Luckily I never actually threw up during chemo, although some days it would have been a big relief.  I had Taxol for the second half of chemo, which lasted 8 looong weeks for me.

It was hard to find any desire to eat at all during that time.  The taste in my mouth was metallic, even when my teeth were freshly brushed.  While I enjoyed the texture of food the taste was just never right. 

I think my friends who brought over meals for me and my family were disappointed, because I've always been a person who enjoys food.  Vast quantities, new flavors . . . I just never missed a meal when I was well, and that's putting it mildly.  Chemo changed all that.  I'd eat to avoid feeling nauseous, and then whatever I'd eaten, from oatmeal to pizza with extra onions and garlic, made me queasy.  A clear no-win situation.

As each friend followed up on the 'success' of the meal they lovingly created, I found myself apologizing for not being able to taste it at all.

Eventually, not long after chemo ended, I got my taste buds back.  But the funniest thing happened - for one whole day my brain missed the taste cues altogether.  Coffee tasted like cotton candy, oatmeal like garlic pizza.  All day long, that one day, I kept trying to eat and finding unusual flavors for familiar foods.

And the next day my topsy-turvy taste buds were back to normal.