A guy with no taste

Just when I thought I escaped my radiation therapy with almost no side effects, I lost my sense of taste this week. It came on slowly, last Sunday. At my celebratory Red Lobster gorge, I was left less than satisfied, but I chalked it up not having been to RL in about 4 years. Then, we bought all kinds of great looking fruit at Costco, and I was disappointed in all of it. The strawberries looked ripe but had no sweetness, and the grapes were simply awful, tasted like water. And on Monday I was certain the cereal I had for breakfast was stale or something because it didn't taste right either. Then in the afternoon I got a crazy metallic taste in my mouth, like when you lick a 9-volt battery (what?? you've never done this?? clearly you didn't grow up having somebody like my sister around), I figured out what was going on Tuesday, after thinking about Becca's chipotle shrimp I had eaten Monday night, and how it just tasted bland and greasy (its usually spicy as hell and fantastic). And when I looked up "RAI and taste" on Google, sure enough, about half the people who go through radioactive iodine lose their taste at about 10 days later.

So, I have been dealing with that, but its no big deal. Just kinds sucks. What's weird is that while my sense of sweet, sour, and salty is totally gone, I can detect bitter, So, coffee is still pretty good, just tastes like its black whether I put sugar in it or not. And chocolate all tastes like its extra dark. Fritos, a mainstay of my diet, are absolutely disgusting, like soap. Tonight we got Applebees take out, and I thought I could tast the salt on the fries, so maybe my sense of salt is coming back. From what I have read this shouldn't last more than a month.

I've still been feeling great otherwise. I was going for 5 out of 5 work days riding to work this week, but I only got 3. Wednesday I was way too sore to bike to work after having done a brick plus weights on Tuesday. Yep, I had my first run since June 21 (mile 14 of IMCDA), it was 3 miles and I felt pretty good. And on Friday it rained its butt off here, so I canned it. This week I will try to run to work at least twice (9 miles per day). I like having these commuting goals as a good way to get back in shape.