Now, I'm not one to complain. The nurses in our chemo suite are chipper, chatty and charming, doing a job I could never do, and why they do not all receive gongs in the Hons List escapes me.
I know it's not their fault, but is feeding chemo patients another postcode lottery factor?? We get the following fare offered:
- Soup. I make a vat of it every 3 days or so at home for nourishment, which I maintain by careful sealing and refridgeration. Am I wrong in having an entrenched idea of it festering in a hospital environment absorbing ghastly germs by the microsecond??;
- Plastic-wrapped sandwiches consisting of four triangles of fading brown bread encasing a slice of processed cheese, a mush of tinned tuna or likewise, generally resembling [and tasting like] something to which Tesco has said "yuk throw it out".
Anyone want to join my "Cake in the Chemo Suite" campaign??? Why can't we have some of Nigella's fabulous Classic Chocolate Cake or Gordon Ramsay's Chocolate Marquise or something Nick Nairns does with raspberries, oatmeal and lashings of drambuie (pace the alcohol thread)???
I'm sorry, but if they can afford to bail out the banks and fund a couple of overseas wars, can they not give us a bit of 1-2 starred food??? I'd be interested to hear from chemo patients in general - is this another damning sign of Scottish malnutrition? I always crave pizza after chemo for some weird personality-deficient reason, but when I'm miserable and doing a 4-hour chemo, I want to eat nice stuff!!!
ps When my friend was in hospital in Paris after a heart attack his doctor told him in hushed, apologetic tones that he should only eat foie gras once a week from now on! Down with rubbish food!!!
FormerMember
We only get fed if we're sent to the day ward or admitted. Ordinary chemo get a cup of coffee IF the coffee lady has time to come round. If she's too busy it's just a plastic cup of cold water unless you have someone with you to go make/buy you a drink/food.
Don't get me wrong, the staff are lovely but you can be there from 9am till 6pm some days and anything you want to eat you either bring with you or buy on site (and then only after you've seen the Dr at which point you can borrow a pager so you can leave the waiting room). I've sat from 10am to 3pm before now waiting to see the Dr and only then been able to go get eats.
My last chemo they were running late and I was transferred to the day ward once they set up my drip. I was there till gone 8pm and the only food offered was sandwiches (they all had tomato in which I don't eat so I had to go hungry). As I go alone I was grateful when one of the other patients' husband fetched me a coffee.
Hi there - and I'm with you and marching to your drum, so to speak. I've been offered some diabolical fare when I had chemotherapy! They should either give us Cake in the Chemo Suite, or they should fly us all over to Paris, where we can eat good "happy" food, which will put smiles on all our faces!! Yeah!! And so say all of us, lots of love kate xxxxxxxx
ps. Come to think of it, the tea and coffee are not up to much are they? Roll on the revolution, lol
We only get offered sandwiches in our haematology day unit. They are better than they used to be but still pretty inedible. I'm no chef but I don't understand how it is possible to make a sandwich taste so rubbish. Also I'm neutropenic most of the time and I can't eat certain food (raw fruit and veg, soft cheese, runny egg etc) so I can't eat most of the sandwiches anyway. They are also not labelled properly. I've been a inpatient quite a lot too and hospital food is always an issue. Again I'm limited with what I can eat because of the neutropenic thing (we are not catered for at the hospital at all), but I honestly don't see why the food tastes so horrible. Having to cope with that on top of chemo side effects and sickness is not nice.
I'll join your campaign! I take all my own food and drink with me, I treat myself to stuff from m&s!
You get offered soup, thats so unfair. I don't have my chemo at the day unit now, but at a local GP surgery as part of an outreach trial, no waiting and no parking fees... I'm only there 30 mins to food isn't an issue...but as I usually try to walk there and back which is a bit of a struggle.. I have an excuse to stop at a coffee shop in town for coffee and cake.
But when I was having Epi at the local day unit I was offered a sandwich because I was going to be there more than 4 hours. The first cycle was fine, they ordered my sandwich and it arrived at a reasonalbe time, but the next 2 cycles they seemed to forget to collect them and they arrived late, just as I was about to leave. In fact the one during my first cycle, chicken mayo was so foul it has put me off most sandwiches and mayo, I can't look at the sandwishes in tesco let alone eat one and the mayo is hidden a the back of the fridge - just the thought if it makes me sick. The tea trolley was OK, good tea in proper cups. 4 cycle I took my own refreshments... smoothie... which I also now can't stomach but it was good at the time, I used to stop at the shop and buy someting salty, crisps, nuts or cheese. Good job I did take my own because they forgot to ask me what sandwich I wanted... not that I wanted one but is shows how hit and miss it is.
I agree the nurses are great but the food for those that were supposed to have was limited to rubbish sandwiches.
I support the cake and goodies campaign... carrot cake with frosting, ginger cake ooh bugger just put on 5 lbs.
I was so, so lucky when I was having chemo...... I get toasted sandwiches or food brought up from the canteen. There were curly, dried up sandwiches too if you preferred. However, when I was an in-patient the food was uneatable. The 'seven famous chefs' who designed the menus, can't even cook a jacket potato or make an omelette. Jacket potatoes arrived uncooked and omelette still runny! If you are neutropenic, you will have to go hungry!!!!!
I have to defend the nurses........they nurse but don't cook! The ought days that I fancy cakes or crisps, I bring my own. The chemo units that I have been to have open kitchen where you can make your own tea, coffee, chocolate, etc, etc.
