Hi @franciekid. You have my empathy. Losing our taste buds with chemo is hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t gone through that! Foods taste and feel so different! Either slimy or like eating cardboard. I remember developing a revulsion to cheese. It felt like putting butter in my mouth. Just the slipper feel with no taste.

Water was awful too. First suggestion is to ditch the ice water and try it at room temperature. That made a huge difference for me. One of the flavorings I found most helpful was True Lemon products. They’re made from actual freeze dried bits of Lemon, Lime and Orange, no sugar in the basic citrus packets. Now there are tons of new flavors out with flavored lemonades. You can find most of the products at grocery stores or Amazon.
I couldn’t actually taste the flavoring but it changed the water enough to make it palatable. Oddly enough, I also found a drop or two of maple syrup helped as well.

I had to be cautious with mouth sores though so you might want to try only small sprinkles to begin with. I’d only use a couple sprinkles and that was enough to make a differnce in the water ‘taste’. Too much acid from flavorings such as lemon, gummies, etc., really irritated my tissue.

Have you tried any flavorings?