I didn't lose my ability to taste before surgery, but I did lose it post op. My first 3 days in the hospital I couldn't eat anything - due to extreme nausea that no drugs could cure; the docs tried everything. On day 4, I was finally able to eat but the bland diet they insisted on serving me didn't appeal to me at all. My solution was to simply not eat, which got me a visit from the hospital nutritionist/dietician. She told me I could have anything I wanted, but everything I asked for had no taste. Even food from the "outside" had no taste. On day 2, my kids brought me a Hershey bar - one of my few vices - and it sat on my tray table for the entire time I was in the hospital (6 days).
Once I got home, my taste buds were out of whack for about a month; nothing tasted good; nothing tasted "right" to me. Little by little things started to get better, although I had a fairly regular issue with "metallic mouth". Today, approximately 5 months after surgery, I still get a metallic taste in my mouth although I haven't been able to link it to any specific type of food; it just shows up without warning on occasion. One thing is consistent, though. If I eat anything with salt on it, all I taste is the salt. I'm hoping that one of these days, I'll get past that problem. It would be great to be able to eat popcorn and french fries again.
