Hospital Food

Overall score: 6/10

I had eight meals at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Hospital during my transplant stay. Meals started Thursday morning and ended Saturday afternoon. The first three meals were basically clear liquid meals supplemented by a dextrose IV line. It was some kind of broth (I got to taste all three: chicken, beef, vegetable), juice, sugar-free gelatin, and herbal tea. We didn’t get to choose the meal components; they were ordered for us by someone. It was barely okay since the broth was low salt and had no taste.

The rule to move to solid food was to be able to pass some gas. Fortunately, I farted a few times during Thursday evening so they took out the IVs and gave us a carbohydrate controlled menu. I was also grouped into LoK (low potassium), and Ph1000 (probably 1000 mg of phosphorus). That meant no potatoes or bananas… I tried and was shot down by the order taker. So for breakfast, I basically had an English muffin with egg, cheese, and a turkey sausage patty. For lunch, I got a grilled cheese sandwich with some salad on Friday and an teriyaki Asian stir fry today. For dinner last night, it was meat loaf with rice and peas. Of course, it should have been mashed potato but that order was rejected.

Top: meatloaf; Lower Left: vegetable broth; Lower middle: breakfast sandwich; Lower right: grilled chicken sandwich (didn’t look like chicken though). For breakfast, I actually ordered a blueberry muffin but got blueberry Greek yogurt. I found out I don’t like Greek yogurt.

I think the main problem is that it takes them up to 45 minutes to cook each order and have someone deliver it to your room. If it was a restaurant and you can get it hot off the stove, it would likely taste much better. Still, it was a bit better than the stuff at St. Joseph hospital and the menu selection was much larger.

Now the problem is I have to figure out new food restrictions and preferences. While on dialysis, it was important to watch sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. Carbs were not too much of a worry since you had too much insulin in your blood, and I think some of the sugars got dialyzed out. Also, food not cooked completely is pretty ok too. Now with new kidney and anti-rejection drugs, bacteria-free food is all important followed by carbs since anti-rejection drugs and steroids can raise your blood sugar. Sodium still has to be watched but potassium and phosphorus should not be a problem anymore. All this changes as the medication dosage changes too. So much to learn.

Tonight, I was too tire to figure out stuff so I got a Chik Fil-A grilled chicken sandwich plus a kale side salad. I figured not-fried protein should be a good start and carbs were only 40-something. I think I get 75 mg for dinner.

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I had a difficult time communicating new food restrictions to my parents. It took me years plus the help of a mandarin speaking nutritionist to get my mom to be aware of the needs of a dialysis diet. Now, the want a “simple” list from me about food, but it’s not simple so I have to figure it out first and maybe cook more on my own.