oral cancer. My personal journey

I recieved a call from Cathy the dietician that works through the cancer center yesterday afternoon. She wanted to give me some information on some studies that have been done with cancer patients who have temporarily lost their sense of taste due to radiation or chemo. She stated that Zinc Sulphate has been proven to improve the sense of taste in a lot of people. I was glad ot get that news and will be purchasing some Zinc tomorrow when we go into Gloucester.
I also had my first appointment with the hypnotherapist today. She thinks that I may be an excellent candidate for hypnosis. We talked about why it doesn't work for some folks and she stated that a person really needs to want the change. Some smokers for example have a deep physicological dependence on cigarettes. Their conscious mind wants to quit but their subconcious mind doesn't. In my case, I really do want to get my sense of taste back. There is no physicological reason for me not to want food to be palatable.
She aked me a lot of questions about food two days ago. She used this info to prepare my session today.
My session began when I lay down on a massage table. She began by taking me through some deep breathing relaxation exercises. This took several minutes as she kept telling me that the relaxation was moving from my head to the bottom of my feet. Next, she had me go to some beautiful place in nature that I remembered. I chose a place along the Black River in Michigan where I camped when I was a boy. She had me visualize all of the wild life, and the beautiful scenery. She then told me that some sparkling golden stairs had appeared in front of me, and that I would be walking down these stairs one at a time. She said that I would be totally relaxed when I reached the bottom. She paused me on each step as she repeated to me that I was becoming more and more relaxed. When I reached the bottom stair she asked me to visualize a large table spread with all of the foods that I enjoyed. She asked me to sample each one and commented how enjoyable each item was. She told me that they would be enjoyable even if they didn't taste as I remembered them. We spent several minutes here before she brought me back by counting backward from five to one telling me that I would become more awake with each number. When she reached the number one she asked me to open my eyes. The session was over, but we talked for a while. She informed me that being hypnotized doesn't make a person unconscious and that I would remember everything. She stated that that wouldn't matter and that we were working on my subconscious mind. She told me that she was watching my eyes while I was hypnotized and that they showed her that I was responding. She also stated that it might take two or three sessions. My appointment was at 10:30 this morning and it is now 5:15. I haven't eaten anything yet. We have had too much to do today and haven't been home. I will try a sweet potato slathered in butter shortly and see how that tastes. The lady did inspire confidence enough that I will see her again. In the mean time we will see what hapens.