Monday 28 September 2009

Now that’s what I call the real deal


I feel rather like a fussy cat that’s just been indulged after turning his nose up at anything less than Whiskas. This lunch has just disappeared... completely and absolutely. Fresh vegetables and poached salmon flavoured with dill. The only problem is, I rather suspect I have died and gone to heaven or else this is a dream and I'll wake up to a serving of lamb pie.

I’ve been rumbled, haven’t I?

UPDATE: It’s been nearly two hours since I ate my lunch and I cannot believe how much better I feel. My energy and concentration levels have been boosted. I guess you are what you eat.

33 comments:

  1. Just think of it, what the apparition of a decent piece of fish does to those humble potatoes, peas and carrots! You have to look twice to even realize the potatoes are still vested, I guess you will have most gladly peeled them yourself! What an improvement!! Did everybody get this? Best wishes from Styria. Barbara

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  2. I think you have. I did say it wouldn't be long before the caviare would be on its way. Tomorrow maybe? And they know you like salmon.

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  3. @Anonymous. I always cook new potatoes in their jackets - that's where the goodness is.

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  4. This was just for me. Everyone else got the normal bingo menu. Superbly cooked. That's my blog finished if it carries on like this... unless someone can think of a new angle. In that case I'll be well fed but will go insane. You can't win.

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  5. Well once you're well fed you can still study some new language, or write a whodunit ambientated in the hospital catering system. Or else you could go insane into bingo food mood which is diagnosed by way of someone consistently preferring bingo food over decent food. But once you feel well established in bingo food mood you could also suddenly swing back to decent food mood, or swing back and forth between them. I hope not though. I'd choose to study a language instead and also battle on for the poor sods who still get bingo food despite most probably never having left decent food mood themselves.

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  6. mmmm Wonder who brought that for you? Was it a special offering from the staff canteen?

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  7. Good lord.....how did they so carefully transform yesterday's leftovers into something dangerously edible.
    Be careful man. It can't be real!!

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  8. woohoo - food! Hope your digestion can cope after all this time.

    All the best.

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  9. *thud*

    If they carry on like this there's a huge risk you're going to start getting better, TM, and your improvement rate will be off the charts. They of the Carpeted Corridors will have been proved wrong in sludging up slop all this time, so they're in a bit of a sticky situation, hmmm? :-)

    That's the new line for the blog - your rapid improvement. We want DETAILS! I mean, how long have you been languishing there, leaking pus, strapped up to the hilt and leading nothing more than a pale existence. Months.

    I predict jolliness, optimism and a lot of ribald backchat with the staff if this week's meals are nourishing and bursting with good things. :-) Your wife will be astounded come Thursday or saturday or whenever she's next able to make it down.

    Haha!! Result ..

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  10. I finished my lunch an hour ago and I can't believe how much energy I have. I feel alert and I can concentrate. This is an incredible difference in such a short space of time. Why can't all food be like this... money, I suppose.

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  11. Hallo Traction Man

    How's it going?

    Any news on the dietician / nutritionist? I'm not sure if I've missed it.

    Have you thought about making a complaint about the food? It isn't helping your recovery.

    I love your blog, although I am angry on your behalf.

    Take care.

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  12. Hmm. The proof of the NHS caterers' pudding is in the bucket.

    Absolutely thrilled that you feel so upbeat following a decent meal packed with everything you need for recovery.

    Here's a little word for Da Management - AAAARREEEEE YOUUUUUUUUUUUU LISSSSTENNINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG ....

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  13. WOW TM! What a difference! Why can't all meals be like that? They have shown that they CAN do it when they want to!
    Yes, I think you have been rumbled!

    TO compare to our local hospital where I have been since Friday night with my son. He was offered Macaroni Cheese at most mealtimes! They did do a nice veggie pasta last night which he enjoyed tho. The chips with everything were distinctly yuck but at least they weren't compulsary! There was BUTTER for his toast in the morning which I made fresh for him.

    THis was paediatrics. The adult side don't have it quite so good. In paeds the staff serve the food on to the plates themselves for the individual child so it makes it easier to present and cater for tastes that way. I will let you know what the food is like on adults next year when he stops being a paediatric patient!

    I am so pleased you felt better after a decent meal! I hope you are passing this info to the staff as it is so important that they understand the effect on patients that food plays. Nutrition is so important.

    Keep blogging. I did miss your comments on the NHS when I was in with the boy. I don't have mobile broadband so no way of keeping up with you.

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  14. WOOHOOO !! REAL FOOD !!!

    I hope the real food keeps coming :)

    Sending hugs from Aus!

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  15. Hope it keeps up!

    All the best from Aus.

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  16. @Nurse Keep taking care of your little one. There's nothing like mum when you're ill. I'm so pleased they look after the kids with decent food. That would really upset me if they fed them the adult shit. I might even go ape on the ward if I thought that was happening. I really hope some sort of viral campaign can come from this blog so that hospital food the world over can be improved. If you haven't passed it on then please do. The more people who hear about it the better.

