The recliner was made for six-foot men, not five-foot women, and the mattress on the bed seemed to want to be a hammock that immobilized its occupant in sleep and was impossible to climb out of without help. Improvised pads of folded blankets and towels improved the chair, except that nothing could be done to make the too-high arm rests comfortable. How was I to get the rest needed to recover from a heart blockage and emplacement of a pacemaker?
I have been in and out of hospitals and nursing homes more times than I care to remember, and while I appreciate the care, I find some things to be sadly lacking. People in need of rehabilitation following surgery or injury, and the elderly, don’t need a diet that consists mainly of carbohydrates. Yet, I found most of the meals made up of starchy foods such as potatoes, breads and pasta. Servings of meat, in many instances, amounted to one ounce or less. Vegetables seemed to be predominately cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower or beans – which all cause gassy discomfort for people with limited physical activity.
Most recently, I was happy to be in rehab at Solon’s care center’s skilled nursing unit. It was convenient for my family, the people who work there are devoted to their jobs, compassionate, patient and friendly. They were not responsible for the uncomfortable chair and impossible mattress – that can be blamed on policymakers in some corporate meeting room who have, most likely, never set foot in Solon and have probably never known the need for their own care in such a facility; people who look at nursing homes and assisted living in terms of profit and loss statements. While I am aware that this remoteness is unavoidable, I believe there should be more room for discretion regarding “company policy” on the part of those who must implement those rules and regulations.
As do many people in institutional settings, nursing home patients tend to look forward to meals with greater anticipation than those who cook for themselves at home. It is a cruel deception to describe meals in glowing terms in order to “make them seem more appetizing.” The deception becomes clear as soon as one sees what was described as “Scalloped potatoes and ham” becomes, in reality, thick chunks of boiled potatoes coated with what appeared to be Cheese Whiz and sprinkled with a spoonful of what looked like chopped Spam. Real scalloped potatoes, as any grandmother knows, are thinly sliced potatoes and onions layered with butter, seasoned and covered with milk, then baked in a medium hot oven. Any ham would be generous chunks of the real thing.
Sweet and sour shrimp should include quite a bit more shrimp than seven tiny salad shrimp encased in sticky rice. The sweet and sour sauce with generous chunks of pineapple was tasty, but hardly made up for the absence of enough shrimp to be of any nutritional value. I’ve often made Chicken Cordon Blue and expected to find at least some of its ingredients in a dish described as Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole. Alas, the only common ingredients I found were chicken (several pieces of diced boiled white meat rather than a split breast half or boneless thigh) and breadcrumbs. No sign of the creamy cheese, smokey ham or buttery breaded crust.
To give credit for the good things; meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy were always satisfying. Breakfast was usually good (except for flavorless too-thin bacon), baked goods and desserts were generally very good if you don’t count a strange pudding that seemed to consist of a mix of leftover apple crisp, fruit, cake and something red – Jell-O? Well, little tubs of ice cream and packaged cookies were always available. Some of these gastronomic sins can be blamed on company policy, but not all. I doubt if company policy dictated the burned meat balls I was served, or the broccoli cooked to an unrecognizable gray mush. Let’s just say I appreciated the care, the therapy and the friendly, helpful personnel more than the menu and the furniture.
I’m glad to be home.