t eaten within those days ...it’s worst then the pain ..and it doesn’t help my tongue hurts hopefully my taste comes back soon
If you swish pop around in youre mouth you will be able to drink it with much less pain but i still crabe it since it tastes bad
as long as you swish them around in your mouth fizzy drinks are fine but rootbeer tastes awful
Hi! Its been a while since the original post but I wanted to add another positive perspective with some helpful tips for others reading this.
I am 19 and it's been 2 weeks since my surgery. I had my adenoids and tonsils out, my doctor said my tonsils were the size of golf balls and they found several tonsil stones in each. Therefore, they were expecting a rather painful recovery (more so than normal). However, I do have to say looking back it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Yes there was pain but I found that drinking as much water as possible helped a lot! The mornings were the worst for me since the medication had worn off, and I couldn't take more until I ate, which was difficult. The best thing to do is just push through it. Once you start swallowing it'll get much better. The more you swallow the easier it gets, so keep drinking!
As for food, the quicker you start eating regular foods the faster and better the recovery. I started out with soft food, ans was eating pasta and Mac and cheese on day 4 up until about day 8, the more I ate the easier it was. Swallowing did become difficult then due to the scabs, avoid anything spicy or salty because that really irritated the open wounds. Also at this point anything like pudding or yogurt was sticking in the back of my throat and hurting, so I wasn't really eating anything. After a few days I found myself getting a bit depressed and was barely eating anything for the next 2 or 3 days. I started getting very dizzy due to not eating which just worsened my mood. However around day 11 or 12 I felt so much better and started forcing myself to eat again, and again, the more I ate the better. It's day 13 and I ate completely normal today! Still a bit of pain swallowing, but it's much better. My doctor said coughing, sneezing and yawning would still be a bit painful for another week or so, but the worst is definitely over.
Also yes I also find a strange bitter taste with sweets, but not much with savory foods. Hoping this gets better and I hope this helps! Remember, just keep eating and drinking, the more swallowing the quicker it'll be over! Good luck!
I am 19 and it's been 2 weeks since my surgery. I had my adenoids and tonsils out, my doctor said my tonsils were the size of golf balls and they found several tonsil stones in each. Therefore, they were expecting a rather painful recovery (more so than normal). However, I do have to say looking back it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Yes there was pain but I found that drinking as much water as possible helped a lot! The mornings were the worst for me since the medication had worn off, and I couldn't take more until I ate, which was difficult. The best thing to do is just push through it. Once you start swallowing it'll get much better. The more you swallow the easier it gets, so keep drinking!
As for food, the quicker you start eating regular foods the faster and better the recovery. I started out with soft food, ans was eating pasta and Mac and cheese on day 4 up until about day 8, the more I ate the easier it was. Swallowing did become difficult then due to the scabs, avoid anything spicy or salty because that really irritated the open wounds. Also at this point anything like pudding or yogurt was sticking in the back of my throat and hurting, so I wasn't really eating anything. After a few days I found myself getting a bit depressed and was barely eating anything for the next 2 or 3 days. I started getting very dizzy due to not eating which just worsened my mood. However around day 11 or 12 I felt so much better and started forcing myself to eat again, and again, the more I ate the better. It's day 13 and I ate completely normal today! Still a bit of pain swallowing, but it's much better. My doctor said coughing, sneezing and yawning would still be a bit painful for another week or so, but the worst is definitely over.
Also yes I also find a strange bitter taste with sweets, but not much with savory foods. Hoping this gets better and I hope this helps! Remember, just keep eating and drinking, the more swallowing the quicker it'll be over! Good luck!
I had mine out about 3 weeks ago and was looking for this exact same thing. things don't taste bad. they just don't really taste much at all. nothing is sweet and that sucks cuz I have a major sweet tooth it actually didn't really start till about 2 weeks in when everything else was getting better I wondered if it had to do with the scabs. stuff like yogert is realy bityer. no flavor just like its plain (grose) so i can tast the sour and bityer undertones of things. nothing sweet. chicolate is mildly sweet. its veey straing. defantaly makes eating less enjoyable.
Hello all,
If you have come across this page, then like most people here you probably are suffering from the unfortunate loss of taste after having a tonsillectomy surgery.
As I’m writing this it is 18/06/2018. I had my tonsillectomy just over a year ago on 31/05/2017. Today, I just had a biscuit and thought to myself... I CAN totally taste that!!! And with that thought I decided to write this to give you all some encouragement and to assure you that it may be difficult now but – as I experienced – there is light at the end of that tunnel!
Rewind back to about a month after I had my tonsillectomy, I was absolutely distraught!!! I had had a successful surgery. The tonsils were successfully removed (albeit it being the most agonizing thing I had EVER been thorough - I might make a separate post about the actual surgery). But upon my recovery from the pain and being able to eat normal food again, I discovered - to my horror - that everything I ate was either tasting BLAND, or I could not taste it at all.
Here are the things I noticed:
I could not taste sweet things (i.e. Coca Cola, biscuits, chocolates etc). These were all just very bland and I couldn’t register the sweetness at all.
Savoury foods (which I LIVE for) all tasted very strange! Very distorted from what they should have normally tasted like.
Ultimately, the process of eating food was just not a pleasant one anymore. Sure, we need to eat to survive but I LOVE eating and not just because I have to. I LOVE the taste of food and the taste accounts for about 80% of the fun of eating. You can imagine then how sad and upset I was about this.