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  17. In my country the equivalent of NHS pay the treatments and medicines and they get financed by social contributions which are drawn in from peoples' incomes. A patient who goes to hospital is however obliged to pay an additional sum of about 8 euros per day to the trust that runs the hospital; I guess this is mostly for food expenses which a person would more or less have anyway regardless of staying in or out of hospital. Maybe only for the first 4 weeks per year, I'm not sure. In effect hospitals can offer more decent food even with the cook&chill system. Our hospital still has its own kitchen, but they cater out to a neighbouring hospital; both of them are fairly small structures with less than three hundred beds each.
    Dear TM, I hope they keep on boosting your strength with nice foods now!!

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  18. Good afternoon TM

    Excellent lunch - result!

    Re: Whiskas - 3 out of 3 cats have declared that "yucky poison" or "big pants" depending which of my cats is offering their opinion. Have carton of said poison that I could forward to you - you could mix it in with Bingo Food and see if anyone can spot the difference! Cat fud does however have high protein content ...

    regards, Cats Mother

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  19. My kitty likes IAMS biscuits but he will insist on having sachets of Whiskas in Jelly. We've tried to put him on dry food only but he likes variety. I can identify with that.

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  20. We are all sitting with bated breath to see what supper is. Back to bingo or more cordon bleu?

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  21. "This was just for me. Everyone else got the normal bingo menu"... you need to get some co-operation from those still on gruel and post those in comparison with what you're getting.

    Better still, summon able bodied patients in to witness what you're getting, you'll cause a patient revolt!

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  22. Rumbled...every hospital with a patient with your condition has been doing this since your blog was featured in the MSM. Today was your hospital's turn.

    Expect to be discharged within the week.

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  23. I looked at todays dinner and thought, perhaps I am hallucinating, perhaps I have eaten too many magic mushrooms, because this looks like poached salmon with dill, real potato's as well, so pleased it was not a hallucination, and it was real food, no wonder you feel so much better.

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  24. "... I cannot believe how much better I feel. ..."

    You might not, but I can. This demonstrates why good nutritious food is important and aids recovery.

    "... Everyone else got the normal bingo menu...." means there is still work to be done - everyone in hospital needs good food.


    "... Why can't all food be like this... money, I suppose...." I don't buy this. Unless someone comes up with proof that good food doesn't shorten recovery times and release costly hospital resources sooner.
    It's narrow minded budgeting from bean counters who just don't get the bigger picture. Yet!

    Hairy bikers or Auntie D. - something has to happen.

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  25. Could be ominous...a conspiracy to eliminate you...last meal and all that.Have some one taste your next meal before you eat it. Wear a tinfoil hat,so they can't read your thoughts.

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  26. That's silly. They'll never be able to read my mind over the din of the black helicopters that are currently hovering over the hospital.

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  27. re Last meal. I have to confess that that thought had crossed my mind. Have you got a food taster ready for the next meal - whatever it is? Or maybe ... no, don't go there Kirsten. I'm just getting paranoid. At least ... I hope I'm just being paranoid.

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  28. I'm chuffed for you TM, this is a good start to the week, so let's keep our fingers crossed for more of the same. Those helicopters by the way are being sent by us silly sods to check out which hospital you are in to try and get a rough idea of how to smuggle in the food hampers that are currently clogging up the sorting offices of the post office! The camembert might be a bit ripe by now.

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  29. Thanks TM. My boy had little appetite BUT he found the food to be acceptable. He is a foody!!! The only thing he struggled with was the sugar free squash! Easily dealt with by bringing in squash from home!

    I was passing details of your blog on to anyone who was listening because I agree with what you are standing up for. It is so nice to read about the NHS without hearing about appalling nursing care!

    Keep up the good work! Change will only come if people like you don't give up!

    Are the helios there to make sure you don't escape alive???

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  30. That doesn't look fresh, but I suppose it is if you compare with your other dishes.

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  31. Hello, Traction Man!

    At last - an attractively presented meal with some chance of decent nutrition involved, let alone taste - hope you enjoyed every single mouthful and who cares if you licked the plate!! Perhaps it is a last supper - tomorrow will be a cold bed-bath at 5 a.m. followed by suppositories given my a nurse growing her nails for a Guinness Book of records entry, followed by thin gruel for the rest of the week.

    My daughter is often on a paediatric ward - she is Type 1 diabetic - but is usually in when so sick she can't eat/keep food in/down, so we tend to see just toast , but when she has been on the mend, the food is yummy at our hospital. I was on a ward a few years back (double pneumonia, only 2 weeks) but the food was OK - nothing wonderful, but acceptable and enough choices to get by on - I would fill up at breakfast if lunch looked a bit dodgy etc. Hubby often smuggled in a McDonalds - the only takeaway remotely near enough to still be warm.

    You will be elected as Hospital Food Tsar if they rumble you!

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  32. Wow! something that looks like food and it looks edible too! So glad you're getting something decent to eat

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