Cant eat

Hi. I am on the same treatment and had the same effects on the first shot. It is a big mental challenge. Please read my thread for a day-to-day run down of the first week.
When his blood platelets start dropping the appetite suppression will become even greater. He has to make himself eat to maintain his weight or he will quickly lose 20 - 30 pounds and look sick as a dog. The body needs calories to fight the disease and process the medicine.
And it needs water more. It needs the H in the H2O. At least a 1/2 to 3/4 ounces of water per pound of body weight. That seems like a lot of water, so at least start with 64 to 96 ounces of water a day. There will a lot of trips to the bathroom until the body adjusts.
Good luck.

Ensure is great as a meal replacement, but it may also taste bad. Take it like medicine when needed as a meal replacement. My husband treated twice. Water is needed at 64oz...but he said that tasted horrible after a certain point. So adding some Gator Aid powder helped him get that down. And he never was a ginger ale drinker, but that really tasted good to him when treating. Soups settled ok when a lot of things would not. Smoothies are good. You can hide some peanut butter in there, and other things like yogurt and instant breakfast powder. Good luck for SVR. It will be over soon :) Big Hugs

Costco sells chocolate protein drinks similar to Ensure and they taste pretty good, another option when I can't eat is to purchase a "Magic Bullet" which is the mini blender they sell at Costco for about $40 and it comes with a bunch of accessories and cups.

In a Magic Bullet cup or Blender add the following:


One handful of Strawberries or A Banana

One Scoop of Costco Chocolate or Vanilla Protein

One Tablespoon of Honey

1/2 -3/4 cup of Skim or 2% Milk or water if concerned about calories.

Two Ice cubes

Blend for about 20 seconds, lift off the mixing cup and give it a few shakes and blend for another 20 seconds.

**Note this works with most fruits including bags of frozen strawberries etc however I have found some fruits such as blueberries end up making a very thick shake, either add more milk or use a spoon to eat your tasty meal ;-)

I also add flax seed and hemp protein to my shakes sometimes for a variation in taste. I can say without a doubt I have had many days where I couldn't eat and I blended these up and I felt great and felt at least I was getting something in me and I never lost weight.

Also try adding yogurt or whatever you can think of, the Magic Bullet is a great blender and with multiple cups when you finished you just through the cup in dishwasher and wash the blade unit by hand under a tap with soap and warm water.

DO NOT put the blade unit that screws onto the cup into the dishwasher, the manual warns about this.


Good luck, I think you will find you can make some pretty tasty stuff with a blender and fruit and some protein and milk/water.


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"Sovaldi - Everybody deserves this treatment option and it should be made affordable for all!"

Sovaldi + Ribavirin Treatment began February 6th 2014 - 12 weeks of treatment. After 4 weeks treatment VL has dropped from 4.7 Million to *79*