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Hepatitis C Main Forums => Living with Hepatitis C => Topic started by: Flaco on March 14, 2016, 11:25:05 am

Title: Warning: In poor taste
Post by: Flaco on March 14, 2016, 11:25:05 am
Not really  ;D

No, what it is is this: Has anyone besides myself lost his/her taste for any food or drink that you've loved all your life?

Tl;dr hint: You can get the gist by just reading the next two sentences, and then skip to the second-to-last paragraph.  ;)

For some reason coffee does not taste good to me any more. This has been going on since December, so it has nothing to do with treatment. I have loved coffee for over 50 years. For the last six years, since I retired, I have ramped up my involvement with the brew. I'd buy the green beans and roast them at home, and if I must say so myself, I have produced the best coffee I've ever tasted. In my life! Others have agreed. I have over half a dozen ways to brew it. I have books on it. I read coffee forums. I progressed from roasting in an iron skillet to an old bread machine I re-purposed (called a BMHG - bread machine, heat gun- or Coretto as it's known to my Aussie coffee snob friends) to a "proper" roaster I got for Christmas in 2010. I'm a coffee geek. Or was...

After not having roasted in a while for various reasons basically having to do with a sort of long period of not feeling well, I roasted what I considered a bad batch. So, paying more attention to the process, I roasted another. No good. I bought fresher green beans and still couldn't make anything work. :( After much experimentation and shameful waste of coffee, both my own home roast and store-bought specialty coffee (in other words freshly roasted store-bought), I finally decided it was me - NO coffee tasted good to me. :(

So the common denominator is me, not the coffee. I'm hoping this is temporary. What do y'all think? Anyone else have a similar problem? Did it ever go away?

I know this problem sounds pretty lightweight compared to the major physical ailments I read about on here caused by liver disease (which are heartbreaking!). And it is - I only mention it because it's my hobbies which keep me sane. Anything to keep my mind off my liver and my shortened life span.
Title: Re: Warning: In poor taste
Post by: Else on March 14, 2016, 11:38:10 am
Hmmm.  I did experience changes in my taste sensation after I started Harvoni.  For example, a stick of bland string cheese was suddenly and inexplicably too salty to eat.

But that doesn't explain your situation.  ???

Btw - you may have the coolest avatar on the board!
Title: Re: Warning: In poor taste
Post by: Jo-Anne Hiscock on March 14, 2016, 01:11:34 pm
I have been on Harvoni since Feb. 2, 2016,  I  have also mislayed my taste buds. Coffee tastes really strong right now but hubby says it is fine so I know it is just me.
 The same thing happened when I was on the Ribavirin, Interferon treatment a few years ago.  The tastes do come back.  I find everything tastes too salty or like cardboard.  Keep on chugging along.  It will get better. J hiscock
Title: Re: Warning: In poor taste
Post by: Flaco on March 14, 2016, 02:52:55 pm
Btw - you may have the coolest avatar on the board!
Thanks! I wish I could say I invented it, but I'm reasonably honest. :) <-- (beatific smile) It was something in a spammy snail-mail I received. I scanned it, made it black & white, and made it 120x120 pixels. OK I said I'm reasonably honest. ::)

I kinda like Beto's avatar. It has a very Mexican sort of look, ala Día de Muertos or something.
Title: Re: Warning: In poor taste
Post by: Flaco on March 14, 2016, 03:03:17 pm
Thanks, Jo-Anne. Good to know.

I don't remember much from when I was on PEGint/Riba. There's a hole in my memory where that year belongs. I do remember having no appetite, though. Maybe it WAS that nothing tasted good.
Title: Re: Warning: In poor taste
Post by: gnatcatcher on March 14, 2016, 08:20:50 pm
Flaco, I did have a metallic taste in my mouth during days 50 to 53 of my 12-week treatment. Others had reported it before me. What was really interesting was that the metallic taste was at the back of the mouth, so I could still enjoy the taste of things as they entered my mouth.

Gnatty
Title: Re: Warning: In poor taste
Post by: beto on March 14, 2016, 11:27:30 pm
Me too.  Directly associated with Harvoni treatment though.  Also, I recall early threads about this.  In my case (and I heard others as well) tastes were amplified...especially sweet and astringent.  Sometimes a food I loved tasted horrible.  A natural sugar would explode in saccharin, metallic bursts.  It was intermittent and my normal taster returned.