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Hospital Food

liuzhou

By liuzhou
in Food Traditions & Culture

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David Ross

David Ross

Posted
Posted

For me the arm is only 5 weeks out but feels like years.  Still very sore but manageable and I can do some simple cooking with using it at all.  I'm also on oxygen right now, which is a challenge to keep the lines out of the way, especially in the kitchen.  I'm lucky because up here there is an old-fashioned grocery delivery service.  Nice store and you order online, virtually anything they stock in the store.  That's made it easy since I can't drive yet.  I might even order a small prime rib from them for Christmas dinner.

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David Ross

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Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, FauxPas said:

@Thanks for the Crepes, so sorry to hear about your fall. I hope you will be free of the chair soon! And you really should have some in-home support until then. I'm also wondering how you will do shopping. 

 

@David Ross, I am also very sorry to hear about your further injury and illness. I hope you are recovering well. How is your arm? 

Ditto from me.  

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted

Thanks everyone for your concern and good wishes. It means a lot to me.

 

14 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Was it possible for someone to sneak in something edible?

 

We really didn't have to sneak anything in if we weren't on dietary restrictions. My brother brought a few snacks and beer occasionally. We enjoyed the beer in styrofoam cups in the parking lot on the down low, because we would have been in major hot water if found out for that. One night one of the residents had a friend visiting him and they decided to pick up seafood from the restaurant at the State Farmers Market which is close to the nursing home. They asked if I wanted anything, and when I said I had no money with me, they offered to treat. This was the best thing I ate while incarcerated, and is a meal I will remember for the rest of my life. We all shared two huge orders of calabash style popcorn shrimp. These were medium to small North Carolina wild caught shrimp lightly dusted and fried to perfection. When we opened the containers, the meal was still steaming hot! It had been weeks since I had had hot food, and this meal went down like ambrosia. There were also french fries, good coleslaw, iced tea and there was pie for dessert, but I was too full. I think five or six of us ate our fill from this order, and they said it cost about $35. The portions are HUGE at the NC Seafood Restaurant at the farmers market. I will remember this act of kind generosity until the day my brain shuts down.

 

I could have ordered delivery food if I had had any money with me. When the paramedics scraped me off my kitchen floor and put me in the ambulance, I had on a little nightgown, no shoes, and I thought to ask them to grab my windbreaker from the coat closet on the way out the door. I didn't even have shoes with me!

 

Weirdly, they sell junk food, candy and chips at the reception area of the nursing home. Also I was really surprised how unhealthy the food was that was being served for meals. Not a lot of vegetables, lots of fried stuff and carbohydrate heavy. I estimated the food cost of one particularly bad meal I managed to barely choke down at about 60 cents.

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> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Powdered eggs?  I wonder why they use those.

 

I was only familiar with this product even existing from "M*A*S*H" and my Dad's stories of shipboard food while he was in the Navy. I knew something was wrong with the eggs, but my 87 year old roommate was familiar with them from the WWII era and she said that's what they were. I can only guess they were using them to cut costs. It would certainly be less labor than cracking fresh eggs. I could eat them, because I knew I needed protein to repair my injury, but I hope to never encounter them again.

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, BeeZee said:

Question, and I hope to not have to deal with it, but how does the hospital accommodate dietary preferences of the patient.

 

On the second day after I was allowed food, a hospital employee would come to my room and tell me what the menu was. If you really insisted, she would offer alternatives, but tried to discourage this. I suppose she didn't have time to go through it with all the patients she was responsible for.

 

At the nursing home, the only way I could see to have any choice about what you would eat is to go on an extended hunger strike. One resident said he got a hamburger for almost every "supper" because he would't eat the other stuff on offer.

 

I don't even like milk, but I would have had it at every meal for bone repair if I had a way to influence what I was served. There seems to be no real consideration of preference or health requirements at this nursing home.

 

Randomly, menus for the day would be posted. I began to notice this corresponded with marketing tours given to relatives of prospective residents. There was always a mention of the "always available menu" at the end of each menu. I never saw a copy of this menu, was never offered alternative food, nor did I observe any resident being offered different food, except for the hunger strike guy. Like the "Internet Cafe" I believe the always available menu is a marketing device.

 

The room service meals prepared to order described by @blue_dolphinsound really wonderful. Just the thing a person who is sick or injured and in pain needs to support their morale.

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted

@David Ross, I hate it for you, buddy. I now have a collection of three screws in me too, but no plate. My surgeon compared them to the size of the pen he was writing with. I know you have been through a world of pain with me, and I wish you a speedy and successful recovery.

