Film critic Roger Ebert writes about not eating or drinking via mouth any longer as a result of thyroid cancer. He writes that he doesn’t really miss food itself, but he does miss the social experience of dining with others (Ebert’s illness left him without the ability to speak as well):
So that’s what’s sad about not eating. The loss of dining, not the loss of food. It may be personal, but for, unless I’m alone, it doesn’t involve dinner if it doesn’t involve talking. The food and drink I can do without easily. The jokes, gossip, laughs, arguments and shared memories I miss.
Ebert also observes that he saves a lot of time by not eating and that certainly mirrors my own experience. As a kid, I always was the last one at the dinner table because it took me an hour to eat a third of whatever was on my plate. I don’t miss those days.
I’ve mentioned that I can still eat and drink in small quantities, but weeks can pass between such occasions without me really noticing. I still have “lunch” with friends, which usually involves them eating while I go into great detail about all the salacious details of my life that don’t make it into this blog. It never really occurs to me to envy them as they enjoy their food. But I do sometimes imagine the things I would eat if I had a fully functional jaw and swallow. Like a deep dish pizza with plenty of sausage and green olives. Or a braunschweiger sandwich with lots of mustard.
