[Marlene]

John had to force himself to eat. Nothing tasted good, always had some level of nausea and was way too tired to care. However, he knew it was critical to eat and move in order to get out of the hospital and to feel better. It was a struggle for him. John would tell himself that he didn't go through all this trouble to live and then not do his best to recover by eating right and exercising.

Can you address this with his doctor? Sometimes, just having an eating/exercise target set up by the doc will help. Like daily amount of protein, carbs, fat to eat and 30 minutes of some type of exercise each day. Try not to focus on calorie intake alone. You can get a lot of calories through junk food and that's not the best choice. One of our docs at Hopkins would come into the outpatient clinic and tell each patient that in order to have more energy you needed to spend some energy via movement or exercise. This increases a sense of wellbeing as well as appetite.