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, Shelby said:

I, too, wondered where you have been!  That's just awful!  No more falling!  

 

Your meals--I don't  even want to call them meals lol--sounds just so unappealing.  I hate to even ask you what they served for Thanksgiving!

 

On the no falling thing, yes ma'am in spades!

 

I have blocked the Thanksgiving meal out of my mind for a reason. It was not a turkey and dressing spread, that much I can say with certainty. The "supper" that night was one that is branded into my brain as the worst meal I've probably ever been exposed to. I will not turn stomachs by sharing it, and I couldn't eat most of it. That's the one my brain went without my consent to cost out at about 60 cents. My advice is to avoid being sent to a nursing home like the plague.

 

My poor husband is stuck there and my brief presence has renewed his fantasy that he will be returning home very shortly. He lives in this fantasy world and constantly talks about being able to come home and "help" me. I did watch him walk with his therapist and with the aid of the ballet style barres that run around all the corridors at the nursing home. Maybe 60 feet or so, and quite amazing considering he has only one good arm and one good leg. He just drags the whole dead side of his body around by sheer force of will. He wants to come home to our handicapped unfriendly house so badly. :( It ain't gonna happen.

 

  • Sad 2

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

David Ross

David Ross

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

Thanks everyone for your concern and good wishes. It means a lot to me.

 

 

We really didn't have to sneak anything in if we weren't on dietary restrictions. My brother brought a few snacks and beer occasionally. We enjoyed the beer in styrofoam cups in the parking lot on the down low, because we would have been in major hot water if found out for that. One night one of the residents had a friend visiting him and they decided to pick up seafood from the restaurant at the State Farmers Market which is close to the nursing home. They asked if I wanted anything, and when I said I had no money with me, they offered to treat. This was the best thing I ate while incarcerated, and is a meal I will remember for the rest of my life. We all shared two huge orders of calabash style popcorn shrimp. These were medium to small North Carolina wild caught shrimp lightly dusted and fried to perfection. When we opened the containers, the meal was still steaming hot! It had been weeks since I had had hot food, and this meal went down like ambrosia. There were also french fries, good coleslaw, iced tea and there was pie for dessert, but I was too full. I think five or six of us ate our fill from this order, and they said it cost about $35. The portions are HUGE at the NC Seafood Restaurant at the farmers market. I will remember this act of kind generosity until the day my brain shuts down.

 

I could have ordered delivery food if I had had any money with me. When the paramedics scraped me off my kitchen floor and put me in the ambulance, I had on a little nightgown, no shoes, and I thought to ask them to grab my windbreaker from the coat closet on the way out the door. I didn't even have shoes with me!

 

Weirdly, they sell junk food, candy and chips at the reception area of the nursing home. Also I was really surprised how unhealthy the food was that was being served for meals. Not a lot of vegetables, lots of fried stuff and carbohydrate heavy. I estimated the food cost of one particularly bad meal I managed to barely choke down at about 60 cents.

Thanks for this story Thanks for the Crepes.  I am hoping each day you are getting better. 

 

Reminded me of a similar experience when I was in a nursing/rehab facility in June after my knee replacement.  They had an outdoor patio area where we could go and have lunch if the weather was nice, which it was the three weeks I was there.  There was a barbecue, but was only useable if your family or friends brought stuff in.  Many of us were clamoring for the staff to treat us to a barbecue one day.  I remember a large family group came in and celebrated their elderly Father's birthday with a Hawaiian feast, some takeout items and a lot of homemade things, and they also barbecued huge amounts of meat.  I remember they had some Kalbi style ribs and teriyaki.  And a cake!  We were all so envious. 

 

I had friends bring in food a couple of times, cravings like burgers and pizzas which I rarely eat at home.  The nurses were fine with that, but the "dragon lady" who ruled the dining room would have admonished my friends and I probably would have been given demerits.  Some of the fellow patients I befriended during those three weeks in June, (and we shared the table at meals), ended up going to the administrator to complain about the food and Ms. dragon lady, but to no avail.  I stayed silent on the sidelines, but I think now it was the makings for a great tragic comedy movie.  Thankfully there was no drama, just not great food, during my recent two weeks in the hospital.

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David Ross

My blog-http://todayshomekitchen.com/

Host, eG Cook-Off's, https://forums.egullet.org/topic/143994-egullet-recipe-cook-off-index/

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gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

On the second day after I was allowed food, a hospital employee would come to my room and tell me what the menu was. If you really insisted, she would offer alternatives, but tried to discourage this. I suppose she didn't have time to go through it with all the patients she was responsible for.

