I had to have 20grms of fat about 15-30min. before I took the Incivek. Avacado, Macadamia nuts & almonds have alot of fat. I drank a cup of eggnog before each dose of Incivek. If you look up healthy fats I'm sure there are many more. Good luck!
If your son is on Incivek, then he should be taking it every 8 hours. The Ribavirin is twice a day but I would try to stick as close to every 12 hours as possible, especially in the beginning (until it builds up its concentration level).
Here was my schedule:
6 am: Incivek and Riba
2 pm: Incivek
6 pm: Ribavirin
10 pm: Incivek
He needs to take 20 grams of fat with each dose of Incivek. It helps condsiderably with the absorption and efficacy of the Incivek. There are several ways to get the 20 grams (see list below). In addition to the food that contained the 20 grams of fat, I also made sure I ate some solid food (as opposed to just liquid, like eggnog). So I would eat some regular food and then drink a cup of eggnog for the fat. Other times, especially for the 6 am and the 10 pm doses, I usually ate regular Greek yogurt, about 8 ounces for 20 grams of fat, (I always ate more to be on the safe side, lol), and then I also ate a couple of pieces of toast or some cooked cereal or an egg. A person can always eat a sandwich or something like that and then just add enough of something easy to fix and eat in order to up the fat intake.
With the Riba, one does not have to have 20 grams of fat, but fat does help with absorption, so I always ate/eat some fat with the Riba too. The package insert does say to take the Riba with a substantial meal.
If he is like most of us, or at least most of us posting, he is not going to be very hungry, and one can get mighty tired of eating 20 grams of fat several times a day. I thought I had it made. I love yogurt, but by the time I was finished with Incivek I was so tired of Greek yogurt that I will probably never eat it again. (I am now eating my organic low fat yogurt and that tastes fine.)
There are several foods that contain 20 grams of fat: (you wil have to read the label for the exact amounts):
1 avocado
1 cup ice cream (NOT low fat)
2 ounces of chedder cheese or Havarti cheese
cream cheese (not sure how much)
peanut butter (not sure how much)
heavy whipping cream - several tablespoons
1 cup eggnog
Greek yogurt (regular) about 8 ounces I think (the honey greek yogurt has the higher fat content, more so than those with fruit in them)
butter and mayonaise also have high fat content (read the label)
There are other items but I don't remember all of them. If I thought something was not quite fat enough, I added whipping cream to something to get the fat grams up (whipping cream over raspberries is delicious).
He needs to get the 20 grams of fat in with the Incivek. What he eats may partly depend on who is cooking or preparing it. If he is the one preparing everything, he is going to probably need to eat some easy items, like the greek yogurt and buttered toast. If his wife or you are preparing some of the food, he could eat an egg or two in the am with some eggnog or something else high in fat. The reason I say this is because I think it is very tiring to have to get up at 6 am or whenever, prepare food, eat, take the pill and then repeat it 2-3 more times during the day (ending at 10 pm, when he will want to fall into bed). It was very tiring for me. I was tired and always felt exhausted so I did not feel like cooking complicated meals. If I had had someone preparing/cooking some of the food for me it really would have helped.
I know there are some lists out there of food containing 20 grams of fat. Some of it is food I never eat (potato chips, some fast foods, some rich sweets, etc.) which is the main reason why I don't know the foods.
I hope this helps.
I wish your son the very best. Please have him or you post if he gets side effects. Many of us have completed the Incivek course and we know some very good remedies for some of the side effects.
Thanks so much for clarifying this for us. This is so overwhelming and a bit scary. We appreciate you taking the time to explain it! Pjr
Yes, I agree. It is very overwhelming. Everything about it is overwhelming, especially at first.
One thing to remember is, the Incivek ends in 12 weeks. That is a help. (I am finally getting some rest, lol.)
Also, not everyone gets bad side effects. Some have few and others have mild side effects. Also, he won't get all of the side effects even if he gets some of them. Just post about them. We have been through them and will help.
Your son is young (as opposed to being in his 60s) and being young will probably go in his favor. It is easier to treat when one is younger.
You might also be interested in the stat spread sheets that Frijole has put together. They have many of us on there and she lists what meds we are on, what starting viral load was, if treating with Incivek or Vitrellis, major side effects we had, when we started treatment, what grade and stage we are, and when we became undetectable. It might be encouraging to see that most of us are reaching an undetectable status. None of us who are on triple med treatment have finished treatment and had a 6 month post treatment PCR (mainly because we started in July or after). Only a very few have had to stop due to side effects or treatment failure.
Here is a link to her home page and you will see under the photo section 4 white sheets. Just click on them at you can view how we are doing. She would love to have your son's stats too to add to the rest of ours.
http://www.medhelp.org/personal_pages/user/223152
One thing I should mention is that if your son starts to feel hungry or like he should eat, he should eat something. Even if he does not feel hungry or is slightly nauseated and it has been a few hours since he ate, he should eat something. I have found (and others have found this too) that if you do not eat when you really should put something in your stomach, even if you feel nauseated, you just get more nauseated.
Here is a list of foods that many forum members have mentioned they have eaten to help with the required fat intake for Incivek, which I summarized and posted in my journals:
http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/333000/Incivek-Take-with-20-grams-of-fat
There are many helpful people on this forum who have already finished the 12 weeks of Incivek, so be sure to ask for help if your son begins to experience side effects.
Advocate1955
Hi my name is a.ka. Mamag, i just started (today is going on week 2) all 3 meds, interfereon, ribivarin and telaprevir, so far slight rash, headaches, but for the most part everythings ok. I find that it's hard to get 20gms of fat in at 11pm at night and 8 hrs later doing it again. Or just thinking of something to eat that has 20gms of fat. Is there a web site for a listing of suggestions that pertain to healthly fats
I don't know if there is a website especically listing healthy fats but there are healthier foods that also have a lot of fat in them.
Here is a link to a chart of foods with the total fat listed. Just pick out the healthy foods that have enough fat grams in them.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/NutritionalChart.htm
Hi all I'm new to this treatment aswell I am on ribaviran ,talapravir and interferon
This is the start of me forth week and it's a bit of a struggle.
The hardest part is eating in the morning and general all round appetite getting 20 grams of fat before meds is difficult.
Sick in the mornings like wanting to vomit is this due to not eating enough?
I found that coconut oil worked really good—1 1/2 Tablespoons is 20 grams. I added it to everything, oatmeal in the morning, it taste so good I would even eat to straight out of the bottle. Even though I didn't take Incivek I found it helped me to up my fat intake. I used my NutriBullet often, making fruit smoothies, and adding Instant Breakfast powder to up my nutrition. I ate cheese sticks during the day too. He needs to keep eating, if he doesn't he will get nauseated. Small snacks all day long, every 2 hours, plus of course lots and lots of water.