Thursday, December 12, 2019

Twelve Days Before Christmas

  Hi friends!  Knee surgery went as planned.  I had a little blip on the day after (blood pressure plummeted and down I went ....), so I got to spend an extra day at the fine Hotel Hospital and came home yesterday afternoon.  

  I’ve never spent any time in the hospital before except for birthing a baby and that was quite some time ago and wasn’t even a proper hospital.  We lived in a town so small that Anna was born in a medical room in the local nursing home!  After she was born, as a special treat they brought all the more or less ambulatory seniors around to coo over the new baby.  

  Anyway, my room in Charleston was very nice with views from both windows (sunrise and sunset!) and nice nurses coming around.  My only complaint was — the food!  A very big deal was made of eating especially well for the couple weeks before surgery, which I did. I thought they would have had dietitians at the hospital balancing the a, b, c’s of vitamins, protein, etc.  If they had one here, he/she was out Christmas shopping. I prefer a vegetarian diet, which was a choice on the menu, but what arrived was mushy canned vegetables, instant mashed potatoes, and a tiny pudding cup.  Does anyone see what is missing here?  PROTEIN. VITAMINS.  

  Oh, well, I am home now and have a fridge full of fresh veg, cheese, eggs, beans, etc.  My sweet daughter in Germany had sent a box of huge dark chocolate-dipped strawberries and, as everyone knows, chocolate is ideal for fast healing and good spirits.  It’s a glorious sunny day, I am three inches taller than I was Monday morning, life is good.  
  I hope this gives you a smile.  



19 comments:

  1. Glad to hear that you are doing well, Cynthia. I think that if there is a common thread to hospitals throughout the world it is that the food is awful and ill-thought out. My wife was in for a couple of days recently and I used to take food into her. Oh how she enjoyed an apple or an orange!

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  2. Glad to hear you are home. How is it that hospitals cannot provide a tasty balanced diet? After all that is so important to a speedy recovery. I had to take food in for my daughter when she was in hospital. Seems it's the same all over.

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  3. so happy that the surgery is behind you and you are back home. You are so right about hospital food. It is gross!! I am surprised we ever get well enough to be discharged from there. But, we survive. Wishing you a very speedy recovery.

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  4. Hospital food must be the same the world over. Glad to hear the surgery went well.

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  5. That's a funny story about the day you gave birth to your daughter. Glad you are back home from your replacement surgery.

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  6. That card is hilarious. Glad your spirits are high. My DIL has knee surgery on 12/27. I asked her if she was sure she wanted to do it so soon after Christmas and she said all the kids would be at their respective other parents so she would have peace and quiet. Sounds like good thinking on her part.

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  7. I’m so glad you are now home and recovering. I’m wishing you a very speedy recovery period. I agree that chocolate is the cure all for everything.

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  8. Home and raring to go. Good for you. Now make sure you can get His Lordship away from the TV for the Presidents Cup
    for him to be a your beck and call.
    You may "GENTLY" inform Paul that Tiger's Yanks are after Day one - not so uppity after all! I won't get too cocky yet.

    Having had very limited experiences (so far) in hospitals, I doubt if I had, at least can't recall a meal, but I have never heard of anyone receiving haute cuisine...........just yucky goo!
    I didn't know you were vegetarian. The prospect of no meat just might have me in hospital - in a state of severe shock.
    Cheers and now back to the Sand-belt grasses of Melbourne.
    Colin

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  9. I'm happy to hear that you are home and out of the hospital. When I was in the hospital for my knee surgery, I poured my little container of milk into a cup and it was all I could do to keep from throwing up--the milk was was spoiled and stinking. There was a bit of meat, but all I had was a butter knife and could no get it to cut through the meat no matter how hard I tried, so my go to meals in the hospital were ice water, a baked potato, and orange sherbet.

    I hope your healing will go super smoothly.

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  10. Good to hear that things went well.

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  11. I'm pleased to hear you are doing ok. The food wasn't that good then. They could have given you poached or scrambled eggs - seems odd they didn't give a well balanced diet. Look at all the things you missed out on, now you can eat and makeup for it :) Take care and hope you are not in much pain and can bend your knee satisfactorily..

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  12. I'm so glad to hear from you and that the surgery went well. What awful sounding food. Good grief, that's enough to make a person sick. That Santa card is so funny. You take care. Gosh, can you believe your surgery is over and you're back home.

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  13. Sounds like you are on the road to recovery!

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  14. Sounds like things are going well. Except for the food. Haha! I am very surprised by the food they served you. So I always knew chocolate was essential to - something. I recently did a post on chocolate milk shakes!! I call the medicinal milk shakes now. And they ALWAYS make me feel better. I bet they work for post knee surgery pain as well! :-)

    Get well soon!

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  15. I am so thankful that the surgery went well! Be careful! Do your PT and pet Bob a lot!

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  16. I'm glad your surgery is over. Take good care of yourself, using caution in your movements. Best wishes as you continue healing and get ready for hiking again in 2020.

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  17. Glad all went well with the surgery. A hospital is a complete new world as you are not familiar with it. I had the same experience some time a go.

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  18. Glad to hear your op went well Cynthia. Your renewed mobility will be cherished I'm sure. There's nothing like losing something to make you appreciate it more. Go well.

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  19. I hope you keep on recovering well. You have done well to avoid hospital for all those years. Have a happy Christmas.

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