Horrible taste from meds

[Catmum23]

Had aortic valve surgery and still on antibiotics (linezolid) as I had sepsis. Also on omeprazole, bisoprolol and and aspirin. I have a horrible metallic taste that is stopping me eating and drinking. Water and tea taste awful. Anyone else had this and did you find any drinks that didn't taste awful?

[BeKind28-]

Hello

Sorry to hear you got Sepsis after surgery I hope your recovery is going well despite this

Not sure when you had your surgery but I now after having a triple Bypass everything did not taste right I loved a cup of tea but it tasted awful this lasted about 3 weeks but slowly my taste buds came back I think it is due to all the anesthetic we are given

If you had surgery a while ago then I would say out of the meds you named could be the antibiotics giving you this problem and hopefully you will not be on them to long

If it really gets to much to cope with talk with your Doctor and see what they maybe able to suggest x

[Catmum23 in reply to BeKind28-]

thanks the sepsis was actually the reason for the surgery as I had infection in my heart including an abscess. Op was at Hammersmith 6 weeks ago who have been fantastic and I have been signed off by the surgeons there. I'm still seeing infection control team at Charing Cross every week and started off on intravenous antibiotics but had a weird liver function result which made them change me to tablets and its since I started the tablets I've had the horrible taste, they are aware of this but want me on the strong tablets a bit longer as I had a nasty form of strep that was in my back, heart, lung and head ! and they were worried about it causing abscesses elsewhere, I'm hoping that this is my last week on these tablets

[BeKind28- in reply to Catmum23]

Hello

I am sorry to read this you certainly have been through it

So they say the meds are giving you this taste and antibiotics and other meds have given it me before even though I doubt they will have been as strong as you are taking

Have you tried maybe an ice pop or minty things or anything else just to try and stop tasting it a short while

I think this is one where the benefits outweigh the negatives as nasty as they are and I really hope you can come of them soon so your taste buds come back to normal and you can get rid of this unpleasant taste remind yourself that it is temporary

I wish you all the best in your recovery and hope you will let us know how you are getting on x

[Anon2023]

hi. I had sepsis and was put on this antibiotic through an IV for 2 weeks. I felt very sick and couldn’t keep food down. It’s a very strong antibiotic and the metallic taste is a known side effect. I couldn’t tolerate tea or coffee and the only thing I could manage was Diet Coke or Pepsi max, neither of which I normally drink. I also managed to eat wine gums. Sepsis is absolutely hideous and mine developed into endocarditis afterwards. I really don’t mean to scare you but please familiarise yourself with the symptoms of endocarditis because if you do get the symptoms you will want to act asap and encourage doctors to do something. They missed it with me for weeks. The symptoms are very similar to sepsis like fever and rigors. I wish you a very speedy recovery and like I said I don’t want to scaremonger and I’m sure you will be absolutely fine. I just wish someone had forewarned me. Xx

[fishonabike]

sory to hear about all the problems you have been through, having your sense of dste affected on top of everything must be very distressing

in addition to what others have suggested, i'd like to add something from my own experience - i'm afraid it isn't very encouraging though☹

a couple of years ago i experience a change in my sense of taste, things i had always enjoyed suddenly tasted awful and others tasted different (this was not connected with the C19) - this dramatically altered what i ate for many months and no cause could be identified despite investigations - after about 12-18 months things gradually got better

i later worked out that it was probably linked to the effect of antibiotic therapy for a gut condition, i feel it altered my gut flora so much that my sense of taste was affected

the change made me miserable for months as it affected many foods i enjoyed and used a lot in cooking (e.g. tomatoes, spices )

i hope that yours is a short term effect and that you are soon back to enjoying food and life as you use to - in the meantime i hope you fin some pleasure in sampling different teas etc to work around your problem