My best hospital food experience is- when I went into the ER with meningitis symptoms, they would not even give me a sip of water until they had a tentative diagnosis. Even with my mother on the board of this hospital, procedure won’t allow anything by mouth before diagnosis in case surgery was necessary. When they finally decided I had meningitis and not an aneurysm or something, I got an orange Popsicle. And to this day, I maintain- that orange popsicle was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten in my entire life.
At the end of that hospitalization, I had to eat something and ordered what I thought would be a simple breakfast of a toasted bagel and a glass of cranberry juice. What I received was absolutely shoddy in quality, but I had to shovel it in to get discharged.
A few years later my Gram had a stroke and after a few months of ups and downs my Mum had enough and decided to go on a previously planned vacation, so I took over daily visits for a while. It was really depressing- I went after work, to feed her dinner, and the ‘food’ they give stroke patients is absolutely horrible. We would order dinner, and wait, and then she wouldn’t want to eat any of it- understandably- and then we’d order again. She came through it all, though she lost 40 lbs- but in that situation I’d probably also only take protein shakes and iced coffee. (She’s rallied amazingly, and now in an assisted living apartment, though they have rootbeer floats and stuff and thus she has regained the weight and then some… haha.)
