The purpose of chemotherapy is to kill the fast growing cancer cells. Chemo also kills off any other cells in your body that reproduce quickly. Those cells include your hair, esophageal lining, and taste buds.

Many cancer patients find that the foods they loved no longer taste good. This is because of the chemo killing off the taste buds. Only they don't kill off all of them, so some taste is possible. The salty taste buds seem to have died off very fast for me. I had to watch myself, because I found myself pouring salt on everything, trying to get it to taste like something to me. There was only one time when I tried to eat something I really liked, and couldn't because I couldn't properly taste. That one thing was cranberry sauce. I took one bite of it, and spit it out. To me, even though it was made with fresh cranberries, it tasted just like bad fish.

The lining of my throat was painfully sore for about five days after chemo, sometimes a bit longer. Anything I tried to eat, no matter the temperature, or the texture, solid or liquid, it all felt as if I were trying to swallow shards of glass. Because it was so painful to eat or drink, I usually didn't eat for a few days.

Quite often, I have heard stories of people who have cancer that has either relapsed, or become so advanced, that there isn't much doctors can do. In that event, more often than not, the patient chooses to stop treatment so that they can enjoy what time they have left. This isn't as unusual as it sounds. And no matter what anyone says, it is not giving up on life. It is coming to the realization that you are now living on borrowed time, and you might as well make the best of it.

No one likes being sick and being completely unable to do anything. Unfortunately, that is what can happen to a person living with cancer. Just because the person is sick does not mean that he or she has totally given up on life. If anything, they want to go out and do more things. With limited stamina, there aren't many options. If you find out that there's nothing more that can be done, the chances of you deciding to continue treatment and remain unable to do anything is slim. Knowing that, most people would choose to go see anything and everything they can until they are forced to stop.
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