The Taste of Water
My daily rant is not about the deprivation of my sense of touch. But rather I’ve moved on to complain about my sense of taste. It seems that every day holds new surprises. The latest surprise is that water now has a taste. And what does it taste like? Well, something like it used to taste after I had just rinsed my mouth with mouthwash and then took a drink of water. Eeewwwww!
There is one person out there (and you know who you are) who is wagging her finger at me and saying “The surgery was unnecessary. The radioactive thing was unnecessary. If you had just listened to me, none of this would be happening.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you. But I did all of those things. And now I just have to deal with the consequences for better or for worse. And the consequence du jour is a compromised sense of taste. It’s not just water. It’s also milk. It’s also toast. Everything is just a little off. Not too far, but definitely far enough to notice.
This started me to thinking about the sense of taste. We can all imagine in our minds how salt tastes, how sugar tastes. But if salt suddenly began to taste like sugar and sugar like salt, would we then put sugar on our eggs and salt in our coffee? Or would we simply accept the new taste? Is anyone following this logic or does it totally not make sense? In other words, how learned is our sense of taste? How adaptable is it? But perhaps, more importantly, how permanent is this alteration? Am I going to wake up tomorrow with yet another twist to it? Maybe even a twist of lemon? This is really starting to sound like a crazy person talking!
I just want a total return to reality if there is such a thing. I’ll take my water plain, un-chemicaled, un-flavored, with no artificial anything added.
There is one person out there (and you know who you are) who is wagging her finger at me and saying “The surgery was unnecessary. The radioactive thing was unnecessary. If you had just listened to me, none of this would be happening.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you. But I did all of those things. And now I just have to deal with the consequences for better or for worse. And the consequence du jour is a compromised sense of taste. It’s not just water. It’s also milk. It’s also toast. Everything is just a little off. Not too far, but definitely far enough to notice.
This started me to thinking about the sense of taste. We can all imagine in our minds how salt tastes, how sugar tastes. But if salt suddenly began to taste like sugar and sugar like salt, would we then put sugar on our eggs and salt in our coffee? Or would we simply accept the new taste? Is anyone following this logic or does it totally not make sense? In other words, how learned is our sense of taste? How adaptable is it? But perhaps, more importantly, how permanent is this alteration? Am I going to wake up tomorrow with yet another twist to it? Maybe even a twist of lemon? This is really starting to sound like a crazy person talking!
I just want a total return to reality if there is such a thing. I’ll take my water plain, un-chemicaled, un-flavored, with no artificial anything added.
posted by Barbara at 4:02 PM
3 Comments:
I totally get what you're saying but I'm not sure how I would react. Would I stick with salt on eggs because of convention or would I eat what tastes good? I fear I might stick with convention but you never know. I'd like to think I'd break it.
Are you going to try new foods? Foods you previously disliked in hopes that they taste better to you now?
I only shook my finger at you before the procedure. Now that you've been through it, I'm convinced it was part of the magic of your healing, happening as it did on Fri. the 13th with the full moon, etc. It has become, in my mind, a part of your story, the Myth of Barbara, and I'm here to help you in your recovery from it. Wait till you see what I have planned for Sunday for you. I think it will be a healing session.
BTW I'm trying to remember my TM password so I can sign up for bowling. I really want to go!
This reminds me of something I saw on The Learning Channel -- a woman who'd been in an accident and had surgery to replace her bicep muscle with a muscle from her back or her tricep or something. She had to retrain her brain to think "tricep" every time she wanted to move her bicep. Kind of like the salt/sugar thing. It's your plate -- use whatever makes the eggs/pizza/cheesecake taste right to you.
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