 

At the nursing home, the only way I could see to have any choice about what you would eat is to go on an extended hunger strike. One resident said he got a hamburger for almost every "supper" because he would't eat the other stuff on offer.

 

I don't even like milk, but I would have had it at every meal for bone repair if I had a way to influence what I was served. There seems to be no real consideration of preference or health requirements at this nursing home.

 

Randomly, menus for the day would be posted. I began to notice this corresponded with marketing tours given to relatives of prospective residents. There was always a mention of the "always available menu" at the end of each menu. I never saw a copy of this menu, was never offered alternative food, nor did I observe any resident being offered different food, except for the hunger strike guy. Like the "Internet Cafe" I believe the always available menu is a marketing device.

 

The room service meals prepared to order described by @blue_dolphinsound really wonderful. Just the thing a person who is sick or injured and in pain needs to support their morale.

This sounds like a bad place.  I imagine that they make their money off of short stay hospital discharges and folks of little means.  Have you looked up the ratings of the place?

Sorry you were put through this.

 

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gulfporter

gulfporter

Posted
Posted

@Thanks for the Crepes

Sorry for your ordeal. 

 

I have a low tolerance for odors;  years ago, I had to ask that the newly acquired office microwave be moved away from outside my office door.... the reheated lunches made me feel a bit nauseous.    

 

My FIL was in a nursing home for several months in 2015; we visited often.  The combination of bad food odors, industrial disinfectants and (frankly) the smell of illness left me perpetually ready to retch.  Luckily his room had a door to a patio where I could step out and inhale from time to time.  

 

I have been lucky and never spent a night in a hospital, let alone a nursing home but  I dread the thought of that happening (as it most likely will for most of us).  

 

@Nancy in Pátzcuaro had good things to say about meals in a Morelia (MX) hospital and I can only hope there will be better food in our nearby hospitals in Jalisco.  

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 year later...
Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted

So I am in the hospital. I’m not prepared to discuss my health issues nor am I looking for your sympathy just want you to look at my food. You can sympathize with that if you want.

 

So breakfast this morning was:

 

5258F073-5F17-4035-BCF3-5E8A443989D4.thumb.jpeg.a0cfa7a953ff008f24f7e55e9ba90470.jpegC8CAE05E-ED2C-417B-94F6-C13F84019C5F.thumb.jpeg.ec0cd00c345a32dd9e89e10562e6e176.jpeg

 

  Multi grain Cheerios? I am a woman I gave up childish things some time ago.

 

Whoever thought chia-date Pita it would be a good idea. I would’ve preferred to slap my toppings on a piece of fresh cardboard.

 

 Don’t eat processed food they say. What the hell do you think margarine is?  I would rather have a teaspoon of butter made by a cow than a tablespoon of margarine made by a chemist 

 

I had to read the menu to learn that the drink was coffee.  But thumbs  up to the dietary staff.  On this visit at least they managed to get it to me hot. 

 

Spring water? Our “corporation pop” —city water is just fine thank. Perhaps they meant me to quietly. drown the Cheerios in it?

 

 No photo but my family  came to the rescue with  sausage McMuffin with egg from McDonald’s and put it briefly in the microwave to melt the cheese and amuse @rotuts.  

 

 They also brought me a coffee  from my very own coffee maker at home and put it in an insulated commuter cup.  It was clearly identifiable as coffee.

 

Stay tuned for more exciting discoveries in  hospital food.  

 

And by the way I am not allergic to all shellfish only to crab but they couldn’t even get that right. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

curls

curls

Posted
Posted

@Anna N tons of sympathy for the hospital food. If that was breakfast, what will the rest of the day's meals look like!? Hope they improve.

 

Glad to hear your family is supplementing your meal plan. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

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blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

Posted
Posted
37 minutes ago, Anna N said:

...

Whoever thought chia-date Pita it would be a good idea....

...

Spring water?

 

Maybe that's actually a chia-date PET.  Just douse it with the spring water and see if it sprouts 🙃

  • Haha 8
Okanagancook

Okanagancook

Posted
Posted (edited)

It’s probably margarine versus butter due to budgetary constraints.

 

 The water could be added for pill taking...saves nursing time to bring the patient water.   Not sure on that.

 

Multigrain cereal to help you Pooh.😎

 

But in a styrofoam container. 

 

That pita seems odd.

 

wishing you a short stay.

Edited by Okanagancook (log)
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