I researched as much as I could to find something… ANYTHING that would help. But it was not easy. I found in my medical pack from when I had the surgery that recovery time from this issue does vary depending on the person. For some it can be 6 weeks… for others 6 months… And for very few up to 18 – 24 month. You can only imagine my horror!
So you all might want to know HOW LONG TILL I TASTE AGAIN THEN? Well, my manager who had the same surgery about 2 months before I did had hardly any problem at all. She said that her only issue was that she couldn’t taste wine after the surgery, but this cleared up after about a month. That was it!!!
For me – on the other hand – it took a while. I know for a FACT that for at least 3 months, I could not taste things well. But, slowly the taste began to come back. Savoury foods slowly but surely started to taste like normal again. I know that sweet foods took longer (e.g., it took a while before I could enjoy Haagen Daz Cookies & Cream again). But I can assure you, I do now.
So my message to you all is this…
There was a time about 2 – 3 months after my surgery, when I was CERTAIN that I wasn’t going to taste food as I used to. It was challenging and frankly, quite possibly the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced in life! But, please be reassured that it WILL get better. For me, thankfully it didn’t take as long as I could have done. I believe that EVERYONE will have this issue if you’ve had a tonsillectomy, but I also believe that EVERYONE will recover from it (unless there truly was a complication during the surgery). You might not even realise that it has got better. For a while, I was questioning whether I could actually taste things again or whether I was just used to the fact that I can’t taste. Thankfully, I can report that it’s the former and not the latter.
So hold your head!!! You WILL get through this rough stage. Remain positive and before you realise it your taste will come back. Everyone is different, so everyone will experience different recovery times. BUT YOU WILL RECOVER!!!
And lastly, I will like to encourage you to write about your experience when you do recover just to add variety and to let people know how long it took you.
Thanks… and remember…. There is a light (and taste) at the end of that tunnel!
Christopher
If you have come across this page, then like most people here you probably are suffering from the unfortunate loss of taste after having a tonsillectomy surgery.
As I’m writing this it is 18/06/2018. I had my tonsillectomy just over a year ago on 31/05/2017. Today, I just had a biscuit and thought to myself... I CAN totally taste that!!! And with that thought I decided to write this to give you all some encouragement and to assure you that it may be difficult now but – as I experienced – there is light at the end of that tunnel!
Rewind back to about a month after I had my tonsillectomy, I was absolutely distraught!!! I had had a successful surgery. The tonsils were successfully removed (albeit it being the most agonizing thing I had EVER been thorough - I might make a separate post about the actual surgery). But upon my recovery from the pain and being able to eat normal food again, I discovered - to my horror - that everything I ate was either tasting BLAND, or I could not taste it at all.
Here are the things I noticed:
I could not taste sweet things (i.e. Coca Cola, biscuits, chocolates etc). These were all just very bland and I couldn’t register the sweetness at all.
Savoury foods (which I LIVE for) all tasted very strange! Very distorted from what they should have normally tasted like.
Ultimately, the process of eating food was just not a pleasant one anymore. Sure, we need to eat to survive but I LOVE eating and not just because I have to. I LOVE the taste of food and the taste accounts for about 80% of the fun of eating. You can imagine then how sad and upset I was about this.
I researched as much as I could to find something… ANYTHING that would help. But it was not easy. I found in my medical pack from when I had the surgery that recovery time from this issue does vary depending on the person. For some it can be 6 weeks… for others 6 months… And for very few up to 18 – 24 month. You can only imagine my horror!
So you all might want to know HOW LONG TILL I TASTE AGAIN THEN? Well, my manager who had the same surgery about 2 months before I did had hardly any problem at all. She said that her only issue was that she couldn’t taste wine after the surgery, but this cleared up after about a month. That was it!!!
For me – on the other hand – it took a while. I know for a FACT that for at least 3 months, I could not taste things well. But, slowly the taste began to come back. Savoury foods slowly but surely started to taste like normal again. I know that sweet foods took longer (e.g., it took a while before I could enjoy Haagen Daz Cookies & Cream again). But I can assure you, I do now.
So my message to you all is this…
There was a time about 2 – 3 months after my surgery, when I was CERTAIN that I wasn’t going to taste food as I used to. It was challenging and frankly, quite possibly the biggest challenge I’ve ever faced in life! But, please be reassured that it WILL get better. For me, thankfully it didn’t take as long as I could have done. I believe that EVERYONE will have this issue if you’ve had a tonsillectomy, but I also believe that EVERYONE will recover from it (unless there truly was a complication during the surgery). You might not even realise that it has got better. For a while, I was questioning whether I could actually taste things again or whether I was just used to the fact that I can’t taste. Thankfully, I can report that it’s the former and not the latter.
So hold your head!!! You WILL get through this rough stage. Remain positive and before you realise it your taste will come back. Everyone is different, so everyone will experience different recovery times. BUT YOU WILL RECOVER!!!
And lastly, I will like to encourage you to write about your experience when you do recover just to add variety and to let people know how long it took you.
Thanks… and remember…. There is a light (and taste) at the end of that tunnel!
Christopher
Have u got ur taste back
Hey, check out my post about my full tonsillectomy story for some good news! But I am now 4 weeks post-op and I think food tasted normal to me!
Technically your tonsils can grow back, it’s rare. So I’m sorry but it’s possible to have this surgery more than once...
Hello, did the metallic taste go away? It’s been one month since my tonsillectomy and all I can taste is salty in my mouth. Thanks
Tom, did you ever recover and did the metallic taste disappear? I’m having similar issues.
Thank you
Leslie
Thank you
Leslie