One of the questions that I get asked frequently since my accident in December of 2008 is “Do You Remember What Food Tasted Like?” my answer is NO. When I was in the hospital my wife Joan would fill out the daily menu form that was supplied in the morning and she would order my food for the day. I had no idea what she ordered but I did not question it in any way because my wife of 25 years knew me best. With having retrograde amnesia I recognized types of food from watching countless hours of television but had no idea of what food tasted like. In June of 2008 I had lap band surgery because I was very overweight and until my accident I had lost nearly 80 pounds and my diet had changed considerably since the surgery. No longer were the days of eating large amounts of food now my meal consist of about a cup of food at each meal. In the hospital I would eat mostly eggs in the morning, soups for lunch and chicken of some sort for dinner. When I got home from the hospital is where I rediscovered what food tasted like.
I can remember being at home and looking in the refrigerator and pantry and wondering what these food items were and what did they taste like. Joan was still preparing my meals since I was in so much pain and taking pain medication every 4 hours I would eat small meals so that I would have something in my stomach each time I took pain medicine to avoid an upset stomach. I would eat oatmeal every day in the morning because it was easy to swallow seeing that my stomach was now the size of a racquetball and the restriction required foods that are eay to swallow. For lunches and dinners is where I would start experimenting with foods. There were so many choices in our house from deli meats to fruit and cereals all of which I had no idea what they tasted like. I remeber wanting to try everything I could to see what I liked and what I did not enjoy. After the first week of being home we started going out to restaurants and I would tell Joan to order for me what I would normally order so that I knew I was getting something that I liked in the past. We always went to the same restaurants so that I felt comfortable in my surrounding because at this time the world was still new to me. I soon realized that I still enjoyed most of the foods that I did in my previous life but I felt the need to try everything because I had not experienced it before.
Soon after I started ordering my own food at the restaurants we visited and Joan would always tell me that I would have ordered that same dish before the accident so that made me feel better, like I was still my normal self. I did go to a Jewish deli with one of my Jewish friends and ordered liver pate and he said to me “are you sure you want to order that because that seems pretty jewish and I am not sure if you will like it” I ordered it anyway and I must admit it was pretty tasty but I would never order it again.
So, the one thing I will always wonder is “does food taste the same to me as it did before my accident?” I may never know the answer to that question but I will enjoy trying new foods and try to expand my taste for life.