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Hospital Food


liuzhou

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16 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

 

The one in the center looks like a ........

 

 Please. This is the family channel.

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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

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15 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Wine included on the first two

A glass of stout was not considered outrageous even in my lifetime as a tonic for hospital patients.  We’ve lost the ability to deal on a case-by-case basis. So much easier to lump everybody together and treat them all as though they came off the assembly line.   Bureaucracy at its best.

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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

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48 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Also interesting is the extent to which different diagnoses/treatments are proffered different menus.   i.e., in the same hospital I have been offered vastly different menus as a new mother, hip replacement and gastro patient.    Wine included on the first two, not on the latter.    In fact, no food for 6 days, no water, only iV for 6 days.   Not a happy camper.   But doubted i missed much.

Wine? You must be in the states.

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52 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Also interesting is the extent to which different diagnoses/treatments are proffered different menus.   i.e., in the same hospital I have been offered vastly different menus as a new mother, hip replacement and gastro patient.    Wine included on the first two, not on the latter.    In fact, no food for 6 days, no water, only iV for 6 days.   Not a happy camper.   But doubted i missed much.

 

 

  Agreed. I was (gritting my teeth to admit this) in the voluntary psychiatric ward for a week at my local (major) hospital this past winter. 

  The food was actually good. And I had little to no appetite but it was served warm and we could order “off menu” if we chose to. Meals were served on heavy plastic plates that I believe had a heating element in them. Silverware, given the circumstances was plastic and had to be disposed of in a separate bag to be counted. 

   But the food was good. I’m so glad you have people bringing you in actual, real, edible food @Anna N 

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2 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

image.png.1d79598b2c15f565077a2818dc2b28d6.png 

 

Image copied from Twitter - "dinner at a London Hospital" A tuna sandwich and bunch of social tea packages.

 

Social teas are a bit like an arrowroot but less powdery. 

 

There are drawers full of these little packages in every hospital I work in - that and digestives and arrowroots. Occasionally makes my dinner. 

 

 

I used to find the stash and keep a couple of packets of each in the bedside table. I like them both.

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re hospital food, I always remember my astute OB/gyn who, pre-discharge with newborn admonished,  "Stay through lunch and insist your husband has lunch with you.   I have never met a new father who, on entering his home with wife and new baby hasn't announced, "What's to eat?!!!"     Best advice I've ever received.  

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eGullet member #80.

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3 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Wow!   Always thought that once any product entered a oatient's room, it couldn't be re distributed.

Sorry I should have been more clear about that. The trays hadn't been delivered for reasons Anna stated and sometimes refused by the patient. The trays were transferred to a small rack near the nurses station. 

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With all this talk about hospital food, I can remember several "nurse angels" who, confronted with me, howling of starvation, after being long out of the loop, found, 1) what I remember as the best potato soup of my LIFE, and 2) a bowl of oatmeal, when I had had nothing to eat for 12 hours.     I have no doubt that both of these ambrosial dishes came out of an "add water and microwave" packet, but at the time, they took the time to do it and they were emotionally life-saving.

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eGullet member #80.

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2 hours ago, MetsFan5 said:

  Agreed. I was (gritting my teeth to admit this) in the voluntary psychiatric ward for a week at my local (major) hospital this past winter.  

 

Nothing wrong with seeking help when you need it. Quite the opposite.

 

A friend of mine in Nova Scotia checked himself in at one point when his cocktail of antidepressants, antipsychotics and whatnot went sour on him, as they sometimes will, and the doctors needed to get him balanced again on a revised regimen. He showed up at the desk wearing a T-shirt that said "You're just jealous because the little voices are talking to me."

 

It was as much bravado as he could muster at the time, but it made him feel better in a small way. And he knew a bunch of us (including my kids, who were then still young and loved him greatly) had his back.

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“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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4 hours ago, rotuts said:

I don't  know what a social tea cookie is .

 

are there Anti-Social tea cookies 

 

N. of the Border ?

 

 

Social Teas.  They are lovely, plain cookies.  I try not to buy them very often - I can go through an entire box in a few short days.

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So just a word of advice. Never get yourself admitted to a hospital on a Friday. You will spend at least two days spinning your wheels. So here it is on Monday and hopefully things will start to happen in terms of moving along my journey out of isolation and eventually home. 

 

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 So here we are. Apparently there is an acute shortage of toast in Oakville.  

 

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 But I was able to put together something that will hold me for a little while.

 

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 I think somebody perhaps dropped the cinnamon shaker into the carrot loaf batter.  It was wicked strong.   But the cream cheese masked some of it and the peach took care of the aftertaste.

 

This morning breakfast collided with medication and vitals and everything because the routine of the hospital must go on!  But it wasn’t like there was a nice plate of bacon and eggs getting cold.😂

 

Major fail on the jar of Robertson's shredded marmalade!   Can’t open the lid. May take a knife to it later and see if I can knock it loose.   My handy-dandy Lee Valley gadget for doing this is at home.

 

 

 

 

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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

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still can't get over the margarine and water in a plastic cut sealed w alumnim .

 

.

.you get thirsty , what do you do ?

 

no disposable plastic jugs of ( tap ) water ?

 

is non-isolation different ?

 

at least someone in FoodService [sic] though of the Turkey Meat Loaf

 

on has to start somewhere !

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Just now, rotuts said:

still can't get over the margarine and water in a plastic cut sealed w alumnim .

 

.

.you get thirsty , what do you do ?

 

no disposable plastic jugs of ( tap ) water ?

 

is non-isolation different ?

 

at least someone in FoodService [sic] though of the Turkey Meat Loaf

 

on has to start somewhere !

 Water is not an issue. I can get a very large Styrofoam container of ice water as often as I wish. There is an ice water dispenser right outside my room and the nurses bring me as much as I want. Once I am out of isolation I will be able to help myself.  Our  municipal water is just fine.   We don’t need no fancy spring water brought from ALBERTA using many carbon footsteps and wasting plastic and aluminum.  

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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

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2 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Did  the yogurt really have 0% fruit? Or was there no fruit yogurt?

 

 I can’t confirm for sure because I haven’t done any serious experimentation – – like taking the lid off. But I think the 0% refers to the fat content.  

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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

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1 minute ago, Anna N said:

 I can’t confirm for sure because I haven’t done any serious experimentation – – like taking the lid off. But I think the 0% refers to the fat content.   

 

Yes,  I guessed that but couldn't resist.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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5 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Carrot loaf 🤢

 

 

I think the kitchen is having a contest:  Who can make the least appetizing meal each day.

Oh that would make sense. I lost it yesterday at lunchtime when my tray was delivered and the service worker unceremoniously shoved aside my Vietnamese rice paper rolls to make room for it. I said, “Watch it. That’s real food.”   I am usually very polite.

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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

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At least, my dear, you are not alone.  Your thread is dominating the contents page...which is good.  And I am glad for you.  A hospital stay can be a very lonely and isolating one.  

 

And as for that special Lee Valley doodad, not only do I have one...I have bought them for friends.  You can always count on good value from Lee Valley.

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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3 minutes ago, rotuts said:

so why the sealed water ?

 

some one should send some e-mails somewhere 

 You are right. Once I start feeling a little more like myself I will do so.

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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

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